Brief Description
Texas Fluorescence Labs was a reagent and assay technologies company, spun out of modern fluorescent calcium indicator discoveries at UC Berkeley. The company specialized in pioneering new approaches to ion channel and ion transporter-focused basic and translational research and provided reagents, assays, and assay development services to scientists, universities, and laboratories worldwide for research in biochemistry, biomolecular screening, microbiology, and neuroscience.
In 2018, UC Berkeley Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Roger Tsien shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of modern flourescence calcium indicators, and in 2023 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. These genetically programmable fluorescent tags allowed scientists to watch the behavior of molecules in living cells in real time, revolutionizing science and medicine by revealing cell behavior during diseases and in response to therapeutic drugs.
The company was founded by Dr. Akwasi Minta, who collaborated with Tsien at UC Berkeley to create the first visible wavelength fluorescent calcium indicators, called ‘Fluo’ from fluorescein and ‘Rhod’ from rhodamine. The company was born out of licensing other fluorescent calcium indicators called ‘Fura’ and ‘Indo’ made in Tsien's lab by UC Berkeley research chemist Dr. Gregorz Grynkiewicz.
Also known as TEFLabs Inc.
Timeline
- 1992. Company founded
- 2018. Company acquired by Ion Biosciences (formerly known as Ion Indicators), where Dr. Minta worked as research director until his retirement
Inventors
Grzegorz Grynkiewicz, Roger Tsien