PITTSBURGH--Cellomics, a company here whose drug discovery technology platform includes proprietary bioinformatics software, has raised $10.5 million in private venture funding. The venture syndicate was led by InterWest Partners and Axiom Venture Partners, along with Delphi Ventures and Oxford Bioscience Partners. Gerard Klauer Mattison served as investment consultants.
Previous investors in the company, which was formerly known as BioDx, include Carl Zeiss, Komasta Properties, Tycho Investors, and the founders. Cellomics focuses on cell-based screening technologies for target validation and lead optimization for new drug candidates. The company offers an integrated screening platform that includes fluorescence assays, a high-content screening system, and bioinformatics software, all designed to provide detailed biological information about a drug candidate's physiological effects on specific cellular targets.
In addition, Cellomics announced, it is developing a proprietary database product and what it called a "next-generation, cell-based screening platform," known as the CellChip System, plus the company will comarket an ultrahigh-throughput screening system, as well as its high-content screening system, through an exclusive, worldwide alliance with Carl Zeiss Jena. Cellomics was founded by Lansing Taylor, Alan Waggoner, Terry Dunlay, Michel Nederlof, John Boles, and LeRoy Metz.