The company has appointed two commercial executives and established an advisory board to support wider use of its centrifuge-free sample preparation technology.
Curiox Biosystems Inc announced the expansion of its senior commercial leadership team and the formation of a Strategic Advisory Board to support commercial scale-up of its centrifuge-free sample preparation technologies.
The commercial expansion is focused on driving adoption of the company’s Pluto Workstations, which use proprietary C-FREE technology to automate flow cytometry sample preparation and eliminate the need for centrifugation during cell washing and mixing steps. By automating stages such as reagent cocktailing, staining, and washing, the platform is designed to minimize manual handling, reduce variability, and deliver standardized, reproducible laboratory workflows.
“The expansion of our commercial team and appointment of the Strategic Advisory Board comes at a pivotal point for Curiox. These appointments will enable us to scale to proactively address customer demand and increase adoption of the Pluto Workstations and make centrifuge-free sample preparation the standard practice for more laboratories. We are delighted to welcome Shanin, Kristine, Betty and David on board to drive this next phase of growth,” says Namyong Kim, CEO at Curiox Biosystems, in a release.
New Commercial Leadership Appointments
As part of the leadership expansion, Shanin Barican has been named vice president of business development. In this role, Barican will lead strategic alliances and partnerships to broaden the implementation of Pluto Workstations across flow cytometry and cell analysis applications. Barican brings more than 20 years of experience commercializing life science technologies, having previously served as senior director of business development at Opentrons Labworks Inc, director of product management at Fluidigm Corporation, and global market development manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific.
“Curiox’s innovative technology enables automated, centrifuge-free sample preparation to improve reproducibility and efficiency in flow cytometry workflows, increasing confidence in research. Expanding our commercial team will enable us to match these capabilities with the right customers to revolutionize flow cytometry sample preparation,” says Shanin Barican, vice president of business development at Curiox Biosystems, in a release.
Joining alongside Barican is Kristine Friscino, who has been appointed vice president of marketing. Friscino will direct marketing operations, brand positioning, demand generation, and marketing infrastructure to accelerate platform adoption across biopharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, and research institutions. She brings more than two decades of commercial experience in life science tools, most recently serving as vice president of marketing and product at Nuclera, where she launched eProtein Discovery and supported a $75 million Series C financing round, following a 17-year tenure in sales, marketing, and distribution leadership roles at Abcam.
Formation of Strategic Advisory Board
To guide market expansion and operational scale-up, Curiox has established a Strategic Advisory Board, appointing life sciences industry veterans Elizabeth Woo, PhD, and David Newble. The board will provide independent strategic counsel on establishing centrifuge-free instrumentation as routine laboratory practice in cell preparation.
Woo, currently a management consultant at Woo BioAlternatives LLC, possesses more than 35 years of healthcare and life sciences leadership experience. Prior to retiring in early 2026, she served as vice president of cell, gene, and advanced therapies at Thermo Fisher Scientific, leading cross-divisional initiatives to scale solutions for cell therapy developers. She also serves on the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine CEO Council, UC Davis Health Ventures board, Pittsburgh Life Sciences Alliance, and NeXell Bio board.
Newble, currently chairman of Cresset and director of Fluidic Sciences, brings background in guiding emerging laboratory tools into industry standards. He previously led TAP Biosystems and SPT Labtech, overseeing the adoption of automated liquid handling tools and the ambr bioreactor platform. He also serves on the board of Astraveus and advises private equity investors on life sciences mergers and acquisitions.
Photo caption: Pluto workstation
Photo credit: Curiox
