Cellsius Bio is redefining how we measure cellular activity by directly detecting the heat that cells produce as they live, grow, or respond to treatment. Our ultra-sensitive technology detects metabolic signals at the single-cell scale, enabling rapid biological sensing for drug discovery, synthetic biology, and diagnostics.
FELLOW
Juanjuan Zheng
Juanjuan Zheng is the co-founder of Cellsius Bio, where she develops nano- and microscale devices for metabolic sensing and real-time diagnostics. During her Ph.D. and postdoctoral training at Harvard University, she built four scientific instruments for materials and biological research, integrating micromachined device design, nano/microfabrication, system design, and thermal-electrical analysis. She is an expert in ultra-sensitive calorimetry and received the Harvard Grid Accelerator Award to advance this technology for real-time measurement of metabolic heat.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
Many biological processes remain difficult to monitor in real time due to the lack of tools that can directly measure metabolic activity at small scales. Existing methods are often slow, indirect, or rely on optical labels that can interfere with natural biological behavior. Cellsius Bio addresses this gap with a highly sensitive, label-free platform for real-time metabolic sensing. This limitation continues to hinder progress in drug discovery, synthetic biology, and diagnostics—especially in antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST), where delayed results lead to ineffective treatments and rising antibiotic resistance. Our platform can detect metabolic activity from as few as ~30 bacteria—well before any visible signs of growth—enabling far earlier assessment of antibiotic efficacy than current culture-based methods.
Technology Vision
Cellsius Bio is developing an ultra-sensitive calorimetry platform that directly measures metabolic heat from living systems at picowatt resolution. Our microfabricated sensor array enables real-time, label-free monitoring of cellular activity—supporting rapid assessment of growth, viability, and drug response. Unlike conventional approaches, our technology requires no labels, amplification, or complex sample preparation. Compact, scalable, and high-throughput, the platform opens new possibilities for biological sensing across drug screening, synthetic biology, and diagnostics like AST.
Potential for Impact
Cellsius Bio is redefining how biology is measured—through the heat of life itself. The company’s platform captures real-time metabolic activity with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution, enabling scientists to assess cell viability, drug response, and function without labels or invasive tools. By unlocking dynamic metabolic insights from single cells, embryos, and rare microbes, Cellsius empowers researchers to run faster experiments and reveal what current tools miss. From same-day infectious disease diagnostics to next-generation drug discovery and synthetic biology, Cellsius opens doors to breakthroughs that were never before possible.