Molecular Probes was a biotechnology company located in Eugene, Oregon specializing in fluorescence. The company was founded in 1975 by Richard and Rosaria Haugland in their kitchen in Minnesota, then moved briefly to Texas and finally to Oregon in the early 1980s. Invitrogen bought Molecular Probes in 2003 for approximately $325 million in cash. The business subsequently became a part of Life Technologies, through the merger of Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems, and is now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, following Thermo Fisher's acquisition of Life Technologies in 2014.