University Of Arkansas Awarded Patent For Protein Manufacturing
by January 25, 2015 8:27 pm 147 views
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a full patent for a protein manufacturing technology that was developed in part through research at the University of Arkansas.
The new method will simplify the pharmaceutical production of proteins used in drugs that treat a variety of diseases and health conditions, said Ellen Brune, a 2013 graduate of the University of Arkansas whose start-up company, Boston Mountain Biotech, is marketing the method.
The patent, titled “Separatome-based Protein Expression and Purification Platform,” was assigned to the board of trustees of the University of Arkansas and the University of Pittsburgh.
Boston Mountain Biotech – a Genesis Technology Incubator client at the Arkansas Research and Technology Park – holds the exclusive license to market the trademarked Lotus purification platform.
“This is exciting,” said Brune, who founded the company when she was a doctoral student in chemical engineering at UA. “It’s nice to have validation from the U.S. government that we are doing good work. Having exclusive rights to this patent strengthens our business model. We can tell potential customers that we have a unique and substantial product.”
In addition to Brune, other inventors named on the patent are Bob Beitle, professor of chemical engineering and associate vice provost for research and economic development at the U of A; Ralph Henry, Distinguished Professor of biological sciences at the U of A; Mohammad Ataai, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh; and Patrick Bartlow, a scientist at Janssen Research and Development, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.
In addition to receiving a total of more than $1 million in research grants through the National Science Foundation and Arkansas Biosciences Institute, Brune participated in the graduate entrepreneurship certificate program at UA and participated on a team that built a business plan around her discovery. The team won $43,350 in prize money in graduate student business plan competitions.
Boston Mountain Biotech has three employees: Brune, Ricky Draehn, chief executive officer; and McKinzie Fruchtl, director of fermentation.
Draehn is a licensed professional engineer with more than 30 years of experience in the food and beverage industry. Fruchtl was a Doctorate Academy Fellow at the U of A who received a doctorate in chemical engineering in 2013.