Ohio State University and the Cleveland Clinic have licensed cell-separation technology developed by their researchers to PreCelleon, a Columbus-based start-up that is developing a tool to collect cancerous cells for research. The technology also could gauge the severity of cancer in a patient. The deal is significant for Ohio State, which has struggled to license its innovations compared to schools with similar resources. “We’re trying to be a stronger player in the bioscience realm, and that includes medical devices and pharmaceuticals across the whole gamut of life sciences,” says Ryan Zinn, senior technology licensing associate in Ohio State’s Department for Technology Licensing and Commercialization. Terms of the licensing agreement were not disclosed. The technology is based on the research of Jeffrey Chalmers, professor in the Ohio State’s department of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and Maciej Zborowski, professor in Cleveland Clinic’s department of biomedical engineering, that enables cancerous cells to be tagged, separated, and gathered for research in a more efficient manner than current approaches. In addition, the device can count the number of circulating tumor cells in a blood sample, which could help to determine appropriate clinical treatment. The technology also could be refined to identify the type of cancer present in the blood.

Go to: MedCity News

Posted July 15th, 2009 under Tech Transfer

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