Fast 15: Ellen Brune

Catching a big break in the pharmaceutical industry isn’t easy, even if you have a doctorate in chemical engineering and you’ve created a patent-worthy protein purification system.

Just ask Ellen Brune. The 27-year-old scientist out of the University of Arkansas has been at it for a while now — cold calls, trade shows and conferences — and at long last, her product, Lotus, is turning heads.

“I’m slowly gaining market traction,” Brune said. “We’re starting to build the marketing structure around the product.”

In what’s known as an “academic sale,” Lotus is being used at one of the top research hospitals in the country, and Brune also has “hot leads” on companies that want to beta test the product to see how it performs in real-world environments.

Only time will tell how Lotus is received, but its entry into the market is a big step in the right direction.

“You’d rather hear good and bad together than nothing at all,” Brune said of Lotus’ increasing exposure.

Using genetic optimization, Brune created a series of production-ready E. coli cell strains with minimal amounts of contaminant proteins. Brune’s technology makes it easier to find the target protein, whatever it may be, and separate it from background contamination, thus saving time and money in the process of making a pharmaceutical.

Brune, who earned her PhD in May 2013, formed Boston Mountain Biotech in 2011 and raised more than $400,000 during the company’s initial bond issue.

This year, Brune attended the annual conference by the Cambridge Healthtech Institute in Palm Springs, California, and the American Chemical Society conference in Dallas, to present Lotus to industry leaders. In comparing Lotus to a Ferrari, Brune said plenty of people have “kicked the tires” and that, along the way, she’s become a better salesman.

“In the last year I’ve learned to be more than just a scientist,” she said.

Brune targets companies that manufacture protein pharmaceuticals, the ones used in IV and injection drugs to treat ailments such as diabetes, arthritis and cancer.

Brune wants to see Lotus enhance access to medicine by those who need it the most. But as a scientist in a community of scientists, she also supports a vision that is much broader than what she does at Boston Mountain.

“I want the next big thing to come out of Arkansas, whether it’s mine or not,” she said.