Meteor Biotech launches in Europe with first deployment of spatial biology platform CosmoSort at VIB in Belgium

Researchers at VIB, leading life sciences research institute, will conduct on-site testing of CosmoSort, first spatial biology technology to isolate precise cells and tissue regions, without compromising surrounding tissue, generating high-impact data on the behavior of organisms within milliseconds

21 October 2025 -- Seoul, South Korea -- Meteor Biotech, a specialized spatial omics technology company producing region-targeted cell sorting devices for advanced biomedical research, today announces its launch in Europe with the installation of its innovative CosmoSort platform at VIB, a world-class research institute in Belgium. This collaboration marks Meteor Biotech’s first deployment of its unique spatial biology technology in Europe.

CosmoSort will provide life science researchers at VIB, which employs close to 2,000 scientists, with a new method for achieving the depth of cell behavior analysis they need to conduct research, with high societal impact, that spans the molecular fundamentals of life, disease mechanisms and sustainable agriculture.

VIB’s selection of CosmoSort underscores a growing trend towards spatial biology technologies that enable both visualization of tissue architecture and precise isolation of cells for downstream molecular analysis. The spatial biology field has been rapidly evolving, with growing significance in translational research and precision medicine, as researchers seek more capabilities that go beyond static spatial mapping - which can obscure critical aspects of cell behavior.

“We are delighted with this opportunity to collaborate with the researchers at VIB, a world-leading institution. This installation marks Meteor Biotech’s first entry into the European market, a milestone of great significance for us,” said Amos Lee, CEO of Meteor Biotech. “Having established our presence in Asia and North America over the last two years, expanding into Europe demonstrates our growth into a truly international player. We see this as the starting point for the broader adoption of CosmoSort across more countries and research institutions worldwide, and the setting of a new standard for spatial omics.”

As a next-generation spatial biology platform, CosmoSort combines accuracy, reproducibility and scalability, while allowing researchers to move seamlessly from imaging to actionable biological insights.

“CosmoSort’s sample-agnostic design enables VIB to investigate the wide variety of tissues and organisms that our scientists work with,” said Bram Van den Bergh, technology expert at VIB’s Tech Watch Core, specialized in scouting and de-risking breakthrough technologies. “We are just beginning to explore its potential, but its flexibility is promising and could pave the way for true multi-omics research across diverse study contexts. The open architecture and speed of CosmoSort make it a strong candidate for multi-omics workflows. If we can validate their promises in-house, their spatial isolation platform would integrate seamlessly into various other spatial setups at VIB that we couldn’t easily realize before.”

Meteor Biotech will deploy CosmoSort as part of VIB’s spatial biology research, focusing on isolating precise cells and regions of interest to generate high-quality proteome and full-transcriptome datasets. Beyond direct research use, the equipment will serve as a demonstration platform, with Meteor Biotech and VIB researchers jointly showcasing its capabilities to neighboring research teams.

Several key features attracted VIB to CosmoSort:

• Compatibility with Mass Spectrometry (MS), enabling the generation of protein libraries for de novo protein discovery, a capability highly valued by researchers across life sciences and one that is compatible with the high-end mass spectrometers at VIB
• Full-length transcriptome reads, providing comprehensive transcript information, without the bias of probe-based data, facilitating deeper insights into cancer biology, neurobiology, synthetic biology and developmental biology
• Precise cell isolation with spatial integrity, allowing isolation of exact cells or regions of interest without compromising the surrounding tissue microenvironment through the infrared (IR)-laser punching mechanism
• Efficient throughput, processing one cell or region of interest per second, balancing speed and precision for both targeted and large-scale studies
• Robust gravity-based retrieval, minimizing contamination risk and ensuring reproducibility, critical for high-standard research environments.

“Until now, researchers often had to rely on indirect methods or lengthy workflows to reach the depth of analysis they needed. With CosmoSort, they can now isolate only the cells or regions they truly need - without damage or sequencing entire slides unnecessarily and in a fraction of the time. This efficiency accelerates discovery and empowers scientists to focus on solving the most pressing questions in cancer biology,” added Lee.

Installed in September, CosmoSort is now fully operational, meaning joint research activities can begin.

About Meteor Biotech
Meteor Biotech is a specialized spatial omics technology company producing region-targeted cell sorting devices for advanced bioresearch analysis, including genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics. A spin-off from Seoul National University and leveraging over a decade of research and engineering, Meteor has developed its proprietary platform technology, SLACS (Spatially-Resolved Laser-Activated Cell Sorting), with which it has pioneered the world’s first spatial cell sorter, CosmoSort™. CosmoSort allows researchers to sort specific regions of interest from tissue sections with high spatial precision, supporting a wide range of applications in cancer biology, immunology and neuroscience, among others. By empowering scientists to both observe and retrieve spatially defined cells, CosmoSort transforms static imaging into dynamic discovery — enabling researchers to translate spatial insights into deeper, more actionable, biological understanding. Founded in 2022, Meteor Biotech has raised over $60M in funding, predominantly in grants. The company, headquartered in South Korea, with a new office in the US, commercializes CosmoSort, its award-winning device, in Asia and North America; it has also recently expanded into Europe. Visit: www.meteorbiotech.com