In early drug research, a scientist may have only a tiny amount of a new chemical entity that could eventually be a candidate drug. Yet a simple test, checking whether it dissolves in liquid, can take days and use up much of this precious material. How could this essential first step be made faster and more efficient?
Before a new drug ever reaches a patient, days can be lost on a task most people never hear about: checking whether a candidate chemical entity actually dissolves in liquid. In many labs, scientists queue samples for HPLC, a technique that pushes liquids through long columns to separate and measure their components. It is accurate but slow and expensive, devouring both chemicals and precious sample material. In early research, where every milligram counts, this becomes a serious bottleneck.
Based on research from EPFL, ORYL Photonics and CSEM have co-created a new solution for solubility testing: an industrialized prototype that uses light instead of slow and expensive HPLC columns. The solution uses Second Harmonic Light Scattering (SHS), a laser-based method pioneered by ORYL Photonics and EPFL. CSEM turned this knowledge into a practical instrument by designing the optics, integrating the ultrafast laser, and developing the electronics and motion control.
“In the instrument, a pulsed laser shines into a tiny volume of solution in a well plate. When the drug is fully dissolved, the laser light passes through the sample essentially unchanged. But as soon as the molecules start to aggregate, an early sign of poor solubility, a weak SHS signal is produced, which our system can pick up,” explains Stefano Cattaneo, Group Leader Optoelectronic Systems, CSEM.
Because SHS is extremely sensitive, it picks up these changes at very low concentrations, long before the solution looks cloudy. That means scientists can work with 100 times less compound than in typical HPLC workflows, while still getting reliable answers.
CSEM and ORYL Photonics have turned this method into a practical, plate-based instrument that can analyze a 384-well plate in about 15 minutes. As a result, solubility testing becomes around 100 times faster and approximately 10 times cheaper than traditional HPLC-based solubility workflows, without compromising reliability.
The University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) added pharmaceutical expertise to benchmark the method against existing standards and validated it with real‑world compounds. “For pharmaceutical customers, the solution’s low-volume, no-column workflow dramatically reduces solvents, consumables, and manual work. More importantly, as it uses very small amounts of precious new chemical entities, more measurements can be completed with less material, effectively addressing the bottleneck in early pharma research. If deployed worldwide, it could save up to 70 million liters of solvents and 4.7 TWh of electricity, roughly 8% of Switzerland’s annual electricity use, while supporting UN goals on health and responsible production,” says Orly Tarun, Co‑Founder & CEO, ORYL Photonics.
The solution’s journey from EPFL research to what is now an industrial-grade solution shows what happens when academic insight meets engineering excellence. ORYL Photonics contributed the SHS know-how, CSEM provided its expertise in optics, electronics, safety and system design, and FHNW ensured the method answered real pharmaceutical questions. Together, they created a flexible, modular platform that can be upgraded and customized as drug discovery evolves.
By making solubility testing faster while using less material, but also more sensitive and far more sustainable, the new system removes a critical bottleneck in early drug development. It lowers costs and reduces environmental impact while accelerating the arrival of new medicines to patients.
CSEM earned our trust and transformed our prototype into a robust, industrial-grade instrument. Their optical and electronic design know-how solved the core challenges and delivered the 15-minute, 384-well performance we needed. Beyond the technical excellence, the collaboration was sincere, honest, and truly partnership driven.
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