Spectradyne: About us

Innovation in Nanoparticle Analysis

The company

Spectradyne has commercialized a revolutionary method of measuring sub-micron nanoparticles. Applications include characterizing nanomedicine delivery systems, the measurement of protein aggregation in the drug development industry, virology and in consumer product quality control.

Check out our company blog!



Made in CA
Spectradyne is a part of the Made in CaliforniaTM network of companies.

Recent Spectradyne news


December 2022 Spectradyne has a booth at SelectBio's Organoids and Microphysiological Systems workshop, December 12-14, 2022, in Long Beach CA.

November 2022 Spectradyne is a Bronze Sponsor and hosts a booth at ISEVxTECH International Society of Extracellular Vesicles, November 16-18, 2022, in Waikiki, Honolulu HI.

October 2022 Spectradyne participates in 2022 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) PharmSci 360, October 16-19, 2022, in Asilomar, Pacific Grove CA.

October 2022 Spectradyne is there! American Society for Exosomes and Microvesicles (ASEMV) Annual Meeting 2022, September 31-Oct 3 2022, in Asilomar, Pacific Grove CA.

September 2022 Spectradyne launches its new product: The ARCTM, combining fluorescent phenotyping with microfluidic resistive pulse sensing — read more about this exciting product here and check our our product page here.

September 2022 Spectradyne participates, presents a talk, and hosts a booth at SelectBio's Extracellular Vesicles 2022, September 13-14 2022, in Seattle WA.

August 2022 Spectradyne presents at the 14th Annual Bioprocessing Summit, August 15-18 2022, in San Diego CA.

May 2022 Spectradyne participates in the 2022 AAPS National Biotechnology Conference, May 9-12 2022, in Anaheim CA.

March 2022 Spectradyne participates in SelectBio's Circulating Biomarkers Europe, March 1-2 2022, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

February 2022 Spectradyne and SelectBio collaborate in a technology deep-dive webinar: How is that black box really measuring my extracellular vesicle (EV) or liposome nanoparticle (LNP) distribution?

December 2021 Spectradyne is a sponsor, presents a talk, and has a booth at Select Bio's 2021 Extracellular Vesicles (EVs): Technologies and Biological Investigations, December 13-15, 2021, in San Diego CA.

October 2021 Spectradyne has a booth at the hybrid ACS 2021 Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting, October 20-23, 2021, in Tucson, Arizona.

October 2021 Spectradyne is a sponsor and participates in AAPS's PharmSci 360 annual meeting, October 17-20, 2021, in Philadelphia PA

May 2021 Spectradyne is a Gold Sponsor and participates in the International Society of Extracellular Vesicles ISEV 2021 conference, May 19-23, 2021, being held virtually

March 2021 Spectradyne has moved to a new location! Check out our new office and fabrication site at 2501 Cherry Ave Suite 140 in Signal Hill CA (zip 90755). However, you can continue to reach us through the website and email!

February 2021 Spectradyne presents a SelectBIO webinar with Jean-Luc Fraikin and Zoltan Vargo (RCNS Hungary), registration here, February 9, 2021

February 2021 Spectradyne participates in the 8th annual Circulating Biomarkers conference, February 25-26, 2021, in San Diego CA

December 2020 Spectradyne releases its Season's Greetings newsletter here - enjoy!

November 2020 Spectradyne presents at the 2020 American Institute of Chemical Engineers annual meeting (AIChe 2020), November 15-20 2020 (online only).

November 2020 Spectradyne shows off its new technology at the 2020 American Society for Exosomes and Microvesicles annual virtual meeting (ASEMV 2020), November 16-20 2020 (online only).

October 2020 Spectradyne releases its next newsletter, newsletter number 9. Check it out here.

September 2020 Scientists at Old Dominion University show that the nCS1 can be used to measure and quantify nanoparticles in tick saliva! Check out the research articles, which can be found on our library page.

August 2020 Spectradyne works with SelectBio and guest speakers Joshua Welsh (NCI) and Michael Paulities (Johns Hopkins) to produce a webinar on how Spectradyne's nCS1 can be used for measuring extracellular vesicles. To get access to our webinar, please request access through this link

August 2020 Spectradyne is putting more of its information on-line, providing a series of videos that are available through our library page here. For example, we've put together a new video demonstrating our disposable cartridge technology, which you can view through this link

July 2020 Spectradyne takes part in ISEV 2020, a completely virtual meeting for the International Society of Extracellular Vesicles annual meeting. For more information see the ISEV official website here

May 2020 Spectradyne's microfluidic resistive pulse sensing (MRPS) and nCS1 play a central role in the development of cancer drug-carrying liposomes which are tested in animals. Check out the publication describing this work in Pharmaceutics. Check it out here: A. Gaal, T. M. Garay, I. Horvath, D. Mathe, D. Szollosi, D. S. Veres, J. Mbuotidem, T. Kovacs, J. Tovari, R. Bergmann, C. Streli, G. Szakacs, J. Mihaly, Z. Varga, N. Szoboszlai, "Development and In Vivo Application of a Water-Soluble Anticancer Copper Ionophore System Using a Temperature-Sensitive Liposome Formulation," Pharmaceutics 12, 466 (2020) https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics12050466

May 2020 Measurements of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and liposomes made with Spectradyne's nCS1TM generate a hard-hitting publication in Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces. Check it out here: Z. Varga, B. Fehera, D. Kitka, A. Wacha, A. Bota, S. Berenyi, V. Pipich, J.-L. Fraikin, "Size Measurement of Extracellular Vesicles and Synthetic Liposomes: The Impact of the Hydration Shell and the Protein Corona," Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces (2020) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfb.2020.111053

April 2020 EV size and concentration measurements made with Spectradyne's nCS1TM to further understanding about macular degeneration. See the publication: J. Ahn et al., "Release of extracellular vesicle miR-494-3p by ARPE-19 cells with impaired mitochondria," BBA - General Subjects (in press, 2020)

April 2020 Spectradyne is awarded a Phase I NIH grant to develop a new nanoparticle detection technology

April 2020 Spectradyne presents a webinar entitled "Control your experiments - why particle concentrations matter" on April 1 2020. Register for a chance to view our collection of webinars here

January 2020 Spectradyne exhibits the nCS1TM at PepTalk 2020, the Protein Science Week in San Diego CA, January 20-24, 2020

December 2019 Spectradyne together with Zoltan Varga's group at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences publishes a paper on using the nCS1TM for extracellular vesicle analysis, which you can read here

December 2019 Spectradyne's distributor Meritics exhibits the nCS1TM at the UKEV 2019 extracellular vesicles meeting at the Francis Crick Institute in London UK, December 10, 2019

November 2019 Spectradyne demonstrates the nCS1TM at the 19th Cytometry Development Workshop in La Jolla CA, November 14-17, 2019

November 2019 Spectradyne exhibits its technology at the AAPS PharmSci 360 meeting in San Antonio TX, November 3-6 2019

October 2019 Spectradyne's distributors Meritics and Anasysta demonstrate Spectradyne's nCS1TM at the Circulating Biomarkers Conference, October 30-November 1, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands

October 2019 Spectradyne's distributor Meritics demonstrate Spectradyne's nCS1TM at the Lab Innovations Conference, October 30-31, at NEC in Birmingham UK

October 2019 Spectradyne shows its nCS1TM at McGill University at the Extracellular Vesicles Workshop at in Montreal Canada, October 29, 2019

October 2019 Spectradyne displays at Pfizer's Applied Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology meeting at MIT in Cambridge MA, October 25, 2019

October 2019 Spectradyne shows its technology off at ASEMV's 2019 annual meeting on Exosomes, Vesicles and Infectious Diseases at Asilomar in Pacific Grove CA, October 6-10 2019

September 2019 Spectradyne demonstrates its instrumentation at the Nano DDS 2019 conference at MIT in Cambridge MA, September 22-24, 2019

August 2019 Spectradyne exhibits at the first joint ISEV-MRS 2019 conference on Extracellular Vesicles in Cancer, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville TN, August 2-4, 2019

May 2019 Spectradyne exhibits at the 2019 ASEMV Exosomes, Microvesicles, and Infectious Disease conference at the Bolger Center in Potomac MD, May 31-June 1, 2019

April 2019 Spectradyne announces its new TS-10k cartridge, able to measure particles from 1.5 μm all the way to 10 μm in diameter. See more information here.

April 2019 Spectradyne exhibits at the 2019 ISEV Kyoto International Society for Extracellular Vesicles conference in Kyoto Japan, April 25-28, 2019.

April 2019 Spectradyne exhibits at the 2019 PEGS Boston Protein Engineering Summit, April 8-12, 2019.

March 2019 Spectradyne exhibits at the Circulating Biomarkers World Congress in San Diego CA, March 27-29, 2019.

March 2019 Spectradyne and Spectradyne's European distributor Anasysta will attend the Annual Meeting of the German Society for Extracellular Vesicles, 7 & 8 March 2019 in Frankfurt, Germany. Anasyste will also hold a workshop on March 9 about the nCS1TM.

February 2019 Spectradyne launches a company blog. Read our blog posts here.

January 2019 Spectradyne presents at the 2019 PepTalk meeting.

December 2018 Spectradyne announces a new measurement-for-service partnership with Particle Technology Labs. Read the press release here.

November 2018 Spectradyne publishes newsletter number 6. Read it here!

October 2018 Spectradyne is awarded an NSF Phase IIB award, an add-on award to our existing NSF Phase II award. The funds will support targeted R&D efforts to improve robustness and ease of use, and facilitate broader adoption of the nCS1TM in exosome applications. Read the press release.

October 2018 Spectradyne exhibits at the American Society for Exosomes and Microvesicles ASEMV 2018 Annual Meeting in Baltimore MD, October 20-24 2018.

October 2018 Spectradyne exhibits at the Applied Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology 4th annual meeting in Boston MA, October 24 2018.

September 2018 Meritics Ltd., a Spectradyne partner and distributor, publishes a review article, "Accurate measurements of biological nanoparticles.", by Brian Miller (Meritics Ltd.), in LabMate September 6, 2018.

August 2018 Spectradyne LLC's partner Coriolis publishes an evaluation of microfluidic resistive pulse sensing in J. Pharm. Sci.

August 2018 Spectradyne presents a talk at ACS 2018 in Boston MA, on Sunday August 19: Franklin Monzon presents from 11:25-11:35 am in Room 156C.

August 2018 Spectradyne has an exhibit booth and presents a poster at ACS 2018 in Boston MA from August 19-23, 2018.

August 2018 Spectradyne, in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam and other collaborators, publishes an article in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostatis, Hollow organosilica beads as reference particles for optical detection of extracellular vesicles, by Z. Varga et al.

August 2018 Spectradyne publishes a review article, Key considerations for accurate quantification of sub-micron particles in pharmaceuticals, by Jean-Luc Fraikin, in On Drug Delivery.

July 2018 Spectradyne publishes newsletter number 5. Read it here!

July 2018 Spectradyne co-sponsors the Colorado Proteins Conference, and exhibits and presents a poster in Breckenridge CO from July 20-August 2, 2018. Check out the poster!

June 2018 Spectradyne announces that it has sold an nCS1 to the US Food and Drug Administration.

June 2018 Meritics, Spectradyne's UK distributor, exhibits at UKICRS, the UK Controlled Release Society meeting at Queen's University, Belfast UK, June 4-5, 2018.

May 2018 Spectradyne, as a Bronze sponsor, exhibits its products and presents two posters at ISEV-2018, the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles, in Barcelona, Spain, May 2-6 2018.

April 2018 Our UK distributor, Meritics, presents a poster describing the nCS1TM at the Oxford Global Proteins and Antibodies conference in London UK, April 16-17 2018.

March 2018 Spectradyne presents a poster and an exhibit at SelectBIO - Circulating Biomarkers World Congress 2018, at the Wyndham Beacon Hill Hotel in Boston MA, March 28-29 2018.

March 2018 Spectradyne exhibits at the Biotherapeutics Analytical Summit at the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel in Baltimore MD, March 12-16 2018.

December 2017 Spectradyne announces contracts with two distributors: Meritics will handle Spectradyne's United Kingdom sales, and Anasysta will cover Spectradyne's European sales.

December 2017 Spectradyne releases its new instrument operating software, version 2.3.6, with an updated manual as well.

December 2017 Spectradyne publishes its year-end newsletter. Read it here!

November 2017 Spectradyne presents its technology at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) in San Diego, November 13-15, 2017.

September 2017 Spectradyne publishes its first web-based newsletter. Read it here!

September 2017 Spectradyne is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a Technology Enhancement for Commercial Partnerships (TECP) grant from the National Science Foundation. Read our press release.

July 2017 Spectradyne presents a description of its unique nanoparticle detection technology at the 2017 Nanomedicine Symposium in Cambridge MA. Watch a video of the presentation.

May 2017 Jean-Luc Fraikin, co-founder and CTO of Spectradyne, presents at the annual meeting of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) in Toronto. Spectradyne is seeing increasing interest in our measurements of EVs, or exosomes, due to the ability of our nCS1 instrument to make rapid, high-resolution size and concentration measurements of biological mixtures.

May 2017 Spectradyne exhibits at the AAPS National Biotech Conference in San Diego. Our protein aggregation, virus, and nanomedicine measurement results are a hit!

April 2017 Spectradyne's technology readily quantifies the concentration and size of nanoparticle contamination in "clean" fluids such as IV saline, saline in pre-filled syringes, and more: cleanliness of fluids.

March 2017 Nanoparticles are everywhere. As some small proof, Spectradyne measured the nanoparticle content of three Korean and three Japanese liquors. For the results of this soju vs. sake comparison, see this link.

January 2017 Spectradyne expands its concentration measurement capability below 1e6 particles/ml. Protein aggregates are detected at levels of only a few hundred thousand per milliliter!

December 2016 Sales Account Executive Lew Brown joins the Spectradyne team.

October 2016 Robust detection of particles up to 2 microns in diameter is demonstrated on multiple particle types (polystyrene, silica, protein aggregates, etc).

September 2016 Spectradyne exhibits at NanoDDS 2016 at Johns Hopkins University. Accurate sizing of synthetic nanoparticles in complex media are a strength of Spectradyne's technology.

August 2016 Spectradyne completes installation of another nCS1 instrument, at a major national government lab.

August 2016 Spectradyne exhibits at the AAPS Protein Aggregation and Immunogenicity Workshop in Breckenridge, CO. Our nCS1 instrument excels at detecting protein aggregates at high resolution, both in size and concentration: see our Applications page for more info.

June 17, 2016 Spectradyne's article "Quantitative Nanoparticle Analysis Based on Resistive Pulse Sensing" is published in American Laboratory magazine. Read the article!

June 7, 2016 Spectradyne presents its nanoparticle analysis technology at the National Science Foundation's Technology Showcase, as part of the NSF's 2016 SBIR Phase II Conference.

May 16-17, 2016 Spectradyne exhibits at the 2016 AAPS National Biotech Conference in Boston.

April 7, 2016 Spectradyne installs a nCS1 instrument at a prominent privately held biotech company. This customer's technology utilizes nanoparticles to deliver therapeutics in a highly targeted manner.

Mar. 30, 2016 Spectradyne's article "One Size Does Not Fit All: Nanoparticle Size Analysis for Nanomedicine Applications" is published in Drug Development & Delivery. Read the article.

Mar. 29-31, 2016 Spectradyne exhibits at the Spring meeting of the MRS.

Jan. 29, 2016 Spectradyne installs its nCS1 instrument at a major US medical center. The nCS1 will be used to study nanoparticles in serum, in connection with Spectradyne's Phase II NSF SBIR grant.

Jan. 21, 2016 Spectradyne installs its nCS1 instrument at a leading global developer of pharmaceuticals and vaccines.

Dec. 2, 2015 Spectradyne installs its innovative nCS1 instrument at a major global biopharmaceutical company.

Nov. 2015 Spectradyne participates the Coulter College Commercializing Innovation (C3i) program, a partnership between the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation and NIH SBIR offices.

Sept. 25, 2015 Spectradyne is awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB).

Aug. 15, 2015 Spectradyne is awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation.

July 23, 2015 Dr. Jean-Luc Fraikin gives an invited talk "The Spectradyne nCS1: A Revolutionary Tool for Sizing Submicron Particles" at Sanofi Pasteur in Toronto, Ontario.

July 17, 2015 Dr. Jason Cleveland, co-founder of Asylum Research, joins Spectradyne's Advisory Board. Dr. Cleveland co-founded Asylum, a designer/manufacturer of AFMs and served as Chairman and CEO.

August 16-18, 2015 Spectradyne exhibits in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society.

June 8-9, 2015 Spectradyne exhibits at the AAPS NBC in San Francisco.

June 2015 Dr. Jean-Luc Fraikin gives an invited talk on "Rapid nanoparticle characterization in polydisperse samples" at the 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota.

May 2015 Spectradyne exhibits at the AAPS National Biotech Conference in San Francisco.

March 2015 Spectradyne introduces the fully functional nCS1 prototype at Pittcon 2015.

February 2015 Jason Stubbs, M.D. of the University of Kansas joins Spectradyne's Advisory Board.

December 2014 Spectradyne is awarded a NSF Phase IB grant.

November 2014 Spectradyne exhibits at the SoCalBio Investor & Partnership Conference.

November 2014 Spectradyne exhibits at the UCLA Advanced Materials Partnering Conference.

October 2014 Shawn Cao of Amgen joins Spectradyne's Advisory Board.

September 2014 Spectradyne is awarded a Phase I SBIR grant from the NIH.

August 2014 Robert Lee of Particle Sciences, Inc. joins Spectradyne's Advisory Board.

June 2014 Spectradyne presents at the TechConnect-National Innovation-National SBIR/STTR Summit. Winner of a National Innovation Award.

May 2014 Spectradyne is awarded a Phase I SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation.






Our team

fraikin pic

Jean-Luc Fraikin, CEO

Dr Fraikin developed the initial NPA technology during his PhD thesis work at UC Santa Barbara in Dr. Cleland's research group. He has worked in cancer cell biology and biochemistry, and at InDevR led prototyping efforts for a microfluidics-based molecular diagnostic platform. At Spectradyne, Dr Fraikin previously led the development of instrument fluidics, software, and system integration. He is now serving as Spectradyne's CEO.

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Peter Meinhold, Chief Engineer

Dr Meinhold is an experimental astrophysicist at UC Santa Barbara, and an expert in low noise electronics, signal analysis, and in developing compact instrumentation for space. He is proficient in extracting signals with amplitudes orders of magnitude smaller than the instrument noise. Dr Meinhold has a PhD from UC Berkeley and leads the development of instrument electronics.

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Andrew N Cleland, Scientific and Technical Advisor

Dr Cleland is the John A MacLean Professor of Quantum Engineering Innovation at the University of Chicago, and the recipient of Science magazine's "Breakthrough of the Year" for 2010. An authority on nanotechnology, nanomechanics and quantum information, Dr. Cleland helps develop Spectradyne's microfluidic devices as well as next generation instrumentation.

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Franklin Monzon, Scientific and Technical Advisor

Dr Monzon is a co-founder of Spectradyne LLC, and currently advises the company on technical matters related to cartridge design and development.

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Ning Wang, Business Advisor

Dr Wang is currently CEO at Offensive Security, a web security company, and advises Spectradyne LLC on business matters and strategy questions.

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