The breakthrough VISTA™ platform opens new frontiers in drug target discovery and leverages sequencing technology from Ultima Genomics.
Vienna, Austria – June 6, 2025 — Myllia Biotechnology, a pioneer in functional genomics in primary human cells, today announced a major technological breakthrough with the launch of VISTA™—the first platform enabling genome-wide CRISPR screens in primary human macrophages and dendritic cells. This achievement marks a significant milestone in immunology and drug target discovery, thus overcoming a long-standing barrier in the study of key innate immune cell types.
Macrophages and dendritic cells are central regulators of innate immunity, with critical roles in autoimmunity, inflammation, cancer, and infectious disease. Despite their importance, genome-wide CRISPR screening in these primary human cells has been out of reach - until now.
“Macrophages and dendritic cells are exceptionally challenging to tackle,” said Dr. Tilmann Buerckstuemmer, Chief Scientific Officer at Myllia. “They are sensitive, short-lived, and notoriously difficult to transduce. Overcoming these obstacles has required years of iterative development at the intersection of CRISPR technology, single-cell genomics, and primary cell culture. With VISTA™, we’ve created a robust, scalable system that finally unlocks high-content functional screening in these critical immune cell types.”
VISTA™ enables unbiased CRISPR perturbations in primary human macrophages and dendritic cells, combined with single-cell readouts to map gene function at unprecedented depth and precision. It captures the biology where it really happens – in primary human cells – and facilitates unbiased CRISPR screens at genome-scale. This platform opens vast opportunities for identifying novel drug targets across a broad spectrum of immune-related diseases.
“We believe this technology will catalyze the next wave of immunology-driven drug discovery,” Dr. Buerckstuemmer added. “It turns a previously inaccessible cellular system into one of the most powerful models for therapeutic exploration.”
The proof-of-concept screens that validated VISTA™’s capabilities were made possible, in part, through a collaboration with Ultima Genomics, a leader in next-generation sequencing. Myllia’s VISTA™ platform generates vast amounts of data, and Ultima’s sequencing platform provided the high-throughput, cost-efficient performance required for the project.
“We are proud to support such an important milestone for Myllia’s VISTA™ platform with Ultima’s unique high-throughput and low-cost sequencing technology”, said Gilad Almogy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Ultima Genomics. “Myllia’s end-to-end genome-wide CRISPR screening platform represents an enormous opportunity in biotechnology, enabled by the combination of Myllia’s capabilities and Ultima’s unique sequencing technology. This is a great example of a large and impactful application that can be unlocked, in part, through sequencing data at scale, high-throughput, and low cost, and why we built our unique sequencing technology.”
Myllia is now seeking a strategic partner for an exclusive collaboration to deploy the VISTA™ platform across a range of disease areas with the goal of uncovering and validating novel drug targets that could lead to the next-generation of immune-modulating therapies.
About Myllia
Myllia Biotechnology is a biotech company unlocking the power of CRISPR and
single-cell transcriptomics to explore gene function at scale in primary human
cells. With a focus on immune cells, Myllia’s VISTA™ platform enables
the discovery of high-value drug targets and deep insights into immune cell
function. To learn more, visit www.myllia.com
About Ultima Genomics
Ultima Genomics is unleashing the power of genomics at scale. The Company's mission is to continuously drive the scale of genomic information to enable unprecedented advances in biology and improvements in human health. Ultima's revolutionary new sequencing architecture was designed to scale far beyond conventional sequencing technologies, lower the cost of genomic information and catalyze the next phase of genomics in the 21st century. To learn more, visit www.ultimagenomics.com
Media Contacts
Myllia Biotechnology GmbH
Dr. Henrik Schmidt
Business Development Manager
Email: h.schmidt@myllia.com
Phone: +43 1 9346880 200
Ultima Genomics
Vikki Herrera
Email vikki@oakstreetcommunications.com
Phone +1 408-206-7009
