Fresh Starts: Entrepreneurs To Debut in New Roles at Luncheon

RESEARCH TRIANGLE — Editor's note: BioWatch is a regular feature on Fridays.Two spinouts from Triangle Universities led by locally well-known serial entrepreneurs present at the Council for Entrepreneurial Development's Capital Connection luncheon on Sept. 10.

Michael Zapata, former chief executive officer of Triangle-based LipsINC, a software company, is interim CEO of one of the presenting companies, ArrayXpress, a North Carolina State University spinout.

ArrayXpress, which we wrote about here some time ago, sells microarray analysis services. It can identify genes that regulate traits of interest at lower cost than other methods, Zapata says.

Peyton Anderson, a founder of SciQuest, leaves his position as vice president of business development to take the CEO slot at Duke spinout Affinergy.

Affinergy recently hired Jonathan Gindes as vice president of business development and finance. He is the first full time employee. Gindes tells Local Tech Wire that bringing Peyton Anderson on board as CEO and is his first major accomplishment.

"He officially starts Monday," says Gindes, a graduate of Duke's Fuqua School of Business. "A lot of the relationships Peyton developed at SciQuest fit well into our early term markets in the research tools area."

Gindes says the company is still negotiating licensing rights with Duke University Medical Center to its novel technology. The technology lets researchers coat two surfaces so that they attract or repel each other.

That could be useful, Gindes says in a wide variety of applications. "It allows you to connect or repel a non biologic surface and a biologic surface."

It could be used on orthopedic implants to attract bone cells, for instance. Or it could coat a catheter to repel bacteria, preventing infections, Gindes suggests. He says its first commercial use may be to filter white cells from blood.

"Way downstream, it could be used for tissue engineering, artificial arteries or organs," he says. "In the short term, we're looking at research tools, diagnostic markets, and filtration."

Gindes says the coating is easy to apply to surfaces and doesn't use any harsh chemistry that damages the surfaces it is applied to.

The technology will enhance third party products, Gindes adds. "We're going to make products better, not make products. We'll make money licensing the recipe and on royalties."

Gindes says the company is seeking an A round of about $2 million, with a first cut of $500,000 to $750,000. He says the company expects to seek office space by October or November.

Affinergy's technology was developed at Duke by Mark Grinstaff, Ph.D., an associate professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry at Boston University and Daniel Kenan, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of pathology at Duke University Medical Center.

The two companies will present their business strategies and funding needs to the luncheon. Jeff Clark of the Research Triangle-based Aurora Funds and Adrian Wilson of Columbia, SC-based Trelys Funds will respond to the entrepreneurs following their presentations.

Seating for the event, which runs from noon until 1:30 p.m. at the Triangle Sheraton Imperial, is limited. Registration closes at 5 PM Friday.

Geiger on FDA News

M. Rita Geiger, CEO and president of InfoStrength, Raleigh, is the keynote speaker for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration audio-conference on "Effective Part 11 Risk Assessment Strategies for Electronic Records Compliance" Sept. 17.

She will analyze the three essential elements of risk management: risk analysis, risk evaluation and risk control on product integrity. She will also provide examples of the type of risks associated with systems that store electronic records and propose approaches to risk analysis.

Geiger, who is becoming a frequent guest on the FDAnews programs, has 13 years experience dealing with regulatory and quality standards. Her company, InfoStrength, sells software that protects intellectual property and creates collaboration and project management systems for life science companies.

BMAA Website online

Bioscience Market Access Associates, Raleigh, has launched its Web site. BMAA offers consulting services to help emerging life science companies commercialize their technologies.

Founder Don Van Dyke has 25 years operating experience in clinical diagnostics, genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics. (See link to previous story about BMAA).

New Bioscience Market Website: www.biosciencemarket.com

FDAnews:www.fdanews.com/calendar/16806.html

Affinergy:www.affinergy.com

ArrayXpress:www.arrayxpress.com

Previous LTW Stories of Interest:

Back in the Game: Michael Zapata Is Interim CEO at New NCSU Spinout ArrayXpress: localtechwire.com/article.cfm?u=4109

Bioscience Market Gives Life Science Companies the Business: localtechwire.com/article.cfm?u=5180