UNC-CH Spin-out's Target: Drugs to Improve Transplant Outcomes
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK and CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Sept. 16, 2009 — The North Carolina Biotechnology Center has made a $30,000 Company Inception Loan to X-In8 Biologicals Corp., a biotechnology company begun last year with technology brewed in labs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
UNC faculty surgeon Thomas Egan, M.D., M.Sc., founded X-in8 based on his discoveries trying to develop therapies that might thwart inflammation and related damage as blood flow is restored to tissues after an interval of restricted blood supply, technically known as ischemia. The damage is known as ischemia-reperfusion injury, or IRI.
Egan's research has turned up a way that might keep naturally occurring immune-system proteins known as "toll-like innate immune receptors" from contributing to IRI. Stopping ("X-ing") those innate receptors provided the corporate name X-In8.
Egan said if X-In8's compounds reduce tissue damage after transplantation, as expected, he believes they could improve outcomes for as many as 20,000 transplant recipients a year in the United States alone. Preventing IRI after transplant might reduce the need for expensive and difficult chronic immunosuppression therapy, which keeps the transplant recipient from rejecting the new organ. That could also improve outcomes and save money, he said.
The company plans to use the Biotechnology Center's low-interest startup loan to help finalize its business plan and prepare for further outside funding from investors and federal grants. Until now, Egan's development of the concept has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the UNC Lung Transplant Research Fund.
"These funds provided by Biotechnology Center will help us in a variety of ways", said Egan. "In today's economy, startups compete fiercely for investment dollars and research grants. We need good advice on regulatory and other issues, and assistance with crafting a professional business plan and convincing grant applications."
Though organ transplants will be the initial focus of X-In8 research and development, eventually more than 700,000 heart-surgery patients and 1.4 million people suffering from heart attack and stroke could also benefit from the company's technology, said Egan.
"This is the kind of opportunity for which our business-support programs are so uniquely suited," said Yonnie Butler, business development director at the Biotechnology Center. "Start-ups such as X-in8 need cash, of course, but they also require professional nudging and nourishment to help them become self-sustaining and ultimately, successful."
X-In8 has also been accepted into the Biotechnology Center's unique BATON program, which will allow the firm to tap into support services from interested providers capable of helping convert Egan's medical and scientific genius into a marketplace success—including jobs for North Carolinians and medicines that can help people around the world.
BATON, an acronym for the Business Acceleration and Technology Out-licensing Network, is helping to commercialize numerous viable North Carolina bioscience inventions by leveraging Biotechnology Center loans with in-kind or contributed services from vetted stakeholders such as law firms, local banks, intellectual property attorneys, accountants and even experienced CEOs.
The Biotechnology Center is a private, non-profit corporation supported by the N.C. General Assembly. Its mission is to provide long-term economic and societal benefits to North Carolina by supporting biotechnology research, business, education and strategic policy statewide.
Contact: Robin Deacle, senior director, corporate communications, North Carolina Biotechnology Center at 919-541-9366.