DRVision wins $1.4M NIH Grant to Develop Next Generation Subcellular Tracking Software LLC
Extends collaboration with Nikon Corporation and leading laboratories to develop worldclass subcellular tracking software
BELLEVUE, WA – December 2, 2009 – New time-lapse microscopy imaging systems and next generation fluorescent probes have enabled the visualization of rapid protein dynamics and molecular events. Quantitative characterization of these dynamic phenotypes could provide novel insights into disease formation and enable earlier and more effective interventions than those of traditional phenotypes using fixed and stained cells. Thus, there is a strong need for next generation high throughput tools that can be flexibly configured to accurately track and score dynamic characteristics at high volume in support of both basic (e.g. phenotyping) and applied research (e.g. drug discovery) in a broad range of subcellular applications.
DRVision Technologies LLC has received an up to three year, ~$1.4 million Phase II small business innovative research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to develop such a tool. The project will develop new technologies and software for the most challenging applications in the field of advanced image analysis – the accurate and highly automated tracking of subcellular components. Target applications include tracking of single molecules, vesicles, granules, virions, mitochondria, microtubules and others.The project involves close collaboration between DRVision, Nikon Corporation and leading scientists Takeharu Nagai and David Van Vactor, directors of the Nikon Imaging Centers at Hokkaido and Harvard Universities, respectively. Validation of the software will take place at Hokkaido and Harvard, as well as at additional collaborating laboratories at the University of Pittsburg, Loyola University Chicago, and the University of Washington.
“This project extends our highly synergistic business collaboration with Nikon Corporation who will act as our commercial partner. It links Nikon’s excellent network of imaging centers to create a development consortium for world-leading, next generation live cell assay technologies,” said Dr. James Lee, President and CEO of DRVision.
The project will extend DRVision’s unique soft tracking and structure motion decomposition technologies that will be brought to market in its flagship software SVCellTM, which is also marketed as Nikon’s CL-Quant software – a revolutionary solution platform for broad, high content and live cell image analysis. It is expected that the software will aid scientists in uncovering the basic mechanisms of many diseases, and in discovering novel therapies to cure them.
Two posters on DRVision’s automated subcellular tracking and kinetic recognition technologies will be presented at the 2009 American Society for Cell Biology conference in San Diego on December 7th and December 8th and DRVision staff will also be available at booth 700 to demonstrate the technologies and the SVCell software.
About DRVision Technologies LLC (Formerly SVision LLC)
DRVision develops and markets the next generation microscopy image analysis software, SVCell. SVCell enables scientists and technicians to teach recipes for high performance image segmentation, optimized measurement and accurate pattern classification. The teaching is fast, easy and intuitive, and the taught recipe can be easily updated to match evolving experimental protocols. The validated recipe can then be executed in a high throughput imaging assay with fast, accurate and robust performance comparable to custom written algorithms or “turnkey” systems.
DRVision is a technological innovator with 31 issued 1 allowed and 15 pending US patents in high-speed image processing, pattern recognition, machine vision, automatic learning, spatial reasoning and data mining. Since 1999, DRVision has been pioneering the use of learning technology in a broad range of practical image recognition applications. SVCell development is partially funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under multiple Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) programs.
For more information, visit svcell.com.