San Diego, CA, USA. On March 20, 2007 the United States Patent Office awarded ACEA Biosciences, a pioneer in the development and marketing of high-performance microelectronic systems for cell-based assays, a patent (Patent No. US 7,192,752 B2) for this unique core technology. This patent covers cell-substrate monitoring devices comprising of multiple wells having an electrode array, impedance analyzer, and software for controlling the device station and analyzer. The patent also provides cellular assays, such as compound dependent cytotoxicity and IgE mediated response of cells to antigens that uses impedance monitoring to detect changes in cell behavior or state. This patent caps several years of diligent research and development by the ACEA team to produce a range of products that deliver highly sensitive, reproducible, real-time, and label-free assays. Because of these features and the growing interest in the use of cell-based and high content assays, ACEA has poised itself to be a major player in this field. Already this technology is revolutionizing drug discovery by offering alternative and complimentary assays to traditional cell based assays. According to Dr. Xiaobo Wang, ACEA's Vice President of Research and CTO, "ACEA's technology provides a new dimension to existing cell based assays to identify new mechanism, ligands/agonist, and compounds, and has the potential of accelerating drug discovery for many therapeutic areas".

Founded in 2001, San Diego-based ACEA Biosciences has pioneered the development of high-performance microelectronic systems for cell-based assays. ACEA has developed and is marketing on a world-wide basis its microtiter-plate based biosensor platform for a variety of applications in drug development, toxicology, cancer research, and medical microbiology and virology. ACEA's products are designed to meet the increasing needs of the life science research and drug discovery markets by providing cost-effective, automated, high content, real time microelectronic systems that simplify complex cell-based assay procedures and increase productivity.