What Ceres Nanosciences does

Ceres Nanosciences is a privately held life-sciences company that develops and commercializes the Nanotrap particle technology platform — magnetic hydrogel particles engineered to capture and concentrate low-abundance analytes (pathogens, proteins, cell-free DNA, and extracellular vesicles) from complex biological and environmental samples. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Manassas, Virginia, the company serves four primary use-case segments: wastewater and environmental surveillance (infectious disease monitoring for SARS-CoV-2, influenza, mpox, norovirus, etc.), proteomics and mass spectrometry (low-abundance protein enrichment for LC-MS/MS), liquid biopsy and cfDNA analysis (oncology and precision-medicine research), and clinical diagnostics. The technology is protected by an issued US, Canadian, European, and Japanese patent estate, has been published in Nature and other peer-reviewed journals, and is validated across matrices including wastewater, blood, urine, plasma, and dried blood spots.

The product portfolio is anchored by four core consumable lines — Nanotrap Microbiome Particles, Nanotrap PEAK (Protein Enrichment Affinity Kit), NEAT Liquid Biopsy Kit (including a Streck BCT variant), and Nanotrap Extracellular Vesicle Particles — supplemented by Enhancement Reagents, Buffers, the Nanotrap PRIME Extraction Kit, and the CeresNOW technical-support service. Products are sold research-use-only via direct, quote-based pricing (FOB Manassas), and the company operates a Centers of Excellence reference-site program that has grown to 16 active US wastewater surveillance sites with 5 additional sites in recruitment. Revenue mechanics are one-time consumable sales rather than subscriptions, with the customer mix dominated by public-health laboratories, academic proteomics cores, and clinical research accounts; strategic capital has historically come from NIH (RADx), CDC, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Virginia Catalyst, and venture investors Concord Ventures and GreyBird Ventures. With only 1–10 employees, the company relies on validated integrations with major OEM platforms (QIAGEN, Thermo Fisher, Promega, MACHEREY-NAGEL, Bio-Rad, Bruker, IDEXX, ZymoBIOMICS, New England Biolabs) to extend its commercial reach.

Name

Ceres Nanosciences

Legal name

Ceres Nanosciences, Inc.

Website

https://ceresnano.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Ceres Nanosciences is a Manassas, Virginia-based private life-sciences company that develops Nanotrap magnetic hydrogel particles for capturing and concentrating low-abundance pathogens, proteins, and cell-free DNA, serving academic, public-health, and clinical research laboratories in wastewater surveillance, proteomics, and liquid biopsy applications.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Life Sciences Sample Preparation Reagents

NAICS

Resin, Synthetic Rubber, and Artificial and Synthetic Fibers and Filaments Manufacturing (3252)

SIC

Biological Products, (No Disgnostic Substances) (2836)

akta.pro primary industry

Bioprocess Consumables & Reagents (resins, membranes, media components, buffers) (HLAAAJAI)

Keywords

• Sample preparation reagents
• Magnetic hydrogel particles
• Wastewater surveillance kits
• Proteomics enrichment kits
• Liquid biopsy cfDNA kits

Headquarters

HQ city

Manassas

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Nanotrap Consumable Products: Sale of Nanotrap magnetic hydrogel particle-based kits and reagents for research use. Products include Microbiome Particles, Enhancement Reagents, Buffers, PEAK kits, NEAT Liquid Biopsy Kits, and Extracellular Vesicle Particles. Sold in various sizes (e.g., 10mL, 30mL vials). Products ship FOB company facility.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Ceres Nanosciences develops, manufactures, and sells consumable Nanotrap® magnetic hydrogel particle-based kits and reagents for research use. Its products capture and concentrate low-abundance pathogens, proteins, cell-free DNA, and extracellular vesicles from complex samples such as wastewater, blood, urine, and plasma without filtration, centrifugation, or bead-beating, and are compatible with manual and automated workflows including KingFisher, QIAGEN, Promega, and Thermo Fisher platforms.

Product overview

Ceres Nanosciences offers a portfolio of products based on its core Nanotrap Particle Technology, a magnetic hydrogel platform for rapid capture and concentration of low-abundance analytes from complex samples. The product portfolio includes: Nanotrap Microbiome Particles for infectious disease and wastewater surveillance applications; Nanotrap Protein Enrichment Affinity Kit (PEAK) for proteomics workflows; NEAT Liquid Biopsy Kit for cell-free DNA and cancer biomarker detection; and Nanotrap Extracellular Vesicle Particles for EV isolation. These are supported by add-on enhancement reagents, buffers, and the CeresNOW technical support service. All products are compatible with both manual and automated workflows, including integration with KingFisher instruments and various extraction kits and PCR analysis systems.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Nanotrap: Core magnetic hydrogel particle technology platform for capture and concentration of low-abundance analytes
• Nanotrap Enhancement Reagents
• Nanotrap PRIME Extraction Kit
• Nanotrap PEAK
• NEAT Liquid Biopsy Kit
• CeresNOW

Products and services

• Nanotrap Microbiome Particles Magnetic hydrogel particles designed for rapid capture and concentration of pathogens, bacteria, fungi, and parasites from complex biological and environmental samples including wastewater, blood, urine, and plasma. For research-use laboratories in public health, wastewater surveillance, and infectious disease workflows.
• Nanotrap Enhancement Reagents Enhancement reagents (ER1, ER2, ER3) sold as a standalone consumable that improves pathogen capture and detection sensitivity by an additional 1-2 Ct values when used with Nanotrap Microbiome Particle workflows. For research-use laboratories in infectious disease and wastewater surveillance.
• Nanotrap Buffers Standalone buffer solutions including Nanotrap Buffer 2 and Nanotrap DBS Buffer for protein extraction from dried blood samples and integration with Nanotrap PEAK Discovery workflows. For proteomics and clinical sample preparation research labs.
• Nanotrap PRIME Extraction Kit Extraction kit for efficient sample preparation and enrichment in quantitative proteomics and infectious disease research applications.
• Nanotrap Protein Enrichment Affinity Kit (PEAK) Magnetic hydrogel-based protein enrichment kit that enriches low-abundance proteins and peptides from complex biofluids while depleting high-abundance interferents such as albumin and immunoglobulins, enabling 3-5x more protein identifications with median CVs less than 5%. For proteomics and mass spectrometry research labs running LC-MS/MS workflows.
• NEAT Liquid Biopsy Kit Nanotrap Extraction Advanced Technology kit for liquid biopsy applications that isolates and concentrates cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from plasma samples while minimizing genomic DNA contamination. Includes a Streck BCT variant for room-temperature blood collection tubes. For oncology, precision medicine, and translational research labs using digital PCR and NGS.
• Nanotrap Extracellular Vesicle Particles Magnetic hydrogel particles for capture and concentration of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and associated biomarkers from biofluids. For EV biomarker research and translational labs.
• CeresNOW Support Expert technical support service providing assay optimization and workflow development assistance for customers using Nanotrap products, with lightning-fast response times.

Quantifiable outcome

• 2-10x higher recovery of microbes from wastewater compared to alternative methods
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• CDC National Wastewater Surveillance SystemcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with CDC's NWSS program for integration of Nanotrap-based wastewater surveillance into public health decision-making at local, state, and federal levels.
• QIAGENmajorTechnology or IntegrationQIAGEN extraction kits (QIAamp Viral RNA Mini Kit, AllPrep PowerViral DNA/RNA Kit, MagAttract Viral RNA Kit) have validated protocols with Nanotrap particles. Products compatible with QIAGEN QIAcuity Digital PCR System.
• Thermo Fisher ScientificmajorTechnology or IntegrationNanotrap protocols validated with Thermo Fisher MagMAX Microbiome Ultra Nucleic Acid Isolation Kit and KingFisher systems (Apex, Flex).
• PromegamajorTechnology or IntegrationNanotrap protocols validated with Promega Maxwell HT Environmental TNA Kit for automated and manual processing.
• MACHEREY-NAGELmajorTechnology or IntegrationCo-hosted webinars on wastewater surveillance. Nanotrap protocols validated with NucleoMag DNA/RNA Water Extraction Kit.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Zymo Research: Zymo Research is a privately held life sciences company specializing in nucleic acid purification and microbiome sample preparation, with product lines overlapping directly with Ceres's wastewater surveillance and microbiome capture applications. Their DNA/RNA extraction kits (including MagBead) compete with Nanotrap Microbiome Particles in the same customer workflow, and they are also listed as a validated integration partner for Ceres.
• Seer: Seer is a publicly traded proteomics company (SEER on Nasdaq) that uses engineered nanoparticles for unbiased, deep-scale plasma proteomics, directly competing with Ceres's Nanotrap PEAK protein enrichment kit. Both companies apply functionalized nanoparticle technology to enable deep proteomic analysis from limited samples, making them the closest technology and application peer in the proteomics sample prep space.
• Covaris: Covaris develops adaptive focused acoustic (AFA) technology for sample preparation including nucleic acid extraction and shearing, serving liquid biopsy, genomics, and proteomics markets. Their disruptive sample preparation approach competes with Nanotrap particles in liquid biopsy and microbiome workflows, particularly for high-value clinical research applications.
• MagBio Genomics: MagBio Genomics specializes in magnetic bead-based nucleic acid extraction and sample preparation kits for clinical and research applications, with a focused product line that competes directly with Nanotrap Microbiome Particles and NEAT Liquid Biopsy Kit in cfDNA and viral RNA workflows. They are a smaller specialty peer serving overlapping customer segments.
• Omega Bio-tek: Omega Bio-tek manufactures nucleic acid purification reagents and kits including magnetic bead-based products for clinical, research, and environmental sample types. Their products compete directly with Nanotrap in wastewater, microbiome, and liquid biopsy sample preparation workflows serving similar academic and public health lab customers.

Broad incumbents

• Bio-Rad Laboratories: Bio-Rad is a large life sciences incumbent whose ddPCR systems (QX200) and laboratory consumables serve the same molecular biology and clinical research customers as Ceres. Their magnetic bead-based sample prep reagents and integrated droplet digital PCR workflows overlap with Ceres's downstream analysis integrations, and they are a validated Ceres integration partner.
• Thermo Fisher Scientific: Thermo Fisher is the largest life sciences tools company globally, with KingFisher automated extraction systems and MagMAX nucleic acid isolation kits that compete directly with Nanotrap in microbiome, wastewater, and clinical research workflows. They are simultaneously a Ceres integration partner (KingFisher Apex/Flex validated protocols) and a potential competitor if they develop competing capture chemistries.
• QIAGEN: QIAGEN is a major sample preparation and molecular diagnostics company whose QIAamp Viral RNA Mini Kit, AllPrep PowerViral DNA/RNA Kit, and QIAcuity Digital PCR System serve the same wastewater surveillance and liquid biopsy customers as Ceres. They have validated protocols with Nanotrap particles but also offer end-to-end competing workflows.
• Promega: Promega is a broad life sciences reagents and instruments company whose Maxwell HT Environmental TNA Kit and related automated extraction products serve the same wastewater and environmental surveillance customers as Ceres. They have validated Nanotrap workflows but also offer competing sample prep chemistries across multiple research applications.
• Streck: Streck is a privately held company specializing in clinical and research lab products including the Cell-Free DNA BCT blood collection tubes that are validated for use with Ceres's NEAT Liquid Biopsy Kit. While Streck focuses on collection tubes and stabilization rather than analyte capture, they serve the same liquid biopsy customers and have complementary product positioning in the cfDNA workflow.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Nanotrap
• Facebookfacebook.com/CeresNanosciences
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/1749158

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds8 records

Investors6 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ceres Nanosciences