Visikol Inc. Launches Visikol® HISTO™ Platform for 3D Histology With Easy to Use Starter Kit

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Dec 06, 2016, 01:50 ET

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., Dec. 6, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Visikol Inc., originally funded with an investment from Foundation Venture Capital Group, has launched Visikol^® HISTO™, the market's first portfolio of tissue clearing kits and reagents that can integrate 3D imaging into existing tissue processing workflows.

The Visikol HISTO technology requires no special equipment to clear tissue and provides a rapid, non-destructive, easy-to-use process that allows any researcher to add a new dimension to his or her research with the power of tissue clearing.

"While there are currently several techniques which allow for the 3D imaging of tissues, many are very complex, time consuming and challenging to use. The difficulties with these approaches have limited their use by researchers so they have not been widely adopted into mainstream research," explained Michael Johnson, Visikol CEO. "Many who attempt to integrate clearing into their work soon find out it is a full-time project that drains valuable resources from the core research."

The Visikol team has been working on the technology for just over three years and recently led a highly successful beta-test of Visikol HISTO with more than 150 research labs across the United States.

"To provide a 3D imaging approach that any researcher can quickly adopt, we are introducing a Visikol HISTO Starter Kit that contains everything needed to obtain 3D images, except the researcher's antibody of choice. With our kit, 3D images can be obtained in days – not months," Johnson said.

Johnson explained that with the rise in popularity of the CLARITY technique and other tissue clearing techniques in the last few years, researchers have been excited by the ability to visualize whole tissues in 3D, but few have been able to implement these methods in their labs due to the technical complexity.

"Since the invention of the microscope four-hundred years ago, researchers have been limited to studying the complex three-dimensional nature of tissues using ultra-thin slices or very challenging clearing techniques, "explained Johnson. "The Visikol HISTO technology lowers the barrier to 3D imaging with the power and simplicity of Visikol HISTO tissue clearing, allowing easy access to traditionally difficult to obtain spatial data and enabling researchers to rapidly study complex biological processes in three dimensions."

Foundation Venture Capital Group Vice Chair & CEO George F. Heinrich, M.D. is impressed with the advances made by this young start-up.

"Foundation Venture Capital Group initially invested $500,000 in Visikol to advance its development of the Visikol^® technology," he said. "The excitement surrounding the beta-test and launch of Visikol HISTO demonstrates that the Visikol team is working on transformative research that can positively impact a wide-range of life sciences fields."

Visikol Inc. has exclusive rights to the patented Visikol technology through a license from Rutgers University. For more information contact Mike Wiley, vice president of Foundation Venture Capital Group, at [email protected] or (908) 731-6612.

About Visikol, Inc.
Visikol Inc. was founded in 2016 with a $500,000 seed investment from Foundation Venture Capital Group and has since been awarded a Phase I NSF SBIR grant. The company is focused on leveraging their core Visikol tissue clearing technology to develop bio-imaging platforms for 3D tissue imaging and developmental toxicology applications. Visit Visikol HISTO for more information.

About Foundation Venture Capital Group
Foundation Venture Capital Group, an affiliate of New Jersey Health Foundation, makes private equity investments to participate in establishing and managing health care start-up companies in New Jersey headed toward commercialization. In addition to Visikol, its portfolio companies currently include:

Actinobac Biomed Inc. developing a therapeutic agent targeting blood cells for the treatment of hematological malignancies such as leukemia and lymphomas
Affineti Biologics Inc. advancing research in the development of therapeutic and diagnostic products based on new discoveries in oral biology and dental medicine
Celvive Inc. working to develop technology to treat patients with chronic spinal cord injuries with their own adult stem cells
Durin Technologies working to develop a blood test to diagnose and assess severity of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases
GeneAssess Inc. developing the FRY gene as a predictive biomarker for breast and other cancers
MentiNova Inc. working to validate a drug that reduces the side effects of L-Dopa Induced Dyskinesia
NovoPedics Inc. developing an implantable meniscus replacement/regeneration medical device to restore mobility to patients suffering from severe meniscus knee injuries
Snowdon Pharmaceuticals Inc. a drug discovery company focused on several major therapeutic areas and providing computational tools to rapidly identify high-value molecules from their library of vendor-available compounds