Eikon’s drug discovery platform evolved from super-resolution microscopy, a ground-breaking approach to elucidating the behavior of proteins in live cells that was first developed by Eric Betzig and collaborators, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014 for this work.

Dr Betzig, Xavier Darzacq, Luke Lavis and Robert Tjian founded Eikon to industrialize this technology and to apply the tracking of protein dynamics to key applications across the drug discovery process.

In May 2021, Eikon announced that it had closed a $148 million Series A financing led by The Column Group with participation from Foresite Capital, Innovation Endeavors and Lux Capital. The company also revealed the appointment of industry veterran Roger Perlmutter as its new chief executive.