Houston-based DataJoint Expands to Accelerate Neuroscience Data Research
Houston, TX, July 20, 2021 — Neuroscience teams across the globe conducting data-intensive research to unlock how the brain works are getting a boost as DataJoint, the Houston-based data solutions startup, expands its suite of products and services that allows scientists to seamlessly use big data and computation driven by the latest neurotechnologies.
DataJoint’s growth mirrors Houston’s advancement as a top U.S. emerging life sciences hub. The privately held company was founded in 2016 as Vathes LLC by a team of neuroscientists at the Texas Medical Center. The startup develops its computational data framework for scaling automated data analysis in collaborative data-centric research in the life sciences and artificial intelligence research.
Over the past five years the company’s customer base has grown to include acclaimed neuroscience institutions such as the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and the Zuckerman Institute for Brain Science at Columbia University as well as international clients such as University College London (UCL) and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Paired with a growing client base, the company has established itself with grants from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative.
To position for the next stage of growth, the company’s Board converted the LLC into a C corporation earlier this year to allow the issuance of shares to founders and employees, as well as potential future investors. As part of this transition, company leadership also changed the name to simply DataJoint, recognizing that the company was best known for its suite of products. This month (July 2021), DataJoint is launching its rebranded website at https://datajoint.com, as well as notifying customers of the changes which will be reflected in its marketing material. Additional open-source products and resources developed by the company and other contributors with NIH funding will also be accessible via https://datajoint.org.
Dr. Dimitri Yatsenko, DataJoint's CEO and co-founder, pointed out, "In the early phases our company largely developed custom solutions for large well-funded multi-lab consortia.” Turning to the future he explained, “Our team is now translating this experience into a comprehensive data-centric research service platform that we call DataJoint SciOps (Scientific Operations). It will enable many more research teams to use these standardized and scalable solutions for collecting and analyzing complex data quickly and efficiently."
Another recently completed milestone was moving the company's office from the Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute (TMCx) to its current office in Houston’s Galleria area.
“We expect to grow the team in the coming months so moving to the new office allows us to design an energetic, collaborative, and creative environment for our employees,” according to Dr. Yatsenko. “The work we are tackling has our team truly excited about the future, particularly the capabilities being offered to the neuroscience community to understand how the brain forms perceptions and generates behavior."
About DataJoint
DataJoint is the principal developer of the DataJoint® software framework and associated resources for shared scientific databases and computational data pipelines. The company’s mission is to enable scientific research teams to solve the most complex problems in their fields by bringing scientific rigor and clarity to big data and computations. While these solutions are applicable to other domains, the company focuses on supporting research in neuroscience and artificial intelligence.
Media Contact
Dimitri Yatsenko — CEO, DataJoint - dimitri@datajoint.com
