Double Helix, a Boulder-based startup, is in the midst of expanding its 3-D nano-imaging technology to new markets thanks to an investment from Luminate, which assists optics and imaging technology start-ups.
Originally developed at the University of Colorado-Boulder labs, the company’s 3-D technology Spindle enhances the capabilities of common optical instruments like microscopes and cameras. The Spindle accessory can be attached to an instrument and converts 2-D images into 3-D.
Double Helix’s co-founder and CEO, Leslie Kimerling, said Spindle could revolutionize scientific research and drug development and discovery, allowing scientists to study the structures of viruses and bacteria and the details of cancer cells in their entirety at the level of individual proteins and DNA.
“The physics of optics has limited our abilities in the past, but our technology has broken through that barrier to offer 10 times the imaging resolution,” Kimerling said. “We allow you to see the world at its smallest.”
Earlier this year, Double Helix was chosen from a pool of 125 startups as a recipient of one of Luminate’s $1 million investments, which comes with extensive business training. After collaborating with Luminate and a cohort of similar startups throughout a six-month curriculum, the company plans to use the funds to expand their outreach and continue to extend their technology into the field of robotics.
Double Helix is based out of the Biofrontiers Institute at CU that aims to bring various disciplines of science and engineering together to tackle critical challenges in the sphere of bioscience.