Arryx, Inc. was a company that developed tools and technology for manipulation and measurement on the micro and nano length scales. Arryx's technology and products centered around

optical trapping Optical tweezers (originally called single-beam gradient force trap) are scientific instruments that use a highly focused laser beam to hold and move microscopic and sub-microscopic objects like atoms, nanoparticles and droplets, in a manner simil ...

. They specialized in holographic optical trapping, a technique for creating and moving many optical traps at once. Their technology was commercialized in the form of a flagship research tool, the BioRyx 200 optical trapping system. Arryx has investigated the application of the technique to an array of problems in different fields including telecommunications, agriculture, healthcare, basic research, and forensics. Arryx was founded in the fall of 2000, based on technology invented at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

by Professor David G. Grier and his student Eric R. Dufresne a couple years earlier. Their BioRyx 200 system was released in early 2002 and won an

R&D 100 Award Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage of d ...

later that year. An IR version of the system was released in 2004 for broader application to biological systems, with support of additional imaging methods including fluorescent microscopy. In July 2006, Arryx was acquired by

Haemonetics Haemonetics Corporation is a global provider of blood and plasma supplies and services. The company was founded in Natick, Massachusetts by Dr. Allen (Jack) Latham in the 1970s. Today, the company has expanded and has offices located in 16 cou ...

, with whom they had an ongoing partnership. On April 30, 2013, Arryx ceased operations, although Haemonetics pledges to continue to support the service agreements for Arryx products.

References

{{authority control Defunct companies based in Chicago Biotechnology companies established in 2000 Biotechnology companies disestablished in 2013 2000 establishments in Illinois 2013 disestablishments in Illinois 2006 mergers and acquisitions