2007 OHSU Startup Companies
MolecularMD
The inspiration for MolecularMD grew from the work of OHSU’s Dr. Brian Druker. Dr. Druker is world-renowned for his role in the development of imatinib (Gleevec®), which is used in the treatment of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, or CML. CML patients require accurate and reliable molecular diagnosis to determine if alternative therapies or higher doses of imatinib are the recommended course of action.
MolecularMD seeks to provide the highest quality and most informative molecular diagnostic services for the diagnosis and monitoring of personalized medicine.
I D Biopharma
I D Biopharma was founded on a portfolio of infectious disease technologies from Virogenomics and OHSU. Each year the NIH allocates more than $4 billion dollars toward infectious disease research, yet few biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies focus on the developing vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics for infectious diseases.
By leveraging its relationships with the major research universities in an entrepreneurial environment, I D Biopharma is unique in the infectious disease arena.
Yecuris
Liver toxicity is one of the primary obstacles to safely and efficiently develop new drugs. As the most common biological reason for drug failure in new drug development, liver toxicity affects one in six drugs in development stages. Yecuris, which was founded by Dr. Markus Grompe, Director of the Oregon Stem Cell Center, will use novel technology to address this problem. The company plans to launch products that will significantly improve liver toxicity testing.
Yecuris will provide an economical and reliable source of human hepatocytes, enabling companies to save time and money in the development of new drugs.
Cylerus
There is an unmet medical need for a vascular graft device that will allow uniform, localized drug delivery. Founded by Stephen Hanson, PhD, head of Biomedical Engineering at OHSU, Cylerus will develop new technological improvements to vascular grafts. The company plans to introduce a graft device that minimizes the systemic side-effects associated with most vascular grafts through a proprietary method of drug delivery at the blood-graft interface.
Dr. Hanson’s most recent venture, Revitus, was the recipient of funding through the Innovation and Seed Fund. Revitus, which engaged in development of a new drug for heart disease, was acquired by BioVascular in 2006.
