Fujifilm is investing in PhenoVista Biosciences to gain access to the San Diego-based CRO’s imaging-based assay services.
The Japanese conglomerate’s investment was made through its Life Sciences Corporate Venture Capital fund, which was established in February with an initial amount of about $60 million. The amount invested in PhenoVista wasn’t disclosed.
The funding is targeted to help support the development of new “high-content screening assay services that uses Fujifilm’s iCell differentiated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and PhenoVista’s cutting-edge imaging technologies,” the company said in a Dec. 13 press release.
Assays that use iPSCs can monitor complex intracellular functions such as cell health, mitochondrial health and synapse formation in individual human cells that are involved in disease progression.
“The investment through the LS-CVC fund consolidates the partnership with PhenoVista to accelerate pioneering the field of iPSC-derived services, which helps ensure that more patients get new treatments they need faster,” Takatoshi Ishikawa, general manager of Fujifilm’s life sciences strategy headquarters, said in the release.
PhenoVista, which was founded in 2014, provides customized, imaging-based, phenotypic assay services for customers from local startups to multinational organizations.