PerkinElmer acquires in vivo molecular imaging developer VisEn Medical to emphasize cell research

Waltham, MA-based PerkinElmer, Inc. has acquired VisEn Medical, Inc., an in vivo molecular imaging technology company based in Bedford, MA, to enhance its cellular imaging business by expanding the Company's technologies and capabilities downstream into preclinical research undertaken in academic institutes and pharmaceutical companies. VisEn's proprietary fluorescence molecular imaging systems and reagents are currently used in applications involving research into cancer, inflammation, cardiovascular, skeletal and pulmonary diseases.

Richard Eglen, president, Bio-discovery at PerkinElmer, notes that their drug disovery product offering will expand through the addition of proprietary chemistries in the emerging and fast-growing space of translational biomarker reagents.

The VisEn offering includes its Fluorescence Agent Portfolio and its Fluorescence Molecular Tomographic (FMT) Imaging Systems. These technologies provide quantitative molecular imaging data that can be useful for identifying and characterizing a range of disease biomarkers and therapeutic efficacy in cells and animal models. This cellular imaging approach, combined with PerkinElmer technologies, can enable screening and optimization of potential new drugs, through translational biomarker research. This can provide an increased correlation of isolated cellular activity with in vivo biological activity, which will allow researchers to get closer to understanding human responses and thereby develop potential therapies.