PhosphoSolutions specializes in producing high-quality research antibodies for the neuroscience community. The company’s research antibodies provide critical information on drug effectiveness that drives scientific breakthroughs.

CBSA President & CEO, Jennifer Jones Paton, asked Kristin Nixon, PhosphoSolutions President, CBSA’s Key Questions for Life Sciences Innovators.

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Q: Tell us about your company or organization.

A: We are a small biotech company founded in 2001 by Drs. Michael D. Browning, John W. Haycock, and Andrew J. Czernik. All worked together in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Greengard, co-recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on the role of protein phosphorylation in signal transduction in the nervous system. We specialize in producing high-quality research use antibodies for the neuroscience community

Q: Describe your team culture. How does your culture shape what your company or organization produces or offers?

A: We’re like family. We are a tight-knit, friendly, loyal team committed to our work and to ensuring that we all thrive together. Since PhosphoSolutions is a small business, we all wear many hats and are happy to jump in wherever needed. As an original manufacturer, our entire team takes great pride in the reagents produced and the technical support we provide to further neuroscience research. We share a strong commitment to stringent validation standards and are dedicated to promoting reproducible science.

Q: What are you working on right now?

A: We stay up to date on the latest neuroscience research and are continually adding new targets of interest to our product development pipeline. One of the projects we are currently working on is the development of a novel phospho-specific tau antibody that is a biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease.

Q: How will your work save or change lives?

A: Virtually all successful drugs are targeted against proteins, the tiny workhorses that direct all aspects of the lives of our cells. We produce research antibodies that enable scientists to visualize proteins and provide critical information about which drugs are effective. Specifically, our antibodies are used by neuroscientists in the development of therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Many other of our antibodies target critical proteins in studies of alcoholism and drug addiction.

Q: How has COVID-19 impacted your company or organization?

A: As an essential manufacturer of research reagents, we have been fortunate to continue to operate at full capacity during the pandemic. Being a small company with plenty of lab space, we were able to spread out our workstations and stagger shifts so our team could work while following all safety protocols. The complete shut down or drastically reduced operations of most higher education institutions where our customer base is largely employed had a severe impact on our business early on in the pandemic but we have rebounded nicely in recent months as research must go on!

Q: CBSA champions a collaborative life sciences ecosystem because we are #stongertogether. How has being an active participant in our life sciences community supported your success?

A: Starting up our company in a bioscience incubator within the Fitzsimons Innovation Community provided access to shared equipment and administrative services that made it much easier to launch our business. Networking events hosted by CBSA have given us unique opportunities to collaborate with other Colorado biotech companies. The access and proximity to the University of Colorado’s core facilities has also been very advantageous for us.

We spun our company out of the University of Colorado, Denver in 2001 right about the time CU was beginning its transition to the Anschutz campus.

This location and synergy between the Fitzsimons Innovation Community and the University of Colorado community here on campus made it an ideal spot for our start-up biotech business.

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