NexMR Becomes Part of Magritek

(CONNECT) NexMR, a biotechnology company based in Schlieren, is now part of the New Zealand-German Magritek Group. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed in the announcement.

NexMR's SmartSpin technology uses photohyperpolarization—a light-based process—to amplify NMR signals without the cost and technical complexity of conventional hyperpolarization systems. This allows for faster measurements with smaller sample sizes. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is used, among other things, in drug discovery to analyze molecules.

In the future, the technology developed by the spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) will be integrated into Magritek's benchtop NMR spectrometer as part of the Spinsolve platform. The combination with Magritek's compact nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers is expected to enable analyses that were previously only possible using larger and more complex systems.

Development of the first generation of these devices is already underway, and they are expected to be launched within the next twelve months. “We knew our technology needed the right home, and for us, that was clearly Magritek,” said Félix Torres, CEO of NexMR. Magritek CEO Federico Casanova is quoted as saying that the fact that photohyperpolarization makes biophysics accessible on benchtop devices is “a capability the field has long been waiting for.”

Magritek was founded in 2004 and, with its core product line, Spinsolve, operates in the field of cryogen-free benchtop NMR spectrometers. The company is headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand, and operates offices in Aachen, Germany, and Philadelphia, in the United States. ce/as