Element Biosciences Launches Cytos™, Scaling Multiomics to Labs of Every Size

A same-cell, single-run workflow for CRISPR screening, optical pooled screening, and phenotypic drug discovery; putting the imaging, sequencing, and protein analysis that once took multiple instruments and vendors within reach of labs of any size

Element Biosciences, Inc. today announced the first shipment of Cytos™, a first-of-its-kind multiomics workflow that captures guide RNA, cell morphology, protein expression, and whole transcriptome from the very same single cell in a single run. Screening has always forced a trade-off: researchers could choose between either rich imaging data or deep molecular data, but never from the same cell at the same moment. Cytos eliminates that trade-off, generating a complete, multimodal picture of a cell's biology that has not been achievable before.

With as little as 30 minutes of offboard prep, Cytos consolidates this entire process into a single automated run on Element’s AVITI24™ multiomic system, giving labs of any size the complete, same-cell picture that used to require an entire ecosystem of partners to assemble.

What early users of Cytos are saying:

“AI-driven drug discovery needs more than gene expression. Integrating transcriptomics with molecular activities and subcellular organization reveals not only which genes change, but also how drugs alter protein function, signaling, and the spatial organization of cellular processes. This multimodal view that Element’s Cytos offers provides the high-dimensional readouts necessary to train AI models that can resolve drug mode of action and polypharmacology, predict complex cellular responses, and ultimately design molecules with desired biological activities,” said Lucas Pelkmans, PhD, Professor of Systems Biology at the University of Zurich.

“Imaging has been the missing readout in pooled CRISPR screening,” said Sejla Salic-Hainzl, CTO of bit.bio. “Cytos finally closes that gap - and the fact that it layers transcriptomics and a protein panel on top of imaging in a single experiment is what makes it really powerful. For human iPSC-derived CNS cells, where phenotypes are complex and multi-dimensional, this is exactly the capability the field has been waiting for. We’re excited to build this technology into our service offering and help translate that richer biology into better drug targets for our customers.”

“Cytos opens an entirely new opportunity for us,” said Tilmann Buerckstuemmer, CSO of Myllia Biotechnology. “We’ve built our reputation on CRISPR perturbation screens with single-cell transcriptomics. The addition of high-performance imaging as a readout lets us explore areas of biology we simply couldn’t reach before. With Cytos, customers can now assess how genetic perturbations change cell morphology and selected biomarkers of disease, thus generating new hypotheses for drug targets.”

Cytos is built for CRISPR and optical pooled screening, where it links a genetic perturbation to everything that happened as a result, and for phenotypic drug discovery, where it resolves a compound’s efficacy, dose response, and mechanism of action from the same treated cells. The same workflow extends to toxicity screens and other phenotypic assays, so labs can apply it across study types without reconfiguring their setup.

“Every model of biology is limited by the experiments available to train it, and causal data has been the scarce input. Cytos changes that, enabling perturbation at scale, with guide, transcriptome, protein and morphology natively linked in the same cell, so the data is causal by construction, not reconstructed afterward,” said Molly He, CEO and co-founder of Element Biosciences. “That closes the loop between experiment and model: run it, learn from it, design the next one. Screening is where this starts. Scientists deserve to ask their biggest ‘what if?’ questions, and Cytos helps deliver the answers.”

Built on Element’s Direct In Sample Sequencing technology (DISS), Cytos is the next generation of Element’s early Teton™ assay, and runs on the company’s AVITI24 multiomics system. Cytos is available for order now.

More information about Cytos will be presented during Element’s virtual Multiomics Showcase on November 4^th. Register here.

About Element Biosciences

Element Biosciences is pioneering the technologies that enable a deeper understanding of life. Our platforms capture biology in its full dimensionality—spanning genetic, molecular, and cellular insights—to unlock richer data and drive scientific breakthroughs. From foundational research, to the discoveries that help shape diagnostic and therapeutic development, Element empowers scientists to advance the frontiers of biology and impact every corner of human health. To learn more about Element, please visit www.elementbiosciences.com and follow us on LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Facebook.

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