PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Maven Biotechnologies today announced that the company has been awarded $1.96 million by the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), part of the NIH, to support the commercialization of their LFIRE imaging technology for label-free protein microarrays and cell-based assays. The highly competitive grant was awarded to Maven through the federal stimulus package initiative for Biomedical Research, Development, and Growth to Spur the Acceleration of New Technologies (BRDG-SPAN).
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101001/LA75512LOGO)
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20101001/LA75512LOGO)
“Maven welcomes the support of the NIH to bring our platform to market,” says Chief Technology Officer David Ralin. “LFIRE’s label-free, multiplexed capabilities and inherent simplicity will directly benefit our customers, delivering better results in less time and with lower costs.” Target applications for the technology include - but are not limited to - immunoassays in the research and diagnostics markets, cell-based studies, high-throughput pharmaceuticals screening and the established label-free applications in biomolecular interaction analysis.
Chief Engineering Officer Jeffrey Chongsathien M.A. Cantab. adds, “We look forward to creating a robust, flexible and modular product portfolio of laboratory instrumentation and consumables, built on LFIRE.” The initial instrument will be a desktop microplate reader, with a set of ‘alpha’ evaluation units expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2011 and made available for use by key academic collaborators and strategic industry partners.
Company Founder and CEO William Rassman M.D. noted that the grant will ‘jump-start’ the commercialization of the product and will be the forerunner of other funding events.
About Maven Biotechnologies
Maven Biotechnologies (www.mavenbiotech.com) is a privately-held biotechnology company located in Pasadena, CA. The company has developed LFIRE [pronounced: el - fire] - a flexible, cost-effective, high density imaging technology for the multiplexed, quantitative, label-free, real-time characterization of biomarker binding reactions. The platform addresses applications in biomedical research, drug discovery, immunodiagnostics, biodefense, biological manufacturing and point-of-care. Maven holds 14 granted US and international patents.
SOURCE Maven Biotechnologies
