Cell Avidity
Are you measuring the right signals to select for success?
Durable responses in immuno-oncology remain hard to achieve. Which raises an uncomfortable question about the assays making your selection decisions.
Molecular binding assays are orthogonal — they approximate. Avidity measures the cell–cell interaction directly.
70+
Academic institutes and biopharma teams applying cell avidity
60+
High-impact publications demonstrating its value
Minutes
Not weeks — candidates stratified within minutes of measurement
The problem
Why current assays leave you with uncertainty
Standard in vitro assays can produce results that are difficult to interpret, or difficult to act on.
Three patterns show up repeatedly.
Poor predictability
Affinity ≠ potency
Affinity can rank candidates one way. In vivo tumor response tells another story. Without cellular context, teams risk optimizing around the wrong signal.
e.g. Ghorasian et al. 2019 - Nat. Med
Cytotoxicity is slow
Serial restimulation takes weeks and may still not separate variants
Long functional assays can take weeks and still fail to clearly separate the variants that matter.
e.g. Leick et al. 2022 - Cancer Cell
Contradictory readouts
Cytokine and killing assays can favor opposing variants
Two standard readouts, two different winners. In published work, neither favored variant stably correlates with in vivo results.
e.g. Leick et al. 2022 - Cancer Cell
Are we missing the biological signal that would inform the decision?
Cell Avidity
The data that dedices.
Cell avidity captures how strongly immune cells interact with their targets under force within a cellular context. Where traditional approaches separate molecular binding and functional outcomes, Cell avidity bridges the two.
How is cell avidity measured in practice?
Effector cells interact with target cells, after which a controlled force is applied. By quantifying how many cells remain bound, Avidion delivers a direct measure of interaction strength in a cellular context. The platform automates the entire workflow, delivering biologically relevant avidity data with minimal hands-on time, high throughput, and rapid access to actionable insights for candidate screening and prioritization.
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Platform
From observing outcomes to understanding why
One data point, compounding through the pipeline: from mechanistic insight, to better screening decisions, to a shorter development cycle.
What our users say
Why leading scientists trust LUMICKS technology
Simon studies how failures in DNA repair lead to cancer and other diseases
"I think applications like the C-Trap will become more mainstream in terms of understanding DNA transaction-based reactions."
Simon Boulton, PhD
Principal Group Leader
The Francis Crick Institute
Marco's team contributes to smarter, more effective treatments
"[Cell] Avidity measurement[s] will be an essential tool to screen the constructs and the products that you want to bring to the clinic."
Marco Ruella, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Scientific Director of the Lymphoma Program
University of Pennsylvania
Marcela develops CAR T cell therapies to treat cancer
"Interestingly, of the pre-clinical assays we used to compare CAR constructs, only [Cell] Avidity correlated with in vivo results."
Marcela Maus, MD, PhD
Director of Cellular Immunotherapy
Massachusetts General Hospital
Ben's lab studies how cells repair DNA damage to prevent diseases like cancer
"The C-Trap has allowed us to ask those questions we couldn't probe before. We go down to the C-Trap room and it works first-time."
Ben Van Houten, PhD
Professor of Molecular Oncology
University of Pittsburgh
Customer testimonials
Trusted by visionary scientists in molecular biology
Priya's team reveals how proteins shape diseases like neurodegeneration and cancer
"The application of C-Trap, which offers a truly correlative single-molecule force spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy, will enable us to interrogate how single-molecule properties of individual IDP chains are correlated with their phase behavior."
Priya Banerjee, PhD
Professor of Biophysics
University of Buffalo
Stephen studies how cells repair broken DNA to prevent cancer and genetic diseases
"The combination of structural data, EM data and single-molecule studies provided three powerful tools to elucidate the functions of the BCDX2 complex (a key DNA repair regulator) in DNA repair and cancer avoidance."
Stephen West, PhD
Senior Group Leader
The Francis Crick Institute
Shannon's group explores how physical forces shape cell division and cell-cell communication
"LUMICKS really helped me by making a turn-key instrument that is just good enough that [has] all the fancy capability I need, and I do not need to worry about optimizing alignment or changing things."
Shannon Yan, PhD
Assistant Professor
Stanford University
David's group works on understanding how cells prevent cancer and genetic errors
"We are dedicated to understanding important biological processes at the molecular level to tackle major problems in human health and disease. We welcome LUMICKS’ C-Trap technology into our laboratory and we look forward to utilizing it in a wide range of research programs."
David Barford, PhD
Group Leader
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Software
Data acquisition and analysis tools for every type of (single) molecule
Execute and analyze your C-Trap experiments using our intuitive Bluelake & Lakeview software.
Execute and automate your experiment with ease
Whether you are navigating through the laminar flow cell, controlling the optical traps, or utilizing our powerful automation features, our easy to use Bluelake solution puts you in control.
Adapt and iterate on the fly with real-time data
Bluelake presents you with a full overview of your experiment’s data as it gets measured. Catch new insights quickly and adapt your experiment on the fly to make the most out of your time.
Obtain immediate insights and study them wherever, whenever
Acquire statistical insights across multiple Dynamic Single-Molecule measurements in only a few clicks. Lakeview makes it easy to gain reliable information quickly and integrate into your own pipeline.
Curious about our data analysis solution? Take a look at our dedicated Lakeview page.
Key content
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C-Trap Product Brochure
Brochure
The latest all-in-one overview of C-Trap's features, options, and specifications.
Now available
C-Trap Accelerator Suite
Supercharge your C-Trap into a faster, easier, more reproducible powerhouse. C-Trap Accelerator Suite boosts the capabilities of the instrument you already own, letting you capture publishable single-molecule data in half the time with rock-solid reproducibility.
Benefits
Beyond the product
Take a look at the perks that come with being one of our users
Symposia
Join the community
SMBIO (Single-molecule Biology) is LUMICKS’ symposia format. We regularly host events across the world, aiming to bring together scientists interested in dynamic single-molecule applications to share their research, connect, and exchange ideas and experiences.
Store
Ready-made reagent kits and tailored sample preparation services
Use our biochemistry platform and internal expertise for the purification, labeling, and preparation of your reagents for optical trapping experiments. With our multidisciplinary expertise in molecular biology, biochemistry, and dynamic single-molecule analysis, we’ve created the most extensive selection of ready-made reagents, kits, and tailored services to prepare your samples.
Support & service
Your success is our success
Our goal is to minimize your time to results, ensure success, and provide instruments that are easy to use and maintain. To this end we have dedicated teams providing user training, application support and system check-ups.
LUMICKS University
Your gateway to mastering single-molecule experiments
LUMICKS University is our all-in-one learning hub to simplify your learning, deepen your knowledge and accelerate your discoveries, designed exclusively for LUMICKS customers.
Adopting Dynamic Single-Molecule
Let’s begin your LUMICKS journey
Our experts are ready to learn about your research challenges and see where our technologies can bring value.
Demonstrating value
Our application scientists can help create interest among potential users through organizing different events such as seminars, workshops, and demonstrations, as well as meet with stakeholders individually to understand and help solve their needs.
Grant & tender support
Throughout our history we have supported multiple successful grants across a broad spectrum of funding and users involved. Our application scientists are experienced in highlighting the unique value of Dynamic Single-molecule and its solutions, and are able to collect proof-of-concept data to strengthen your grant application.