GE Healthcare to acquire Issaquah’s Applied Precision
May 10, 2011
Tony Kreipe, an applications scientist at Applied Precision in Issaquah, confirms the light path alignment, resolution and contrast specifications on one of the company’s Delta Vision Elite with TruLight optical microscopes. By Greg Farrar
GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Co., announced plans April 28 to acquire Issaquah-based Applied Precision, a biomedical imaging systems company and local innovator.
The acquisition is meant to allow GE Healthcare to offer additional products and services for pharmaceutical and life science research. The companies said the agreement should offer significant long-term customer benefits. The parties did not disclose the financial terms of the sale.
GE Healthcare plans to retain the Applied Precision facility in Issaquah — 50,000 square feet along 12th Avenue Northwest in the business district. Applied Precision employs about 130 people in Issaquah. If regulators approve the deal, the acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of the year.
Applied Precision develops and manufactures high-resolution and super-resolution microscopy instruments featuring software and data visualization tools to allow scientists to gather detailed information about cells’ structure and behavior.
The company supplies high-end and high-tech microscopes and other equipment to pharmaceutical giants, medical research institutes and universities, including the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
GE Healthcare to acquire Issaquah’s Applied Precision
April 28, 2011
NEW — 10 a.m. April 28, 2011
GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Co., announced plans Thursday to acquire Issaquah-based Applied Precision, a biomedical imaging systems company and local innovator.
The acquisition is meant to allow GE Healthcare to offer additional products and services for pharmaceutical and life science research. The companies said the agreement should offer significant long-term customer benefits. The parties did not disclose the financial terms of the sale.
GE Healthcare plans to retain the Applied Precision facility in Issaquah — 50,000 square feet along 12th Avenue Northwest in the business district. Applied Precision employs about 130 people in Issaquah. If regulators approve the deal, the acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of the year.
Applied Precision develops and manufactures high-resolution and super-resolution microscopy instruments featuring software and data visualization tools to allow scientists to gather detailed information about cells’ structure and behavior.
Applied Precision pioneers technology to fight disease
February 22, 2011
The cutting-edge technology to help scientists decipher AIDS, cancer and other diseases is manufactured in Issaquah.
The biomedical imaging systems company Applied Precision supplies high-end and high-tech microscopes and other equipment to pharmaceutical giants, medical research institutes and universities, including the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
Tony Kreipe, an applications scientist at Applied Precision in Issaquah, confirms the light path alignment, resolution and contrast specifications on one of the company’s Delta Vision Elite with TruLight optical microscopes. By Greg Farrar
Applied Precision relies on about 130 employees to churn out breakthrough after breakthrough from a little more than 50,000 square feet along 12th Avenue Northwest in the business district.
“We think it’s really important for the U.S. not just to be a service industry,” Joe Victor, president and CEO — and a longtime employee — said late last week. “We need to be designers and manufacturers of things as well. We’re proud to be a designer and manufacturer of equipment, half of which is exported around the world.”
Issaquah Chamber of Commerce leaders singled out in the company in the recent Innovation in Issaquah contest.
Restorix Health hyperbaric chamber leads to space-age medical research
February 15, 2011
Mention hyperbaric chambers, and most people start thinking about pressurized rooms where scuba divers afflicted with the bends go to recover.
But the chambers can be used for much more, and Issaquah’s Restorix Health plans to participate in hyperbaric treatment and research to find other medical uses for the pressurized chambers.
“We think there is great potential nationwide for what they’re doing and what they started in Issaquah,” Issaquah Chamber of Commerce CEO Matt Bott said, congratulating it for receiving one of the chamber’s three Innovation in Issaquah awards.
Restorix Health Medical Director Latisha Smith shows one of the clinic’s six hyperbaric chambers. Restorix Health’s model of comprehensive care and research helped it receive an Innovation in Issaquah award. By Laura Geggel
Restorix Health, which opened in Issaquah in December, has grand ambitions for its comprehensive health care delivery system. With six hyperbaric chambers, it has the largest collection of large monoplace chambers in the country. The chambers deliver oxygen with an increased atmospheric pressure, and can help heal patients with diverse maladies, including diabetic patients who have dying tissue deprived of its regular dose of oxygen.
“By putting your whole body under pressure, we dissolve oxygen into the liquid part of your body,” Medical Director Tommy Love said.
Increased oxygen levels can stimulate different responses in the body, including faster healing and increased stem cells, Medical Director Latisha Smith said.
Democracy Live shifts ballots from polling place to the digital age
February 8, 2011
Most voters pick up a pamphlet from the mailbox or steer to a county or state elections website to study candidates and issues before Election Day.
The process of researching ballot issues and mailing a ballot is not so easy for residents living abroad and military members deployed overseas.
Bryan Finney, founder and president of Democracy Live, describes a webpage that shows ballot measures and office candidates. By Greg Farrar
“You think about the soldier out there in Kandahar, you know, he’s fighting for our right to vote and our democracy and, ironically, he’s the one guy who can’t vote,” Democracy Live founder Bryan Finney said.
The endless chatter from cable TV pundits and countless jokes on late-night TV in the 36 days after the disputed 2000 presidential election inspired Finney to create a better process to elect leaders. The former U.S. Senate staffer had created a dot-com startup, so he melded the skills to launch Democracy Live.
The result is a technology firm dedicated to simplifying elections for military voters overseas and disabled voters in the United States. The technology the Issaquah company offers is light years distant from infamous butterfly ballots and indecipherable chads.
“Here it is, the late 20th century and we still can’t figure out how to count votes,” Finney said. “So, I got involved with modernizing the balloting systems and voting technologies that were out there to try to rid the world of hanging chads and butterfly ballots.”
The company’s signature product, LiveBallot, is not online voting. The tool allows voters to print, mail and track ballots.
Press Editorial
February 1, 2011
Innovative companies create community pride
Innovation is alive and well in the Issaquah business community. The Issaquah Chamber of Commerce presented awards to the top three nominees from a field of 23 companies and nonprofit organizations at its monthly luncheon last week to kick off its Innovation in Issaquah program, celebrating businesses that demonstrate innovative strategies in services, products or practices.
The winners are relatively unknown businesses in Issaquah, yet all three are making a difference globally. All three will elevate Issaquah as a great place to do business, well beyond the storefront.
Attorney General Rob McKenna challenges businesses to innovate
November 16, 2010
Enlisting the political magnetism of state Attorney General Rob McKenna, the Issaquah Chamber of Commerce kicked off a three-month program focused on innovation Oct. 27.
Throughout his local talk, McKenna focused on the necessity of innovation, locally, statewide and nationally, before he answered questions about his talk.
He praised Issaquah companies, like Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria, Democracy Live, Restorix/Innovative Health and SearchMarketMe, for their innovation, and congratulated the city for attracting Dataram Corp., a manufacturer of computer memory, storage products and software. Dataram announced last week it would open a development and testing facility in Issaquah.
“Now, why did they decide to come here for their testing and development?” McKenna asked. “Simple, they said, because there is a rich technology talent pool and a welcoming business climate.”
As about 60 chamber members lunched on chicken salad and iced tea at the Hilton Garden Inn in Issaquah, chamber Chairman Chris Hysom introduced McKenna, the 17th attorney general to serve Washington. Voters elected McKenna, a former King County councilman, in 2004 and again in 2008. McKenna is considered a potential Republican candidate for governor in 2012.
