Celsense, Inc. is a privately held biotechnology company offering pre-clinical and clinical-grade imaging agents used to non-invasively detect, identify, quantify, and monitor cells and cellular activity. The company is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 2005 to commercialize imaging platforms developed at Carnegie Mellon University.
Celsense makes proprietary imaging agents for cell trafficking using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques. The company’s products are used primarily to understand regenerative medicine, immunotherapy, inflammation, and immune system response. There are over 100 peer reviewed articles in the academic literature describing cell trafficking in vivo using Celsense products. The first clinical trial involving the use of Cell Sense CS-1000 was completed in 2014. Additional clinical trials are pending in the US and Canada.
Cell Sense: is a fluorocarbon tracer agent used to safely and efficiently label cells ex vivo without the use of transfection agents. Labeled cells are transplanted into the patient enabling researchers and clinicians to non-invasively track the administration and migration of therapeutic and/or diagnostic cells using 19F MRI or MRS. Applications include tracking cells in immunotherapy or regenerative medicine as well as diagnosis of inflammatory sites by tracking selected populations of immune cells. Investigators can quantify the number of labeled cells in a user-specified region of interest. It is expected that in vivo cellular imaging will routinely be used to provide a surrogate biomarker for certain cell therapy and drug trials.
V-Sense: an injectable fluorocarbon MRI tracer agent that labels leukocytes in situ, enabling the direct, non-invasive observation of immune system response and localized inflammation. Applications include observing change in immune system response to therapeutics and mapping localized disease such as certain cancers and infections. V-Sense can also be used to detect the partial pressure of oxygen in tissues, a useful biomarker in cancer research and treatment.
Voxel Tracker: a software product for use with Celsense imaging reagents. The Voxel Tracker software program enables visualization and quantification of MRI-labeled cells. The image processing toolbox fuses and visualizes three-dimensional 1H and 19F images. Computational tools enable cell or inflammation quantification in regions of interest.
Current members of the board of directors of Celsense are: Charles F. O’Hanlon, III, Thomas Petzinger, Jr., Paul Kornblith, Jeffrey S. Friedman, Daniel P. Gallagher, L. Gerald Tarantino, and Gregory T. Hebrank.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President: Charles F. O'Hanlon, III
Chairman of the Board of Directors: Paul Kornblith
Controller: Lourdes M. Castellanos
