Dancing with the cells – how acoustically levitating a diamond led to a breakthrough in biotech automation

(Press-News.org) Engineers at a University of Bristol spin-out company have created a new technology that can move cells without touching them, enabling critical tasks that currently require large pieces of lab equipment to be carried out on a benchtop device.

The invention could accelerate the discovery of new medicines and unlock personalised medicine screening in clinics.

The groundbreaking concept was unveiled for the first time today in an article in Science published by Dr Luke Cox, where he describes his journey from University of Bristol student to CEO of start-up company Impulsonics. The article is a prize essay in the Bioinnovation Institute and Science Prize for Innovation.

Behind every new drug lies thousands of hours spent by scientists growing cells in a petri dish to test it before it is tried on patients. Even in 2025 this remains a highly manual and difficult to automate process, leading to expensive and sometimes unreliable processes that make it harder to develop novel lifesaving drugs to the point when they can be used in the clinic.

The new technology uses acoustic waves to move cells, which appear to “dance.” This capability replaces the need for many large pieces of equipment in a lab and could make it significantly easier to automate cell growth and help scientists discover new drugs faster. It also opens up new possibilities in the clinic, such as personalised medicine screening, where many different drugs can be tested to find the most effective before being given to a patient.

Luke initially worked on the physics of acoustic levitation of a diamond, creating an experiment to hold objects in mid-air against gravity. Observing this seemingly magical experiment, he realised that the technology had the potential to transform our ability to handle small-delicate objects. This led him to next work on moving cells. The final step was realising that this technology could replace many of the common processes performed in biomedical labs. From this realisation, the company Impulsonics emerged.

Luke and his team have now developed this idea to the point where complex biomedical tasks, such as expanding a cell population, can be performed with this technology. Dr Luke Cox said: “A huge benefit of this technology is that it allows the process of screening new drugs to be accelerated. This means it can help discover new drugs for all kinds of diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s.”

Professor Bruce Drinkwater, an academic at the University of Bristol and a co-founder of Impulsonics, said “The device is small, with a footprint half the size of a standard lab bench where previous technologies took up whole rooms. Critically it also helps produce very high-quality data quickly, which is exactly what is needed in biomedical research.”

In the future this invention has many potential applications across biotechnology. Luke Cox concluded: “I look forward to expanding this unique technology platform to accelerate development across the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries wherever cells are grown.”

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