Jun 4 2008
Coradyn Biosystems, LLC, a smart sensor materials company, announced today that it has licensed a responsive, conductive polymer technology from the University of Texas at Austin. Preliminary results support the potential for use in molecular sensor devices in a wide array of industries, including RFID or wireless sensing, medical devices and diagnostics, personal health monitoring, food and beverage testing and industrial processing.
Coradyn Biosystems is poised to take advantage of the dynamic biosensor market. The total global market for biosensors and bioelectronics is expected to grow from $6.96 billion in 2006 to $8.2 billion in 2009, at an average annual growth rate of about 6.3%.(a)
Focused on providing advanced materials as an interface between a biological or chemical environment and electronics, the company’s key technology is conductive polymeric materials that can be customized to recognize a broad range of analytes and convert that recognition into a measurable electronic signal.
Coradyn’s proprietary platform is an entirely new label-free detection chemistry, applicable to a number of formats and industries. For clinical laboratory testing, the technology yields results similar to antibody-based assays, but without the need for these expensive and short-lived biological reagents. Other biomedical applications include personal health monitoring through a hand-held or implanted device.
Coradyn Biosystems is funded and managed by life sciences venture firm, Emergent Technologies, Inc. (ETI). ETI Senior Vice President of Portfolio Company Management and Coradyn Biosystems President, Brian Windsor, Ph.D, said, “This new technology represents collaborative business opportunities with significant commercial potential in the large and growing fields of RFID or wireless sensing, clinical diagnostics, food and beverage testing, and industrial processing.”
Target Markets
Target markets for Coradyn Biosystems include:
- Medical -- Antibody-free and label-free detection either in a clinical laboratory or as a hand-held or implanted device
- Food and Beverage -- Real-time biomolecular detection of contaminants or pathogens in a grocery store or food processing facility
- Industry -- Real-time chemical detection of impurities or other analytes in an industrial plant, such as a water treatment facility
Initially, the company’s focus is on wireless technology for monitoring a biomolecular event. A potential outcome of this development includes a hand-held or touchless device that detects an analyte and sends a wireless signal to a central location, such as a nurse station, grocery store, blood center, or industrial laboratory.
Dr. Nicholas Peppas is Chief Scientist of Coradyn Biosystems. A pioneer in the field of drug delivery and polymer chemistry, Dr. Nicholas Peppas has more than 35 years of research experience and has published more than 1,050 peer-reviewed articles and 33 books. He has made life-changing contributions to drug delivery and biomaterials applications using his recognized expertise in biomedical engineering and polymer chemistry. Peppas, a member of both the National Academy of Engineering and the French Academy of Pharmacy, has received numerous awards for his multidisciplinary research. In addition to serving as Chief Scientist of Coradyn Biosystems, Peppas will remain as the Fletcher Stuckey Pratt Chair in Engineering in the Departments of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and Professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin