Successful Startups

Neonatal patients and others suffering from respiratory problems will soon be able to get improved health care through the Purdue discovery commercialized by SonarMed Inc. in Indianapolis. The technology was developed at Purdue University in the laboratory of George R. Wodicka, professor and head of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. It was licensed to SonarMed Inc. through the Office of Technology Commercialization. The SonarMed AMS uses acoustic technology to continuously monitor breathing tubes.

Imagine a "drug guidance" system designed to deliver drugs directly to diseased cells. In the early 1990s, a Purdue University professor and researcher did just that when they discovered that attaching drugs to folate creates a unique system that promises to make treatments of cancer and other diseases more successful.

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Purdue is impacting the $65 billion world market for machine tools with the TurboMAM drilling system. The product is designed to increase precise drilling productivity by 500 percent, and it is compatible with computer controlled machine tools used to manufacture precision parts for automobile systems, medical devices, aerospace, and industrial systems. James Mann (BS AAE '90, MS AAE '94, PhD. IE '10) commercialized the technology and founded his company, M4 Sciences, in the Purdue ResearchPark of West Lafayette.

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Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in American women, claiming more than 41,000 lives each year. Providing more accurate, reliable tests for the detection and monitoring of breast cancer is what drives Matrix-Bio to excel in the emerging field of metabolite profiling. With early detection, breast cancer is highly treatable and survivable. Founded in 2006 and based in the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette, Matrix-Bio is an Indiana-based life science company focused on the development and commercialization of advanced metabolite profilingbased blood tests for early cancer detection, recurrence detection, and therapy monitoring that offer greater accuracy than current testing methodologies.

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Tymora Analytical Operations was established in 2010 to provide new nanotechnology-based products to serve the R&D market in the life sciences. Tymora has developed a nanoscale platform technology - with PolyMAC and pIMAGO as the lead products - for unmet needs in analysis of protein phosphorylation that relates to the onset of numerous diseases, most noticeably cancer.

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AlGalCo has the exclusive license from Purdue University to commercialize a new technology in which hydrogen can be generated simply by adding water to a solid alloy comprised of 90% common aluminum.

Hydrogen is considered by many to be the ideal solution to our energy needs. It burns with zero green house gas emissions in a standard gasoline or diesel engine as well as being a feedstock for hydrogen required to power any type of fuel cell. The problem with hydrogen has always been that storage and transportation must be under very high pressure; until now. Our solid alloy is completely safe, inert, and can be stored indefinitely at regular atmospheric pressure. The aluminum used for the alloy is standard industrial grade.

After reacting with water, the aluminum becomes alumina which can be recycled back into our original aluminum alloy. The other 10% of the alloy is a naturally occurring element discarded as waste during the bauxite mining process. It serves only as a catalyst and is not consumed in the reaction. The successful demonstration of a standard one kilowatt Honda generator operating on our hydrogen can be viewed by visiting Youtube.

The first commercial application is a reaction container capable of powering any standard five kilowatt portable generator for military and off the grid emergency uses. Since hydrogen burns cleanly, gensets can be placed wherever they are needed most and the alloy can be stored indefinitely on site.

Besides powering existing stand by and back up gasoline and diesel engines as well as fuel cells, our hydrogen from aluminum and water technology can store energy generated during off peak hours at windmill farms. The alumina can be recharged back into aluminum via a 100 year old industry standard technique called the Hall process. During periods of excess supply, electricity can be deployed to reduce the alumina back into aluminum alloy. Subsequently, if wind speeds are inadequate or if there is a spike in demand for electricity, the alloy can be reacted with water and the resultant hydrogen used to run a generator at the base of the windmill.

In comparison to hydrogen generated by sodium borohydride technology, hydrogen from aluminum and water can deliver kilowatts of energy at a fraction of the cost. Hydrogen from aluminum and water is portable and on demand, does not require a source of outside electricity to actuate, eliminates the need to rely on imported oil and natural gas, burns with zero greenhouse gas emissions and is completely renewable.

Griffin Analytical, a business unit of ICx Technologies Inc. that is based in the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette, provides customers with the unique ability to perform chemical analysis on-site and in real time through its fieldable mass spectrometer systems. The technology used by Griffin Analytical was discovered by R. Graham Cooks, Purdue's Henry B. Hass Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry.

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Spensa Technologies' mission is to design, develop and deliver novel technologies for the agricultural industry that will reduce reliance on manual labor, foster eco-friendly farming and enhance crop production efficiency. The company's technologies leverage world-leading expertise in wireless sensor networks, robotics and computer vision. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an ecological approach to managing pests in agricultural crops. The main goal of IPM is to reduce the amount of pesticide applications - by providing precise information as to when, where and how much pesticide should be applied - while keeping the pest damage to a minimum. Spensa Z-Traps offer a novel and cost-effective IPM solution by automating the critical but labor-intensive task of monitoring insect populations. Not only will the Z-Traps eliminate the labor cost, but they will also provide unprecedented real-time, high-resolution insect population information to growers, which will significantly increase the overall effectiveness of IPM.

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CBI. works with surgeons around the world to relieve pain and discomfort for people coping with surgical wounds and in need of other types of tissue repair. CBI, which is part of the internationally recognized medical device company Cook Group Inc., develops and manufactures tissue-repair products that have been used in more than 1 million patient applications worldwide. The company, which is based in the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette, uses a technology discovered in the 1990s by a Purdue biomedical engineering team led by the late, famed innovator and educator Dr. Leslie Geddes. The company manufactures Biodesign® Advanced Tissue Repair Products, which are used in hernia repair, fistula repair, plastic surgery, ophthalmology, oral surgery, and dural repair. OASIS® Wound Matrix, another product developed from the same discovery, is used to treat wounds, burns, skin ulcers, and pressure ulcers. The products provide a specialized "biological scaffold" to guide and assist the body's healing process.

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