Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, an organization that invests in up-and-coming biosciences companies in Southwestern Pennsylvania, has committed $150,000 to Celsense, a local company that was founded in 2005 to commercialize imaging platforms licensed from Carnegie Mellon University.
The privately held company will put the money toward bringing to market is flagship product, Cell Sense, an MRI tracer agent that labels cells in culture. When labeled cells are transferred to a living subject, the transplanted cells can be imaged in their anatomical context using MRI. It’s used to track, in real-time, the delivery, migration, duration and quantity of transplanted cells in vivo; this has the potential to speed up development of new therapies for a variety of diseases.
Celsense’s most recent financing, a Series A of $625,000, took place in April 2006. According to the company, the intent was to raise $500,000, but investor demand brought in more money than expected.