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IDEA Bio-Medical Ltd. and The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) announced today that they have completed the sale of IDEA Bio-Medical's breakthrough Hermes WiScan® system to MUSC's Center for Drug Discovery.

Hermes WiScan® is a breakthrough biological cell imaging desktop system that enables researchers, at all levels, to run a wide variety of biological applications at the push-of-a-button, using an extremely easy-to-use (tablet-style) touchscreen mechanism. "Our goal was to develop a cell-imaging system that would really bring down the cost of biomedical and pharmaceutical R&D and reduce the time and improve the output of drug discovery processes. It had to combine High Throughput with High Content, to be very competitively priced, and to be easy enough for researchers at all levels to use," said Shlomo Turgeman, CEO of IDEA Bio-Medical. The company offers a base system that meets most research needs, and an additional set of modular packages like Live Cell, Object Mapping, and more.

Hermes WiScan® fits into the university's focus on innovative research and use of advanced technologies and creative ideas to achieve its goals and its mission. "We own larger and more expensive systems, but they are difficult to use and don't meet all of our needs. Hermes is about the size of a large printer, processes information with incredible speed, and performs a wide variety of cell-based experiments that meet our overall research needs," said Patrick M. Woster, who is the South Carolina SmartState^TM Endowed Chair for Drug Discovery at MUSC and Director of the Drug Design and Synthesis core facility.

WiScan® technology originated at Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science and at IDEA Bio-Medical's parent company IDEA Machine Development, and was further developed by IDEA Bio-Medical as part of a commercialization agreement with YEDA - the Institute's technology transfer arm. The result was a revolutionary High-Definition, Automated Cell Imaging systems called WiScan® and an Image Analysis Platform called WiSoft®. WiScan®, comprised of two products: Hermes and Argus, combines two screening strategies: High Content, and High Throughput. Together with WiSoft®, the system provides an advanced rapid harvesting tool for complex biomedical information from primary and secondary screens and shows major improvements of up to 20 times in screening rates and screening set-up.


About IDEA Bio-Medical Ltd.
IDEA Bio-Medical was established in 2007 as a spin-off from IDEA Machine Development - a 17-year-old Original Design Manufacturer that specializes in the manufacture of precision optics and laser-based technologies in the fields of defense, semiconductors, PCB, Flat Panel Displays, digital printing, and gemology. The company boasts such clients as HP, KLA-Tencor, Elbit Systems, Orbotech, Lazar Kaplan and others. IDEA Bio-Medical is an outcome of a commercialization agreement between its parent company and Yeda - the technology transfer arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

For more information visit www.idea-bio.com or call Ilan Friedman at +972 (0) 73-273-2452.

About The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)
Founded in 1824 in Charleston, The Medical University of South Carolina is the oldest medical school in the South. Today, MUSC continues the tradition of excellence in education, research, and patient care. MUSC educates and trains more than 3,000 students and residents, and has nearly 11,000 employees, including 1,500 faculty members. As the largest non-federal employer in Charleston, the university and its affiliates have collective annual budgets in excess of $1.7 billion. MUSC operates a 750-bed medical center, which includes a nationally recognized Children's Hospital, the Ashley River Tower (cardiovascular, digestive disease, and surgical oncology), and a leading Institute of Psychiatry.

For more information on academic or clinical services, visit www.musc.edu or www.muschealth.com or call Patrick M. Woster, Ph.D. in the MUSC Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences at +1 843-876-2453.