Traditional commercial gas sensors lack a middle ground: They are either really expensive and bulky, or they are small but lack sensitivity. There is a technical trilemma between specificity, sensitivity and, durability, and the devleopment of new chemistry-based sensors often have long development times and scalability problems.

Calyx uses a bio-based sensor that unlocks new opporutinies for indsutries that traditionally rely on chemistry-based sensors. Viruses are used to detect the analytes, and which changes the output of a colorimetric chip. This has high specificity, high sensitivity, and durability. Calyx’s platform has over a trillion receptors in one protein library, so with short development cycles, they can churn out new virus-based sensors for new customers in no time. Since 2018 their solutoins have been validated by major industry players, resulting in 5 paid pilots. Their go to market product will be targeting the poultry industry for ammonia monitoring and has already been demonstrated to outperform the state of the art.