Ceres Nanosciences

Ceres Nanosciences Takes its Diagnostic Technology Global With VEDP’s Help

Ceres Nanosciences, Inc., is a privately held company based in Prince William County’s Innovation Park. The company’s proprietary Nanotrap® particle technology improves diagnostic testing by enabling the capture, concentration, and preservation of low-abundance analytes from complex biological samples. In short, Nanotrap particles enable earlier, more accurate detection of diseases.

Ceres’ technology has proven useful in an area that was in the news during the COVID-19 pandemic — monitoring wastewater for pathogens. In addition to the often-cited use cases of monitoring wastewater from dorms, correctional facilities, or wastewater treatment plants, Ceres’ technology is used to monitor wastewater samples from airplanes to help trace the movement of diseases from country to country. 

Ceres Nanosciences, Prince William County

Ceres Nanosciences, Prince William County

The problem: Ceres needed to determine which international markets were the best choice for Nanotrap technology.

As a small business focused on product development, Ceres’s sales and marketing resources are still being built up. International markets are a particular challenge, particularly in a heavily regulated industry. Ceres leadership needed help to find the most promising countries for potential expansion, and VEDP’s International Trade department was there to help.

VEDP International Trade services provide a great combination of expertise that we don’t have and the resources to quickly boil that down.

Robbie Barbero Chief Business Officer, Ceres Nanosciences, Inc.

The solution: VEDP’s market assessments helped the company narrow down its export efforts to focus on the most promising markets.

Ceres engaged VEDP in 2022 for market assessments in a number of countries, not all of which bore fruit. The Spanish and Indian markets turned out not to be immediately viable for various reasons — a benefit often cited by Trade clients as helpful in avoiding spending money in a market that isn’t the right match.

Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom were a different story. VEDP contacts in those countries helped provide an overview of the local opportunities for the Nanotrap technology, including identification of potential customers and key decision-makers. 

“Once we got into those conversations with those decision-makers in the U.K. and Australia, they had already heard of us, had begun evaluations of our products, and were on the way to getting us positive assessments,” said Robbie Barbero, Chief Business Officer at Ceres. “That gave us a lot of confidence that we had a good reputation in those markets and were already on the way.”

The result: Partnerships that are placing Ceres technology in labs in Africa and the Middle East — with the possibility of more to come.

Ceres recently announced a partnership with cell programming and biosecurity company Ginkgo Bioworks to bring the Nanotrap technology to pathogen monitoring laboratories around the world – a deal which has already resulted in labs in the Middle East and Africa using the Nanotrap technology. That agreement comes on the heels of a deals with Streck and Promega to deploy the Nanotrap technology internationally.

Ceres’ technology has the benefit of being useful without the large capital investments that testing space often requires — the company provides a solution that can go into already-existing facilities. With VEDP’s help, Ceres and its international partners are rolling it out to help prevent and manage future pandemics.

Explore More

Qore Logo

After Early Hiccups, Exporting Proves Lucrative for Qore Performance

With VEDP’s assistance, QPI has lined up active distributors in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Scandinavia, and Australia, while shipping to other countries worldwide with confidence that its brand will be represented properly. The company is now looking to expand into the Middle East.

Reservoir_cropped_logo

Reservoir Distillery Establishes Itself Down Under With Help from VEDP Trade Missions

Reservoir Distillery has manufactured craft bourbons, ryes, and other whiskeys from its Richmond facility since 2008. The company prides itself on locally sourcing its ingredients — all of the grains used in its spirits come from within 45 miles of the distillery, and every whiskey is crafted, aged, and bottled in-house.

dilon-logo

International Sales Help Dilon Technologies Weather Domestic Downturn

The company joined VEDP’s Virginia Leaders in Export Trade (VALET) program in 2020, helping its international sales grow by 300% — and the enhanced focus on exports came at a fortuitous time. Soon after Dilon began the program, the U.S. market went into a downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while international markets kept growing, helping protect the company from the ups and downs of the domestic market.