In January 2015, Fire Fly was acquired by AbCam PLC a Cambridge MA based entitiy that produces and distributes research-grade anti-bodies and associated products. Having originally received their SBIR awards as Elucigel Technologies, Firefly BioWorks, Inc. provides an open platform allowing industrial, academic and clinical scientists to develop and use multiplexed biological assays on standard laboratory instrumentation. The companys core technology, Optical Liquid Stamping, was developed in the Chemical Engineering Department at MIT (News - Alert) by Firefly co-founders. The method allows rapid and scalable synthesis of encoded, multi-functional particles for the quantification of biological function. The companys long-term vision is to provide research and clinical scientists with reliable and affordable solutions for the comprehensive monitoring of biological systems. The firm is listed as a spin-out of the MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation.
