Montana Molecular (the Company) was founded in 2004 to develop and commercialize fluorescent proteins (FPs) for live cell imaging applications. The technology that underlies this effort was originally conceived by Thomas Hughes at Yale University. Dr. Hughes is now the head of the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience at Montana State University. The Company has used this technology to develop several new read-outs for pharmaceutical and biotechnology applications, including genetically encoded fluorescent markers, a system for detecting protein-protein interaction, and biosensors for cell-based high throughput drug discovery.

Montana Molecular was recently awarded two federal STTR grants. The first, from the National Science Foundation, was funded in July 2007. In an astonishingly short time to market, a new set of fluorescent probes for live cell imaging was just released in partnership with Invitrogen Corporation under the trade name Cellular Lights. The second award, from the National Institutes of Health, is supporting the development of new molecular sensors for manipulating and imaging the cells in the brain that control the nervous system. In the words of one reviewer, "This project is highly innovative and has the strong likelihood of developing exciting new tools to study nerve networks."

Montana Molecular's patent portfolio includes PCT International Application No. PCT/US2006/037933, "System for Detecting Protein-Protein Interactions".