New Jersey Biotech Startup Visikol Received $500,000 Investment from Foundation Venture Group

Biotech startup company Visikol Inc is established with focus on tissue visualization technology. On Tuesday, the company was reported to secure a $500,000 commitment from Foundation Venture Capital Group.

Founded in Rutgers University, Visikol Inc is established as biotech startup which developed a versatile bilogical clearing agent called Visikol. The agent is able to penetrates tissue and renders it transparent without causing structural damage and giving a visualization to the tissue.

CEO Michael Johnson is a PhD candidate in Rutgers who founded the company with his fellow PhD candidate Tom Villani, chief scientific officer. Together, Villani, Johnson and chief operating officer Nick Crider is leading the company.

"This biological clearing agent is transformative in its ability to easily, effectively and quickly clear animal and plant tissue," said CEO Johnson to PR Newswire. "Because it can clear whole tissue, it allows for 3-D visualization of tissue instead of the traditional slicing based 2-D visualization approach."

Tom Villani is the inventor of the tissue visualization technology, while he was a graduate student in Rutgers University. He was working with his professors James Simon and Adolfina Koroch when he invented the technology. James Simon is a distinguished professor of plant biology in Rutgers, while Adolfina Koroch is a visiting scientist.

Newswise reported James Simon's remark on the Visikol, "It's so rare and wonderful to see students develop such a high-value technology and take such a creative approach to commercializing this novel discovery."

The director of New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program in Rutgers University, New Jersey later added, "From its initial use in botany and quality control to replace chloral hydrate, we started to think about animal research and medical applications. That required the students to really stretch, dive into and study new scientific disciplines, and they never lost sight that commercialization had to be based on solid science coupled with a real business orientation. We are incredibly proud to watch them grow as scientists, how they've built this new company with a functional and market needed product from the start and more recently to see the new medical applications of Visikol. And for Villani and Johnson to be doing all this while they are doing their Ph.D. studies is simply remarkable."

This invention has made a mark in biotechnology investmet, the sectors which according to U.S. News & World Report as one of the most polarizing areas of the investment world. Biotech investment and stocks are often gambles for investors, offering the chance to win big or lose it all.

Biotech startup Visikol Inc has secured a $500,000 commitment from Foundation Venture Capital Group. The company will continue to develop its patented tissue visualization.