Dotmatics Acquires M-Star to Expand Presence in Bioprocessing and Chemicals & Materials Markets

M-Star Press Release

The 13th Acquisition Extends the Reach of its Multimodal Platform for Life Sciences Research & Development

M-Star’s Computational Fluid Dynamics Software leverages GPU Acceleration to Quickly and Efficiently Simulate Complex Fluid Dynamics Environments

Boston, MA, January 4, 2024 Dotmatics, a leader in R&D scientific software connecting science, data, and decision-making, today announced the acquisition of M-Star, a leading computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software company headquartered outside of Baltimore, Maryland. The deal marks the 13th acquisition by Dotmatics expanding its comprehensive, multimodal platform for life sciences research & development and extending its product capabilities in chemicals and materials sciences. The addition of M-Star provides additional opportunities for innovation in the bioprocessing market including the manufacturing of cell and gene therapies in life sciences R&D.

“M-Star is known for its differentiated CFD analysis product, featuring accelerated analysis capabilities, superior user experiences, and rapid time-to-value compared to other market solutions,” said Thomas Swalla, CEO of Dotmatics. “Customers love that the software streamlines the process of managing complex fluid dynamics simulations by helping to get the ‘recipe’ right in a simulated environment before the physical environment, saving them significant time and budget.”

Built to leverage GPU acceleration, M-Star allows for faster simulation times, which is critical for modeling processes that span from seconds to hours of runtime. This results in completed simulations in a fraction of the time compared to traditional modeling approaches. Additionally, M-Star is equipped with integrated post-processing tools that allow for real-time data analysis and photorealistic rendering, facilitating a deeper understanding of simulation results. This integration extends to enterprise systems, allowing for easy connections to existing databases and customization of simulation setups and reports.

The M-Star CFD software simplifies setup and execution of complex fluid dynamics simulations, allowing users to optimize processes in a simulated environment before implementation in the physical world. With a focus on user-friendly operation, the software eliminates traditional volume meshing steps, enabling users to concentrate on defining essential physical modeling parameters. 

Faster analysis capabilities are driven by M-Star’s use of GPU-native algorithms, such as the lattice-Boltzmann method (LBM) for modeling fluid flow, local and explicit time-stepping algorithms for modeling conduction, and bounding volume hierarchy (BVH)-based neighbor search algorithms for particle collisions.

M-Star is led by its founder and president John Thomas who holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon and an MBA from Georgetown. M-Star will remain a standalone business within Dotmatics and its customers and partners can expect Dotmatics to help M-Star accelerate the impact, growth, and mission of its business in ways that are consistent with Dotmatics’ mission to accelerate scientific discoveries to make the world a healthier, cleaner, safer place to live.

"Joining the Dotmatics family provides us with new opportunities to grow and scale,” said John Thomas. “We’ll have access to new financial and business development resources as well as a strategic partner with insights and ideas that will benefit M-Star and our customers.”

Dotmatics will participate in the 42nd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, January 8-11, 2024, in San Francisco, CA. To schedule a meeting with Dotmatics executives and corporate development team, please contact corpdev@dotmatics.com

About Dotmatics

Dotmatics is a leader in R&D scientific software connecting science, data, and decision-making. Its enterprise R&D platform and scientists’ favorite applications drive efficiency and accelerate innovation. More than 2 million scientists and 10,000 customers trust Dotmatics to help them create a healthier, cleaner, safer world. Dotmatics is a global team of more than 800 people dedicated to supporting its customers in over 180 countries. The company’s principal office is in Boston, with 14 offices and R&D teams located around the world.

Dotmatics is backed by Insight Partners, a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software scaleup companies. Learn more about Dotmatics, its platform, and applications including GraphPad Prism, Geneious, SnapGene, Protein Metrics, and LabArchives at https://www.dotmatics.com.

Media Contacts

Cory Edwards
Vice President
Corporate Communications
Dotmatics
(801) 386-1960
cory.edwards@dotmatics.com

Jerome Combes-Knoke
Senior Vice President
Strategy & Corporate Development
Dotmatics
corpdev@dotmatics.com