The launch of Pixelgen Technologies follows the close of an approximate 6 million USD seed round, led by Navigare Ventures.

The founding will support the commercialization next year of the company’s Molecular Pixelation technology for spatial analyses of cell surface proteins in 3D.

“We are pioneering a completely new approach to spatial proteomics with Molecular Pixelation, which we view as a long-term foundational technology for spatial biology in cells and tissue,” says co-Founder and CEO Simon Fredriksson. “There are massive gaps in our understanding of cellular activity, and we aim to close those gaps by offering an unprecedented view of cell-surface proteins and their spatial inter-relationships.”

Molecular Pixelation

Molecular Pixelation is the only technology able to show spatial protein polarization and co-localization on the cell surface in a highly multiplexed manner, describes the company in a press release. To offer this level of deep cellular phenotyping, Molecular Pixelation uses oligo-conjugated antibodies and nucleic acid encoded pixels to identify and spatially locate cell surface proteins. After staining, cells are tagged with Pixelgen’s DNA pixels to map out the surface proteins’ locations. Next-gen sequencing enables the generation of a spherical and spatial map of cell surface proteins for each single cell.

“We believe the data generated by Molecular Pixelation will provide novel insights into basic biology, accelerate drug discovery and development, and lead to new and better diagnostics. We’re extremely excited to support Pixelgen on this journey,” says Navigare Ventures’ Investment Manager Alex Basu.

Founded in 2020

Pixelgen was founded in 2020 by Fredriksson, Alvaro Martinez Barrio, Fredrik Dahl, and Filip Karlsson. Fredriksson, a serial entrepreneur, was co-founder, CEO and chief science officer at the proteomics firm Olink, where he invented and commercialized the multiplexed Proximity Extension Assay. He also co-founded Genagon Therapeutics, an immuno-oncology company. Fredriksson will lead the executive team.

The company has assembled a world-class board and team of scientific advisors., it states. Serving on the board, in addition to Fredriksson and Martinez Barrio, are Chair Fredrik Dahl, a partner at Colibri Ventures and a biotech executive and entrepreneur, Björn Algkvist, CEO at Fibonacci Growth Capital AB and Alex Basu, Investment Manager at Navigare Ventures. Brad Crutchfield joins the board following his roles as chief commercial officer of 10x Genomics, and as an executive at companies including QIAGEN and Illumina

Photo of Simon Fredriksson, CEO and co-founder, Pixelgen Technologies