13.08.2026 | Published by bit.bio
Newly-created Chief Technology Officer role marks a new chapter for bit.bio as the company expands its leadership team and technology portfolio
-
The ioScreen platform enables pharmaceutical, biotechnology and in silico companies to access industrial-scale CRISPR screening in human stem cell-derived models without building specialist in-house capabilities
-
Service gives researchers a more physiologically relevant way to explore disease biology, identify promising drug targets, and add valuable data to virtual cell models
-
Customers can access screening in bit.bio's CRISPR-Ready ioCells™, portfolio products, or integrate their own cell models.
-
bit.bio appoints its first Chief Technology Officer in a newly created executive leadership role to support the company's next phase of growth
Cambridge, UK – 13th August 2026: bit.bio, the Cambridge-based human cell programming company, has today announced the launch of the ioScreen platform, a new CRISPR screening service designed to accelerate human cell-based drug discovery, alongside a major expansion of its leadership team with the appointment of its first Chief Technology Officer to lead the company's next phase of technology growth and commercial expansion.
The creation of the Chief Technology Officer role marks a significant milestone in bit.bio's evolution as it continues to scale its opti-ox™ deterministic cell programming and commercial capabilities to meet growing demand from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as academic organisations. The newly created executive position will be held by Sejla Salic-Hainzl, who has spent almost six years as Vice President of Research & Development at bit.bio Discovery, where she has led the development of the company's functional genomics capabilities in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cell models.
Her appointment reflects the growing strategic importance of functional genomics alongside bit.bio's broader product portfolio, providing a comprehensive CRISPR screening service that makes bit.bio’s capabilities more widely accessible to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Initially built on bit.bio's proprietary opti-ox deterministic cell programming technology and its CRISPR-Ready ioCells, but now also encompassing other cell types, the ioScreen platform enables researchers to access industrial-scale CRISPR screening in human iPSC-derived cells without the time, cost and complexity of establishing specialist in-house capabilities.
The announcement speaks to the expertise built in bit.bio Discovery, already utilised by several major pharmaceutical companies, and cementing the company’s ability to support customers across the preclinical drug discovery and development value chain, particularly identifying and validating drug targets in physiologically relevant human cells at the beginning of the discovery process.
CRISPR-based functional genomic screening helps researchers understand what causes disease and where new medicines are most likely to work. Yet, despite its growing importance, the technology remains inaccessible to many organisations due to the significant investment in specialist infrastructure, technical expertise and complex experimental workflows required to establish high-quality screening capabilities, in biologically-relevant models. Beyond these barriers, industrial-scale CRISPR screening in human iPSC-derived cells has historically been challenging, due to the timelines and costs required to generate the billions of cells required for a screen of sufficient quality. bit.bio's scalable platform, in combination with 6 years of expertise in developing and delivering large-scale custom screens on mature human iPSC-derived cells for industry partners, overcomes these barriers.
bit.bio's ioScreen platform service enables scientists to switch genes on or off, or modulate their activity, to better understand disease biology. Powered by bit.bio's ioCells, as well as other cell types, the ioScreen platform combines industrial-scale CRISPR screening with billions of consistent, mature human iPSC-derived cells. Unlike conventional screening approaches that often rely on immortalised cell lines, ioScreen is performed in human iPSC-derived cells, allowing researchers to study disease mechanisms in cell types that more closely reflect human biology.
“As bit.bio enters its next phase of growth, we're investing in both the leadership and technologies that will define the future of human first research and drug discovery,” said Dr Emma Pepperell, CEO at bit.bio. “Creating our first Chief Technology Officer role strengthens our executive team as we continue to scale the business and expand our portfolio. At the same time, the ioScreen platform removes many of the barriers that have historically limited access to high-quality functional genomics, enabling researchers to leverage the data without needing the expertise."
Emma Pepperell, PhD
CEO, bit.bio
CTO Sejla Salic-Hainzl added: “I'm honoured to take on the role of Chief Technology Officer at such an exciting point in bit.bio's growth. We've built deep expertise in applying human iPSC-derived cell models to functional genomics, helping researchers better understand disease biology in systems that more closely reflect human physiology. The ioScreen platform is an important step in bringing those capabilities to a much broader community of drug discovery teams, who can supplement their own expertise with ours. I'm excited to help shape bit.bio's technology strategy as we continue to accelerate the development of more predictive human biology tools.”
Sejla Salic-Hainzl
CTO, bit.bio
The service supports a broad range of applications, including drug target identification and validation, pathway analysis, mechanistic studies and disease modelling, helping pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies accelerate therapeutic discovery while improving confidence in the biological relevance of their findings.