From AZ BioScience Sources
For TNAZ BioScience Special
TEMPE – Alan Nelson has spent the last 40 years away from his native Arizona advancing science for the early detection of cancer. Now he is moving his company with its state-of-the-art technology to downtown Phoenix in an effort to save patients from an almost certain, quick death from lung cancer.
VisionGate's Cell-CT technology generates a high resolution, 3-D image of cells to detect cancer. The company is focused on finding lung cancer before the patient is symptomatic. Otherwise, that cancer is almost always a death sentence.
VisionGate could entice other bioscience companies to move to Greater Phoenix, said Robert Green, the president and CEO of the Arizona BioIndustry Association. "The fact that we have these cutting-edge technologies is a great draw for other companies that want to take advantage of that," Green said.
VisionGate is reportedly being considered for initial public offering (IPO) by national investment firms. NeoPath, Inc. is another cancer-diagnostics company which Dr. Nelson led through IPO in 1996. Following its acquisition by AutoCyte, Inc., Nelson began VisionGate in 2000.
The company's move from Seattle to the Phoenix Biomedical Campus will be complete in a couple of months. Through a deal with Phoenix officials, other public researchers will be able to use the company's technology.