Visikol
Visikol is a specialty CRO and reagent brand (within MatTek/Sartorius) offering proprietary tissue-clearing reagents, 3D imaging, ML-based image analysis, and in vitro assay services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, cosmetic, and academic customers for preclinical drug discovery.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1985
- HeadquartersWhitehouse Station, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Visikol does
Visikol is a specialty contract research organization and reagent brand focused on digital pathology, 3D tissue imaging, and 3D cell culture assays for preclinical drug discovery. Its core technology centers on proprietary tissue-clearing reagents — Visikol HISTO and HISTO-M — that render intact tissues optically transparent for 3D microscopic visualization, supported by buffer reagents, brain slicer instruments, and a portfolio of pre-validated histological and immunofluorescence panels (including multiplexed biomarker detection). The company pairs these reagents with fee-for-service offerings spanning digital pathology, ML-assisted image segmentation and classification, biomarker quantification, and a comprehensive in vitro assay menu (3D HepaRG liver co-culture, blood-brain barrier permeability, hepatotoxicity, cancer drug screening, high-content screening, and toxicology).
Visikol's commercial model rests on two pillars: (1) research product sales — consumables, reagents, and HUREL hepatocytes across eight species (human, mouse, rat SD, rat WH, dog, cat, minipig, primate, rabbit) plus Micro Livers and ZooPlates — distributed via direct enterprise sales, an online store, and a global distributor network; and (2) professional services revenue from custom CRO engagements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers, with secondary demand from cosmetic/personal care companies (for OECD-aligned skin and eye irritation assays) and academic research institutions. Pricing is consultation-based and not publicly disclosed.
The business is now embedded within MatTek, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sartorius AG (Frankfurt: SAR), a publicly traded global life science group. Founded in 1985 by MIT scientists, MatTek provides Visikol with established distribution, regulatory-grade assay infrastructure, and a multinational sales footprint — including US (Ashland, MA) and European operations — that a standalone sub-50-employee specialty CRO could not independently replicate. Visikol operates as the tissue clearing and advanced imaging brand within this broader Sartorius portfolio.
Visikol firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Visikol
- Legal name
- Mattek
- Website
- https://visikol.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1985
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Visikol is a specialty CRO and reagent brand (within MatTek/Sartorius) offering proprietary tissue-clearing reagents, 3D imaging, ML-based image analysis, and in vitro assay services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, cosmetic, and academic customers for preclinical drug discovery.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Visikol industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Contract Research & Drug Discovery Services
- NAICS
- Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing (3254), Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516)
- SIC
- Pharmaceutical Preparations (2834)
- akta.pro primary industry
- In Silico / Computational Toxicology & PK/PD Modeling (HLAGAFAM)
Keywords
Where Visikol is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Whitehouse Station
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Visikol business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Research Products: Sale of tissue clearing reagents (Visikol HISTO, Visikol HISTO-M), buffers, brain slicers and related consumables for life science research
- Histological and Imaging Services: Fee-for-service laboratory services including digital pathology, immunofluorescent panels, and multiplex IHC analysis
- In Vitro Contract Research: Drug discovery and toxicity screening services including hepatotoxicity assays, cancer drug screening, high content screening, and pharmacokinetics studies
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | Consultation-based pricing for research products and services |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels4 records
Visikol product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Visikol is a contract research organization and product brand under MatTek (a Sartorius subsidiary) that supplies proprietary tissue clearing reagents (Visikol HISTO, HISTO-M, buffers, brain slicers) and the HUREL line of multi-species hepatocyte and liver models. It also provides fee-for-service histology, multiplex immunofluorescence, machine-learning image analysis, and in vitro drug discovery assays (toxicology, cancer screening, blood-brain barrier, 3D liver co-culture) for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, cosmetic, and academic life science research customers.
Product overview
Visikol is a product portfolio within Mattek (a company now part of Sartorius) offering a unified platform of tissue clearing reagents, hepatocyte products, and specialized services for in vitro drug discovery and toxicity testing. The portfolio consists of three main product lines: (1) Visikol® tissue clearing products (HISTO™, HISTO-M™, Buffers, and Brain Slicers) that enable unprecedented 3D visualization of tissues; (2) HUREL® hepatocyte products spanning multiple species (Human, Human Pool, Mouse, Rat SD, Rat WH, Dog, Cat, Minipig, Primate, Rabbit) plus Micro Livers and ZooPlates for drug metabolism and hepatotoxicity studies; and (3) Visikol services including Histological Services (digital pathology, immunofluorescence), Image Analysis Services (with machine learning capabilities), In Vitro Services (3D liver models, blood-brain barrier assays, cancer screening), and Therapeutic Area-focused drug discovery programs. These products work together to provide researchers with comprehensive human-relevant in vitro testing solutions from tissue imaging through to cellular assays and drug efficacy/toxicity assessment.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Visikol: Tissue clearing reagents and supporting materials providing researchers with enhanced tissue characterization, including Visikol HISTO, Visikol HISTO-M, Visikol HISTO Buffers, and Visikol Brain Slicers. Also encompasses Visikol Histological Services, Visikol Image Analysis Services, Visikol In Vitro Services, and Visikol Therapeutic Areas.
Products and services
- Visikol HISTO
Companies that use Visikol
Customer profileSegments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Visikol technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability2 records
Feature9 records
Visikol partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators1 record
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Visikol competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Cell Signaling Technology: CST provides validated antibodies and IHC/IF reagents for tissue-based research — directly comparable to Visikol's pre-validated multiplex immunofluorescence panels and standard histological services for the same academic and pharma end users.
- Bio-Techne: Bio-Techne sells proteins, antibodies, and reagents into pharma/biotech research labs — directly comparable to Visikol's tissue-clearing reagent catalog and HUREL hepatocyte products, with overlapping customers and a similar reagent-plus-services motion.
- LifeCanvas Technologies: LifeCanvas is a tissue-clearing reagent and services specialist directly competing with Visikol HISTO/HISTO-M in the 3D tissue imaging market, serving the same pharma and academic researchers with comparable clearing chemistries.
- Abcam: Abcam supplies research-grade antibodies and immunoassay reagents used in tissue imaging and IHC workflows that consume Visikol's clearing reagents and histological services, making it a peer in the life science research tools category.
- Miltenyi Biotec: Miltenyi offers tissue dissociation reagents, cell separation tools, and imaging reagents for cell biology research, overlapping with Visikol HISTO and Visikol's 3D cell culture assay offerings for pharma/biotech customers.
Broad incumbents
- PerkinElmer: PerkinElmer's life sciences segment supplies imaging reagents, high-content screening instruments, and analytics software — overlapping with Visikol's high content screening services and brain slicer/imaging workflow for pharma drug discovery.
- Charles River Laboratories: Charles River is a global preclinical CRO offering toxicology, DMPK, and safety assessment services that overlap directly with Visikol's in vitro hepatotoxicity and BBB permeability assays, but at much greater scale and GLP-accredited scope.
Emerging players
- Crown Bioscience: Crown Bioscience is a preclinical CRO specializing in oncology and metabolic disease models — overlapping with Visikol's oncology drug screening, NAFLD/NASH, and 3D HepaRG liver services for similar pharma/biotech customers.
- Akoya Biosciences: Akoya provides multiplexed spatial tissue imaging (Opal/CODEX) and image analysis software, directly comparable to Visikol's multiplexed immunofluorescence panels and ML image analysis services for biomarker quantification in tissue.
- 10x Genomics: 10x Genomics offers spatial transcriptomics and tissue imaging platforms (Visium, Xenium) that compete with Visikol's tissue-clearing-plus-ML workflow as an alternative way to extract spatial biology data from intact tissue samples.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights5 records
Customer concentration
Visikol social profiles
Digital presenceVisikol financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Visikol leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Visikol funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds9 records
Investors3 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Visikol M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Visikol
What does Visikol do?
Visikol is a contract research organization and product brand under MatTek (a Sartorius subsidiary) that supplies proprietary tissue clearing reagents (Visikol HISTO, HISTO-M, buffers, brain slicers) and the HUREL line of multi-species hepatocyte and liver models. It also provides fee-for-service histology, multiplex immunofluorescence, machine-learning image analysis, and in vitro drug discovery assays (toxicology, cancer screening, blood-brain barrier, 3D liver co-culture) for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, cosmetic, and academic life science research customers.
Is Visikol a public or private company?
Visikol is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Visikol founded?
Visikol was founded in 1985. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Visikol based?
Visikol is headquartered in Whitehouse Station, United States, in the North America region.
How does Visikol make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Research Products are the primary driver. The others are histological and Imaging Services and in Vitro Contract Research.
Who are Visikol's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Cell Signaling Technology, Bio-Techne, LifeCanvas Technologies, Abcam and Miltenyi Biotec. Broad incumbents are PerkinElmer and Charles River Laboratories. Emerging players are Crown Bioscience, Akoya Biosciences and 10x Genomics.
Does Visikol have an API?
No public API is recorded for Visikol.
What industry is Visikol in?
Visikol's product category is Contract Research & Drug Discovery Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAGAFAM, In Silico / Computational Toxicology & PK/PD Modeling. Its NAICS code is 3254 and its SIC code is 2834.