MassDevelopment, the Commonwealth's development and finance agency focusing on stimulating economic growth, provided an $800,000 Emerging Technology Fund Working Capital Loan to CryoXtract Instruments, a Woburn, Mass-based firm that develops and manufactures automated lab solutions to protect critical frozen biological samples.

MassDevelopment said loan proceeds will serve as an incentive to help expedite CryoXtract's commercialization efforts and support the company's planned expansion, adding several engineering, marketing, manufacturing, and administration jobs over the next 18 months.

"CryoXtract, located at 2 Constitution Way in Woburn, combines two of the Commonwealth's most vibrant industries: the life sciences and advanced manufacturing," said MassDevelopment President and CEO Marty Jones. "Through the Emerging Technology Fund, MassDevelopment is pleased to support innovations and new jobs at these cutting-edge businesses."

CryoXtract's discoveries protects advancements in molecular medicine. CryoXtract's one-of-a-kind Frozen Sample Aliquotting technology offers the only means to repeatedly extract critical research samples without exposing them to damaging freeze-thaw cycles that degrade their integrity.

"We are seeing rapidly growing interest in our unique automated solutions. The availability of high-quality biosamples is one of the most critical challenges and limiting factors to contemporary research, biomarker discovery, and personalized medicine, said Jorge de Dios, CryoXtract's CEO.

"The research, biopharma, and biobanking communities understand that our technology's ability to protect sample quality can bolster the success of critical research studies. This loan from MassDevelopment is a very important way to propel our growth plans and expand our research and Development, marketing and manufacturing activities in 2012 and beyond," he added.