Press Room

Feature Articles
August, 2006
From Our Health and Medicine Issue

On the surface, Rochester is known for its lilacs, shorter-than-normal commute times, and lately, its boom in biotechnology.

Claudia Stewart, acting director of the Office of Corporate Alliances with the University of Rochester Medical Center, who is also the vice chair of the Bio-Cluster of the High Tech Business Council's steering committee, explained that she has been told by venture capitalists that Rochester has a reputation for having extremely high-quality technology.

"The region has an interest in, and dedication to, developing itself as a bio-tech corridor." Claudia Stewart, Acting Director, Office of Corporate Alliances, UR Medical Center and Vice Chair, Bio-Cluster, High Tech Business Council's Steering Committee

"We also think the medical center is one of the reasons we have such a great mass of not only high quality but high levels of expertise in both bio-tech and bio sciences," she shared.

Stewart said Rochester excels in high-tech areas in devices, imaging, infotonics, and IT fields.

URMC has also seen the development of iCardiac Technologies, Inc.-a technology that will enable pharmaceutical companies to determine more effectively, and earlier on in clinical trials, whether an experimental drug is toxic to the heart.

Stewart said that iCardiac Technologies-a newly established Rochester-based company is positioning itself as the leader in cardiac safety analytics to support pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and contract research companies.

"The region has an interest in, and dedication to, developing itself as a bio-tech corridor," she stated. "Our universities have the technology and the area has the manpower. RIT is developing and training bio-technologists and creating a workforce to support the emerging technologies.
 
Rochester's Up-and-Coming Technologies
A system that makes it possible for a network of primary-care physicians, pediatricians, and specialists to diagnose and treat patients via the Internet has been developed by Tel-e-Atrics. CEO Don Turrell is at the helm of the company that was created to meet a need identified by physicians.

"It started because UR researchers and pediatricians were looking at ways to improve the health of kids in the inner city and urban areas," Turrell explained. "They were particularly interested in finding a way to apply telemedicine to this segment of the population."

Dr. Kenneth McConnochie, chief scientific officer of the company, pioneered URMC's Health-e-Access telemedicine program in 2001 utilizing the Tel-e-Atrics program.

"There are more than 30 Health-e-Access program sites in the Rochester metro area including daycares, schools, summer camps. Golisano Hospital, and nine pediatric practices are tied together on the Internet using Web technology," Turrell stated. "The technology offers children access to online medical visits."

Turrell said that among the children who have a physician that participates in the program, about 85 percent of them are able to see their own doctors on remote visits.

The costs savings realized by remote visits, Turrell believes, will drive the technology toward more widespread acceptance not only within other states, but with insurance company reimbursements. Health-e-Access has done 3,500 telemedicine visits so far.

"The technology is impressive," Turrell said. "It also has proven effective in group homes that oftentimes have limited access to medical support staff during the overnight hours. Now, the practitioner can utilize his or her laptop and make a medical assessment remotely to determine whether a patient requires emergency room care."

Four local facilities, including Lifetime Assistance, Inc. are utilizing the technology. Under Health-e-Access all major third party payers have agreed to pay for remote "office visits" but across the state that is not the case, Turrell explained, adding that the company is looking to move its model to California, Texas, and North Carolina-in those states telemedicine is covered like an office visit.

"We believe we have the world's fastest way to perform polymerase chain reactions--the most sensitive way to detect viral and bacterial pathogens like smallpox and anthrax." Dr. Joel Grover, Thermal Gradient CEO

Thermal Gradient, another homegrown bio-technology company was begun in December 2004 with the purpose of developing technologies in DNA testing. In September 2005, it received the backing of the Department of Homeland Security to develop a system for detecting biohazards, company CEO Dr. Joel Grover said.

"We developed a system to detect pathogens delivered by aerosol or other means that came about because of the company's DNA testing technology," he said. "We believe we have the world's fastest way to perform polymerase chain reactions (PCR)-the most sensitive way to detect viral and bacterial pathogens like smallpox and anthrax."

Because those pathogens would likely be weapons of choice for a bio-terrorist, the company was eager to see its technology utilized to defend against the air-borne agents.  

PCR is the most widely used method of DNA testing and is employed in fields as diverse as clinical diagnostics, pharmaceutical research, forensics, and bio-defense. Grover explained the process involves taking a sample of material containing the DNA "target"-which could be as small as one cell or virus-and combining it with chemical reagents. It is then repeatedly heated and cooled in a matter that continuously copies a section of the DNA molecule if it has the specific DNA sequence being sought.

"Most laboratory instruments can do PCR in an hour or two; and PCR is the technology of choice. The problem was the speed," Grover explained. "Our technology can do the replication in a matter of minutes-as fast as nature will allow. Instead of heating and cooling a chunk of metal in an instrument, we just heat and cool the fluids surrounding it."

The Trillium Group, a Rochester venture firm is an investor in Thermal Gradient.

"[Our] technology could be utilized to help physicians determine which course of chemotherapy would be most effective in patients." Rick Richmond, Diffinity Genomics CEO

When asked why the company chose Rochester as its base of operations, Grover said there were several factors.

"The facilities, like UR, RIT, and Infotonics are key pieces in creating the capabilities and technologies for the company. The area also boasts a tremendous range of capabilities in terms of people and equipment," he states. "The town has a lot of technical talent."

Diffinity Genomics was the recipient of High Tech Rochester's first place award for its 2006 Business Plan Competition.

Company CEO Rick Richmond said the technology employed by Diffinity was developed by Lewis Rothberg and Hiuxiang Li, who are principals with the company.

"They made an amazing discovery that short single-stranded DNA has a different affinity for negatively charged energy particles than long-single and double-stranded DNA reacts," Richmond explained.

The short-term opportunities for Diffinity Genomics products are in providing rapid, low-cost identification of genetic sequences. Diffinity's first product, research kits for animal genotyping, will reduce the cost of the test from the current range of $10-$90 down to $5 and will reduce the test time from one hour to five minutes. At Diffinity's pricing, this market is about $100 million per year worldwide.

Diffinity's products are based on patent-pending technology licensed from the University of Rochester. Diagnostic test kits, which Richmond says still require regulatory approval, will be developed.

"Our diagnostics will focus on personalized medicine-matching drugs with genetic disease markers, and optimizing therapeutic treatments," he stated.

"The technology is much faster and much less expensive than the standard gel electrophoresis and provides much easier assay development and re

"Tel-e-Atrics started because UR researchers and pediatricians were looking at ways to improve the health of kids in the inner city and urban areas." Don Turrell, CEO

quires substantially less capital investment than real-time PCR. Initial product efficacy has been demonstrated in double-blind experiments at the URMC Center for Functional Genomics," Richmond explained. "You can detect genetic sequences so if you are looking for a specific sequence associated with a disease or pathogen or genetic disorder this is a quick means of detecting its presence. The technology, as an example, could be utilized to help physicians determine which course of chemotherapy would be most effective in patients."

Richmond, a serial entrepreneur, was CEO of STS Bio-Polymers and was working at High Tech Rochester as an entrepreneur-in-residence, when he heard of Rothberg's technology and intrigued, decided to invest in the company.

"Rochester is a welcoming place for start-up technology companies," he stated. "The wealth of talent and the brain trust in this area from the universities is incomparable."
BSM