Opening New Environmental Sensing Possibilities with Silicon Photonics-Based Sensors
ABSTRACT
Air pollution remains a significant threat to healthy life, affecting both plants and animals, including humans. Unfortunately, there are only a limited number of specific gas sensors that partially monitor emissions. In collaboration with the CEA-Grenoble, Aryballe has developed a selective VOC sensor capable of real-time detection and identification. This breakthrough technology enables the generation of large datasets, which can be analyzed using either simple algorithms or more sophisticated machine learning models.
More precisely, the 64 channels Mach Zender Interferometer (MZI) functionalized with proprietary peptide biosensors can detect a broad range of odors and chemical families. Moreover, this very innovative sensor has the property to generate live data within a large range of concentration.
In addition to addressing olfactory pollution, Aryballe is also focusing on specific use cases, such as amine and ammonia sensing. Furthermore, this innovative technology has the potential to be applied in water analysis.
BIOGRAPHY
Tristan Rousselle holds a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University Grenoble Alpes. He completed part of his postgraduate studies at Sussex University (Brighton, UK) and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (San Diego, CA). In 2000, he co-founded a company called Protein’eXpert, now known as PX’Therapeutics. This biotechnology company specializes in the engineering, pre-clinical, and clinical development of therapeutic proteins. By 2011, PX’Therapeutics had more than 60 employees in Grenoble and Lyon and generated nearly 50% of its turnover outside Europe.
In July 2013, a few months after the acquisition of PX Therapeutics by the “Laboratoire Aguettant,” Tristan decided to launch a new venture with a leading innovative project in the field of Biosensors named “Aryballe”. He founded the company in March 2014. Since then, Tristan has successively held the positions of CEO, Deputy CEO & CTO (2018-2022), and President & CEO since November 2022. Over the last 10 years, Aryballe SA has raised over $25M, open offices in New York and Seoul and has progressively become the leader in the growing industrial domain of Digital Olfaction.
Aryballe’s products are based on a smart combination of Silicon photonics sensors co-developed with the CEA, as well as fluidics, imaging, data science, and user-friendly software.