Purdue startup receives $200,000 from NIH for cancer diagnostic technology
June 11, 2015
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A life sciences startup that licenses Purdue University intellectual property has received federal funding to validate new technology that could be used to diagnose prostate cancer.
Vibronix Inc. has received a 12-month Phase I STTR grant worth $212,978 from the National Institutes of Health. The proposed technology may tell the difference between cancer tissue and normal tissue based on the intensity of a sound wave created after the absorption of near-infrared light. Ji-Xin Cheng, Ph.D., principal investigator of the STTR grant, is a Purdue professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry, and scientific director of label-free imaging at Purdue's Discovery Park.
"The funding will allow us to validate our system for prostate cancer diagnosis. The system could be applied to quantify the aggressiveness of prostate cancer," said Pu Wang, chief technology officer of Vibronix. "If we can validate the system, we can move forward to develop a scalable product for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval process."
About Vibronix Inc.
Early validations in Ji-Xin Cheng's lab at Purdue University led to the founding of Vibronix. Vibronix was co-founded by Cheng and Pu Wang, his student, to commercialize label-free technologies developed in Cheng's lab. The company was formed with the support of the Purdue Foundry program, an entrepreneurship and commercialization hub at Purdue University. The Purdue Foundry will continue to serve in a business advisory role throughout the commercialization process as will the Office of Technology and Commercialization and the Purdue Research Foundation.
Purdue Research Foundation contact: Steve Martin, 765-588-3342, sgmartin@prf.org
Sources: Ji-Xin Cheng, 765-494-4335, jcheng@purdue.edu
Pu Wang, wang408@purdue.edu
