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Fluence Analytics, formerly known as Advanced Polymer Monitoring Technologies, Inc. (APMT), is a privately-held company based in New Orleans, La., U.S. The company was founded in 2012 after it spun out of PolyRMC, a nonprofit R&D organization within Tulane University’s Physics Department. Today, the company provides real-time industrial and laboratory monitoring solutions for polymer and biopharmaceutical companies.

Real-time Monitoring Solutions
ACOMP is a smart manufacturing system that generates real-time data about reaction kinetics and polymer properties. ACOMP continuously measures residual monomer, monomer conversion, polymer composition, and molecular weight during polymerizations. The system lets users predict and control reaction kinetics and polymer properties, allowing for rapid adjustments to temperature and other process control parameters. ACOMP has also been used to create multimodal polymers and automatically control polymer molecular weight.

Fluence Analytics also offers a Lab ACOMP system to monitor the synthesis of new polymer products or to optimize existing processes at the bench and pilot plant scale.

ARGEN, formerly known as Simultaneous Multiple Sample Light Scattering, is a static light scattering instrument that measures the pharmaceutical stability of therapeutic proteins and peptides and the quality of natural and synthetic polymers. The instrument has 16 independent cuvette sample cells capable of precise control of thermal, chemical, and mechanical stress. Since light scattering is highly sensitive to changes in the molecular weight of a biologic molecule in solution, ARGEN enables the early detection of protein aggregation, degradation, and particle formation.

History of Fluence Analytics
During the 1980s Professor Wayne Reed (Co-founder and CSO of Fluence Analytics) began using light scattering to characterize macromolecules. As a physics professor at Tulane University, Reed’s research laid the foundation of the Fluence Analytics product portfolio. Following years of research, Professor Reed applied his fundamental ideas into practical solutions to tackle industry problems. In 1997 he filed his first patent application for a novel light scattering device, followed in 1999 by the real-time monitoring of polymerization reactions technology that would become ACOMP.

Years later Professor Reed, Alex Reed, and Michael Drenski began exploring the idea of commercializing the technology invented at PolyRMC. Alex and Michael worked at PolyRMC and eventually became Professor Reed’s co-founders at APMT. Alex and Michael have directed the company as CEO and CTO, respectively, since the company’s inception. The final co-founder was Dr. Bill Bottoms, a PolyRMC board member.

In 2013 APMT began working on a joint development project for ACOMP with its first customer, and in 2014 the first first-generation ACOMP was launched. In parallel, APMT secured SBIR funding to develop the ARGEN product line.

At the beginning of 2016, the company began working on a second-generation ACOMP for its first customer. That same year the company delivered an ARGEN instrument to Professor Christopher Roberts, a renowned expert in biopharmaceutical characterization, of the University of Delaware.

The company became Fluence Analytics in 2017 and shortly afterward secured funding for a Series A round led by Energy Innovation Capital. The company also had an official product launch for ARGEN and released the third-generation ACOMP in 2017.

ACOMP
While he was developing ACOMP’s technology, Professor Reed sought to analyze macromolecular properties in real time. In doing so, he developed a dynamic way to study many polymerization techniques, including free radical, controlled radical, solution, bulk, and emulsion reactions during synthesis. Since ACOMP’s inception, there have been more than 90 scientific lectures, more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, 10 issued patents, and 25 pending patent applications — all dedicated to or related to ACOMP.

Today, ACOMP is a fully integrated and automated platform that provides real-time analysis of important polymer properties, including molecular weight, intrinsic viscosity, residual monomer, monomer conversion, and polymer composition. The smart manufacturing system leverages the latest technologies in automation, sensors, and detectors, and the data streams generated by ACOMP are available to manufacturing personnel via the plant’s distributed control system.

The first industrial ACOMP was installed in 2014 at a Nalco facility in Garyville, La. After monitoring a large number of industrial reactions, it was determined that ACOMP enabled an average 15–20% reduction in batch cycle times. Nalco purchased a second-generation ACOMP for another reactor at the Garyville facility in 2016.

ARGEN
ARGEN allows users to simultaneously run multiple biologic samples under different experimental conditions. This enables scientists to evaluate stability under actual conditions the biopharmaceutical will encounter during the product’s life cycle. Users can utilize up to 16 combinations of various temperatures, stirring rates, buffers, excipients, and a multitude of chemical stress sources to analyze aggregation behavior.

By continuously monitoring a sample’s molecular weight, ARGEN provides real-time aggregation data, identifies anomalies, and calculates the rate and total time for a sample to reach a predetermined condition. Furthermore, ARGEN users can directly compare the stability of protein and peptide samples with ARGEN’s aggregation rate output.

Business Model
Fluence Analytics provides industrial companies and research-focused organizations with real-time monitoring products. These products allow companies to better control process parameters, consequently, optimizing their processes. The company's product portfolio includes ACOMP, Lab ACOMP, and ARGEN. Interested companies can evaluate product performance prior to purchase with applications engineering and paid proof of concept trials. Applications engineering involves Fluence Analytics using one of its products to evaluate the feasibility of monitoring the customer’s material and intended application. Proof of concept is a paid demo at the customer’s site, allowing for an extended, more thorough feasibility analysis. Fluence Analytics offers its products on a standard equipment sale with as-needed after sale service and software upgrades. Alternatively, in 2018 the company launched a turnkey complete offering for platform as a service which includes the use of ACOMP’s hardware, software, and services as well as automatic software and data analytics feature upgrades.