With roots in the research labs at North Carolina State University, ChromaGenix has opened a new $35 million, 6,500-square-foot research and development and manufacturing facility at NC State’s Centennial Campus.
ChromaGenix develops novel affinity ligands and purification resins to help biopharma manufacturers purify complex biologics more efficiently with improved yields. These ligands and resins are essential to gene and cell therapies, vaccines and other advanced biologics.
“This moment represents years of work, collaboration, and belief from our scientific founders, our employees, our investors, our partners, and the broader North Carolina life sciences community,” said Ryan Hutchinson, vice president for commercial development at ChromaGenix, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “ChromaGenix was founded on the idea that there’s a better way to manufacture ligand therapies. Today, with the opening of this facility, that vision takes another important step forward.”
NC State has partnered with ChromaGenix on research to expand the company’s ligand discovery platform. The five-year research project will seek to develop up to 10 novel ligands dedicated to the purification of emerging therapeutic modalities, including mRNA, plasmid DNA, exosomes and viral vectors for gene and cell therapies.
In April 2025, BioProcess360 Partners, a life sciences investment company, formed ChromaGenix through the transfer of intellectual property, assets and scientific personnel from LigaTrap Technologies, a company spun out of N.C. State. LigaTrap was based on research developed by Stefano Menegatti, a professor in the university’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
Attendees toured ChromaGenix's ligand manufacturing facility at its new offices on the NC State Centennial Campus.
“We have always believed our technology had the potential to compete with much larger players in the biotech space, and our participation in international consortia and growing client base gave us confidence in the strength of what we were building,” said Michael Crapanzano, M.D., co-founder of LigaTrap Technologies, in announcing the formation of ChromaGenix, of which he is a founder. “The ‘Think and Do’ mindset from NC State shaped us early on and that same spirit now lives on in ChromaGenix.”
Prof. Menegatti, ChromaGenix’s chief scientific officer, recently received the American Chemical Society 2025 BIOT Young Investigator Award. The Division of Biochemical Technology Young Investigator Award “recognizes an outstanding young contributor to the field of biochemical technology and an active participant in the division programs.” He was recognized for his groundbreaking studies of the mechanisms of peptide-protein biorecognition and his technological innovations in the field of affinity purifications of next-generation biotherapeutics.
“I am so excited to have this new company here,” said Jane Harrison, a Raleigh city council member. “This is a city of innovation, a city of entrepreneurship, and it’s all out of NC State.” Harrison also works on the NC State campus next door to ChromaGenix. “I love seeing the innovation that comes out of this campus.”
N.C. Commerce Sec. Lee Lilley also spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony and praised the university system and the entrepreneurial spirit of the company’s founders to take their research and ideas and create ChromaGenix.
“I congratulate ChromaGenix on what you’re doing today,” Lilley said.
In addition to the ribbon-cutting, ChromaGenix had a program with speakers and a manufacturing floor tour. A roundtable discussion, on the topic of key challenges of advanced modality biomanufacturing, included Prof. Menagatti; Sigma Mostafa, chief scientific officer, KBI Biopharma; Oliver Rammo, head of downstream applications chromatography R&D, Merck Life Sciences; Nripen Singh, executive director, process development, Novartis; Jacob Smith, head of technical development and CMC, Viralgen; and Laura Rowley, vice president of live science economic development, North Carolina Biotechnology Center.