Profile: Vergent Bioscience is a clinical stage biotech company developing innovative imaging probes and tracers for life science research, biopharma drug development and clinical diagnostics. Our focus is on imaging probes that detect cell death (specifically apoptosis) in disease, with applications in screening, toxicology and efficacy studies. Apoptosis is important to many areas of study, including embryonic development, mechanisms of disease, drug development and cell signaling. The imaging probes provide critical information during screening, toxicology and efficacy studies. CAS-MAP™ in vitro assays are based on fluorescent inhibitors of caspases that quantitate apoptosis based on the activity of caspases in cultured cells. One of the hallmark features of apoptosis is activated caspases, which are a family of cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteases that are an essential mechanism to the apoptotic cell death process.