A startup developing and marketing 3-D cell culture plates and scaffolds for use in drug discovery, cancer research and biotesting is raising money and scaling up its distribution.
3D Biomatrix Inc. launched its Perfecta3D Hanging Drop Plates at the end of last year and recently secured more international distribution partners. It also has just raised $725,000 from 22 investors, according to recent regulatory filings. A call to the company wasn’t immediately returned.
According to the company, its products enable researchers to gather information about a drug’s behavior in early discovery and allows them to identify early on compounds that would fail later in the process.
Three-dimensional cell growth products better mimic the structure and cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions of the in-vivo environment than traditional 2-D surfaces do, but industry has been slow to adopt tools for 3-D cell growth, the company notes in a blog post. But there’s plenty of competition in the space — Nacalai USA, Life Technologies and Nano3D Biosciences are a few of the other companies making 3-D cell cultures.
Ann Arbor, Michigan-based 3D Biomatrix was also recently awarded a STTR grant from the NIH to develop a high throughput assay for metastatic prostate cancer using its drop plates. This work will facilitate the development of better drugs by providing a high throughput assay that mimics prostate cancer metastasized to bone, the company says.
Formed in 2010, 3D Biomatrix is part of the University of Michigan’s Venture Accelerator.
By Deanna Pogorelc MedCity News
Deanna Pogorelc is a Cleveland-based reporter who writes obsessively about life science startups across the country, looking to technology transfer offices, startup incubators and investment funds to see what’s next in healthcare. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ball State University and previously covered business and education for a northeast Indiana newspaper.More posts by Author
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