Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Industries and Academic Research
If our technical services don't meet your needs, our Biotechnology expertise will certainly raise an eyebrow. When our backs are sore from handling logs and lumber, we kick back and do some tissue engineering and other Academic Research. There are few small companies that can offer contrasting technical expertise like we can. Backed with degees in electrical engineering and phD in biochemistry we can offer over 50 years of knowledge and can-do attitude you may need for your project.
Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering
A calcium phosphate based biomaterial was developed for the rapid healing and repair of bony injuries, bone loss and combat injuries to bone and to help regenerate shattered bones.
To this end, we have invented and patented an injectable calcium phosphate based biomaterial for use in skeletal repair and have termed it InstaBone™. InstaBone is composed of nanometer-sized particles of highly reactive tricalcium phosphate that are key to InstaBone’s excellent properties. After just 10 minutes, the compressive strength of the hardened product that forms from InstaBone paste is greater than 50 MPa and the ultimate strength can exceed 90 MPa. When injected into the bone defect, InstaBone resists disintegrative washout and rapidly self-hardens in vivo, forming a solid bone-like structure that is capable of stabilizing fractured bone within a short period of time.
Living Bone and Cartilage Equivalents – Biocomposites for Drug Screening
In vitro testing shows that the chemical
composition and physical architecture of InstaBone supports
proliferation and differentiation of osteoprogenitor cells.
InstaBone can be molded into anatomically correct, custom fit
shapes. InstaBone can be used to screen and evaluate your cell line,
drug, growth factor, matrix molecule, etc.
Computational Chemistry
We create, simulate and validate in silico and in vitro models that accurately represent the micro environmental conditions in which human osteoarthritis (OA) develops and use these ensembles to screen your OA drug candidates. These nanoscale models are based on over 25 years of knowledge gained researching key matrix vesicle (MV) processes and components involved in the de novo calcification cartilage and newly forming bone. These biomimetic mineralization models will improve the understanding of OA calcification and can be used to identify novel therapies for treating and preventing this osteoarthritis and other calcific diseases such as atherosclerosis. Selected drug candidates thus identified as described below will be suitable for development for clinical studies.
Computer modelling and molecular dynamic simulation of osteoarthritis calcification.
Computational chemistry and molecular dynamic simulations (MDS), modeled after osteoarthritic and calcified aortic valve matrix vesicles, are used to simulate the formation, regulation and reaction products of amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP), annexin-5 (Anx-5) protein and phospholipid- Ca∙Pi∙ complexes involved in the calcification process. These nanoscale biomimetic mineralization structural models will improve understanding of the mechanism of arthritic joint and aortic valve calcification and be used to create novel therapies for preventing these diseases by enabling visualization of novel target sites of within the calcification complexes previously not discernable by other experimental methods.
Validation of in silico calcification models and screening for drugs that prevent de novo calcification that occurs in OA using our biomineralization assay.
In silico models created and dynamically simulated will be validated using our in vitro biomineralization assay. This semi-automated microplate based assay screens drugs for the prevention of OA and other pathological calcifications (patent pending). Kinetic analysis of biomineral formation in synthetic cartilage lymph over 16 h at 37ºC will be made using both first-derivative and multi-parameter curve fitting analysis, as described. This assay enables measurement of the following features of rapid biomineral formation: 1) the induction time, 2) its rate, 3) its length, 4) the amount of biomineral formed over 16 h, and 5) the maximal amount of biomineral potentially formed – calculated using a multi-parameter logistic fit. Statistical analysis by using Student’s t-test and the Wilcox-Mann-Whitney two-sample test.
Patent Research
Several of our biomedical inventions arising from our federally funded research projects have issued and pending patent applications. To find out if someone has a patent on a particular idea or object, a patent search. However, this isn't as easy as entering a few keywords into a Web search engine. The USPTO patent database alone is massive, and an international search could be overwhelming. We can help you narrow down what you are searching for and why and help you identify the type of patent you are trying to find from the three types managed by the USPTO:
- Utility patents are the most common type, covering objects that either function in some new way or produce some completely new result that similar objects have not been able to before.
- Design patents encompass enhancements to an existing object that do not change its functionality.
- Plant patents deal with new types of plants that are grown using grafts, cuttings or some other asexual method. However, genetically engineered plants fall under the umbrella of utility patents
Grantsmanship
We have over 25 years of successfully funded biomedical research focused on benefitting human health supported by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, public and private corporations. We can help you with all aspects of the GRANTS.GOV™ Grant Application Package including:
- SF424 (R & R)
- PHS 398 Research Plan
- SBIR/STTR_Information
- Research and Related Senior/ Key Person Profile
- Research and Related Other Project Information
- Research & Related Budget
Manuscript Preparation
We have authored in over 30 publications in High-Impact, Peer-Reviewed leading biomedical journals. We can help you with all aspects of your manuscript preparation and review.