Berkeley Lights raises $95 million

Berkeley Lights has raised $95 million in financing from the camera and microscope maker Nikon and several venture capital firms to develop cell-therapy manufacturing machines. The firm was founded in 2011 on the basis of optofluidics research by University of California, Berkeley, engineer Ming C. Wu. Berkeley Lights currently sells instruments that use light to manipulate cells on nanofluidic chips. It’s now incorporating the same technology into a machine, about the size of two refrigerators, to automate the production and multiplication of cancer cell therapies.