{"134971":{"#nid":"134971","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Startup Secures Department of Defense Funding for Development of Cell Delivery Technology","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECell-based therapies have yet to reach their full potential in repairing damaged tissue because of the hostile environment the cells face once injected into the body. A patient\u2019s inflammatory response normally causes the majority of these therapeutic cells to die or migrate away from the area in need of repair.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo address this problem, a startup company based on technology developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology is creating an efficient, safe and repeatable delivery method that protects cells from death and migration from the treatment site. Using microbead technology developed in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.bme.gatech.edu\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EWallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.spheringenics.com\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ESpherIngenics\u003C\/a\u003E is producing protective capsules for the delivery of cell-based therapies.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESupported by a broad range of Georgia Tech initiatives, the company recently received a two-year $730,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to continue development of the technology.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen damaged tissue is being repaired by a cell-based therapy, our microbead technology ensures that cells travel to and remain in the targeted area while maintaining continued viability,\u201d said SpherIngenics CEO \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.bme.gatech.edu\/facultystaff\/faculty_record.php?id=107\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EFranklin Bost\u003C\/a\u003E, who is also a professor in the Coulter Department. \u201cThis technology has the potential to reduce the cost of treatment by eliminating the need for multiple therapeutic procedures.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBost and Coulter Department Professors \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.bme.gatech.edu\/facultystaff\/faculty_record.php?id=48\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EBarbara Boyan\u003C\/a\u003E and Zvi Schwartz founded the company in 2007. They worked with the Georgia Tech Research Corporation to license five patents from Boyan\u2019s lab for technology originally developed in the Georgia Tech\/Emory Center for the Engineering of Living Tissue (GTEC), which was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Then they secured $450,000, which included a Phase I SBIR grant from the U.S. Department of Defense and grants from the Georgia Research Alliance and the Coulter Foundation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuring Phase I of the SBIR grant, the researchers confirmed that as many as 250 human adult stem cells could remain viable in culture if they were encapsulated in a 200-micron-diameter bead made of natural algae materials and that they could release factors that enhance tissue regeneration.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFor the Phase II SBIR grant, we\u2019re going to examine whether delivering microbeads full of stem cells can enhance cartilage repair and regeneration of craniofacial defects in an animal model,\u201d said Boyan, who is the company\u2019s chief scientific officer. Boyan is also the associate dean for research and innovation in the Georgia Tech College of Engineering, the Price Gilbert, Jr. Chair in Tissue Engineering at Georgia Tech, and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe company will perform this research in its laboratory space located in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/atdc.org\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EAdvanced Technology Development Center\u003C\/a\u003E (ATDC) biosciences incubator.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe company\u2019s ultimate goal is to commercialize the microbead technology for use in hospitals and by cell therapy companies. To help reach this goal, a group of students wrote a business plan for SpherIngenics last year through the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results (\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/tiger.gatech.edu\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ETI:GER\u003C\/a\u003E) program.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team -- which included Coulter Department doctoral student Christopher Lee, Georgia Tech MBA students Chris Palazzola and Eric Diersen, and Emory University law students Bryan Stewart and Natalie Dana -- won third place in the 2011 Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition. The competition, while largely an education experience, provided students an opportunity to develop their venture ideas and present them to a panel of highly experienced judges in the venture capital, technology transfer and legal fields.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe TI:GER team\u2019s business plan helped us learn about where the market for our technology is right now and where it is going in the future, which is extremely valuable knowledge as we work toward determining the most promising pathway to market,\u201d said Bost.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAdditional members of the company include Anthony Nicolini, the principal investigator on the Phase II SBIR grant, and Joseph Williams, clinical director of craniofacial plastic surgery at Children\u2019s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite and clinical assistant professor in the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Emory University.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EResearch reported in this publication was supported by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command under award numbers W81XWH-07-1-0219 and W81XWH-11-C-0071. The content is solely the responsibility of the principal investigators and does not necessarily represent the official views of the U.S. Government.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News \u0026amp; Publications Office\u003Cbr \/\u003E Georgia Institute of Technology\u003Cbr \/\u003E 75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 314\u003Cbr \/\u003E Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contacts:\u003C\/strong\u003E Abby Robinson (abby@innovate.gatech.edu; 404-385-3364) or John Toon (jtoon@gatech.edu; 404-894-6986)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter: \u003C\/strong\u003EAbby Robinson\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech startup SpherIngenics is using microbead technology to produce protective capsules for the delivery of cell-based therapies. The technology provides an efficient, safe and repeatable delivery method that protects cells from death and migration from the treatment site.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech cell delivery startup SpherIngenics secures defense funding."}],"uid":"27206","created_gmt":"2012-06-13 08:22:53","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:12:22","author":"Abby Vogel Robinson","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-06-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2012-06-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"134951":{"id":"134951","type":"image","title":"SpherIngenics microbeads","body":null,"created":"1449178671","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:37:51","changed":"1475894763","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:46:03","alt":"SpherIngenics microbeads","file":{"fid":"194777","name":"spheringenics_microbeads.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/spheringenics_microbeads_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/spheringenics_microbeads_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":107104,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/spheringenics_microbeads_0.jpg?itok=H9YnVwp1"}}},"media_ids":["134951"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"139","name":"Business"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"147","name":"Military Technology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"9548","name":"Barbara Boyan"},{"id":"35801","name":"Cartilage Repair"},{"id":"35791","name":"cell delivery"},{"id":"9534","name":"cell therapy"},{"id":"594","name":"college of engineering"},{"id":"35821","name":"cranial defect regeneration"},{"id":"11533","name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering"},{"id":"8246","name":"Department of Defense"},{"id":"12154","name":"Franklin Bost"},{"id":"35781","name":"Microbead"},{"id":"167833","name":"SBIR"},{"id":"169504","name":"spheringenics"},{"id":"166973","name":"startup"},{"id":"167413","name":"Stem Cell"},{"id":"35771","name":"Zvi Schwartz"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAbby Robinson\u003Cbr \/\u003E Research News and Publications\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:abby@innovate.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Eabby@innovate.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E 404-385-3364\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}