The facility in Lincoln, Nebraska currently produces reagents and dyes for surgery.
As a result of the expansion - financial terms of which were not provided - it will now offer synthesis and conjugation services for the production of early-phase materials for trials.
Bambi Reynolds, senior business development manager, said the expansion will help “researchers and biotechs to conjugate fluorophores to their specific biomolecules.”
Reynolds added: “We have expanded our production facility to accommodate contract manufacturing for both pre-clinical and early phase clinical applications.”
She also said demand for LI-COR dye used during fluorescent-guided intra-operative surgery had increased.
Dye history
LI-COR (previously Lambda Instruments Corporation) was founded in 1971.
The company focuses on biological and environmental sciences, with documented experience in global climate change, cancer research, and small animal imaging.
LI-COR was one the first biotechnology companies to use near-infrared (NIR) technology as a detection method.
Near-infrared DNA sequencing technology was initiated by LI-COR in the early ‘90s, which prompted pre-clinical developments including protein and small animal NIR imaging.
These developments led to the introduction of two NIR dyes into the clinical trials using targeted NIR as a method for detecting and treating various cancer types.