Nanocrine

Nanocrine is a private, pre-revenue platform company founded in 2016 and based in Frederick, Maryland (with a listed presence in Cambridge, MA). It commercializes a unique plasmonic biosensor chip technology, originally developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), that allows researchers to visualize molecular secretions from live cells in real time on a standard microscope. This platform addresses a critical gap in cell biology by providing spatially resolved data on intercellular signaling, which is unattainable with bulk assays like ELISA. The company's initial business model focuses on selling single-use biochips to research laboratories, with the long-term goal of impacting drug discovery and development.

Proprietary plasmonic biosensor chips that enable live, label-free, quantitative, and spatially resolved imaging of protein secretions from individual cells using a standard microscope. The technology is based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) adapted for high-resolution imaging.

Nanocrine's direct competition is limited as it pioneers a new category of secretion imaging. Indirect competitors include providers of bulk secretion assays (ELISA, Luminex), single-cell RNA sequencing (which infers but does not directly measure secretion), and other label-free biosensors (e.g., BLI, SPR systems) that lack spatial resolution. Its unique value is the combination of live-cell compatibility, label-free detection, and spatial mapping.