Platypus Technologies receives $1.6 million NIH grant
Laptop Battery By Eric Kleefeld • 08/24/05 Madison, Wis. - Platypus Technologies, a life sciences nanotechnology company, has received a $1.6 million grant from the National Institute for General Medical Sciences.
The Small Business Innovation Research grant is for continued development of the company's proprietary liquid crystal based technology to enable faster screening of drugs for treatment of cancer.
The companys technology works by using liquid crystals to measure topography on a nanoscopic scale. By allowing target cells like cancer to bond with the liquid crystals, researchers would be able to quantify them better than allowed for by current solutions, according to the company.
Additionally, the company says the technology has the potential to aid in measuring the migration of cells, an important aspect of understanding cancer, and thus advance the drug discovery process.
CEO Barbara Israel predicted beta testing could begin in about a year, with full solutions brought to laboratory markets in two years.
The company also recently received a $325,000 from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and $200,000 from the National Cancer Institute.
The company has 17 employees and is located in the Fitchburg Technology Campus.
By WTN News • 04. MADISON Platypus Technologies recently announced it received a Phase I small business innovation research (SBIR) grant for $400, 000 from the National Cancer Institute. The grant, according to chief executive officer Barbara Israel, is to develop a new method to rapidly measure the activity of enzymes that are relevant to cancer biology. Using a liquid crystal approach, Platypus proposed it could develop a way to quickly quantify enzyme activity that could, in turn, be incorporated into a new methodology to screen drugs and inhibit the activity.
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