FAST FACTS
FOUNDER(S):
Anil Dhundale
INNOVATION(S):
Biotechnology/Pharmaceuticals
EMPLOYEES:
1
HEADQUARTERS:
Stony Brook, NY
FOUNDED:
2004
TSC MEMBER INSTITUTION(S):
Stony Brook University
FUNDING AGENCY(S):
National Institutes of Health
STATUS:
Private
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STONY BROOK BIOTECHNOLOGY, LLC
ABOUT THE COMPANY:
Stony Brook Biotechnology, LLC was formed by Dr. Anil Dhundale to develop and commercialize a diagnostic test based on proprietary biomarkers discovered at Stony Brook University. The commercial goal is to enable microsphere-based transcript profiling of blood platelets for the diagnosis of Essential Thrombocythemia (ET) that causes high platelet levels. Funding for this project, “Diagnostic Assay for Thrombocytosis,” at the small business startup, Stony Brook Biotechnology, LLC, and at Stony Brook University, was provided through a $178,894 STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer Program) grant, with Dr. Dmitri Gnatenko as Principal Investigator (Sept 2010-2011). The diagnosis of ET by exclusion, currently the only available method, is costly, nonspecific andtime consuming, and invasive testing must be performed to rule out other disease causing high platelet levels. Based on literature reports on incidence, it is estimated that the number of people with a confirmed high platelet count in the U.S. is between 100,000and 500,000 annually, creating a roughly estimated, fully penetrated, U.S. market opportunity between $20 million and $100 million annually. Stony Brook Biotechnology’s value proposition is in time, money and discomfort saved versus the current standard of diagnosis by exclusion. The company’s longer-term vision is to find commercial application of other blood-related biomarker assays from research at Stony Brook University.
UNIVERSITY-BASED RESEARCH CONNECTION:
Fundamental platelet research, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over more than a decade, was conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Wadie Bahou with Drs. Gnatenko, Dhundale and Wei Zhu, at Stony Brook University. This resulted in discovery of biomarkers that could potentially serve as a diagnostic tool for hematologists (Gnatenko et al, Blood 2010). Clinical studies (Blood 2010) demonstrated that platelet transcript profiling can be used to discriminate ET with more than 90% accuracy. Based on this clinical study data, class prediction algorithms were developed to predict the phenotypic class of ET patient cohorts based on the patient’s gene expression profiles of the identified biomarkers.
ROLE OF FEDERAL RESEARCH FUNDING:
Initial research was conducted at Stony Brook University with multiple grants to Dr. Wadie Bahou, including more than $1 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Collaborators included Drs. Dmitri Gnatenko, Wei Zhu and Anil Dhundale.
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STONY BROOK BIOTECHNOLOGY