NEW YORK – Fluorescent dye maker Phitonix said today that it has raised $2 million in a seed funding round.
The Durham, North Carolina-based firm has developed a nanotechnology platform that allows precise engineering of fluorescent nanoparticles called Phitons with specific optical properties to provide high-resolution analysis of single cells by high-throughput flow cytometry.
Phitonex said that the seed round was led by private investors.
"This commitment not only enables us to scale and take our labels to market but also gives us the chance to expand and accelerate our development of precision molecular-scale optics for various applications in need of high-resolution biology," Phitonex CSO and Cofounder Chris Dwyer said in a statement.
According to the firm, its currently available NovaFluor fluorescent labels — which are for research use only — provide several major benefits, including adjustable brightness, quantitative analysis, and stability.
Phitonex said it will release NovaFluor tests kits for multicolor staining later this year and anticipates releasing more labels in the future.
"Advances in hardware and software have outpaced current dye technology and created a critical need for a rapid increase in high-performance fluorescent labels to enable more questions per individual cell" Phitonex Cofounder Alvin Lebeck said in a statement. "Our Phiton platform and labels meet this opportunity with the right technology, at the right time, and bring new capabilities to extant hardware while lowering the barrier to entry to single cell analysis,"