Advaita scored nearly $2 million in seed capital this month after it landed the second phase of an SBIR grant to develop its bioinformatics software.
"It will allow us to continue development of our software tools and our products for personalized medicine," says Sorin Draghici, president & CEO of
Advaita.
The Plymouth-based startup is commercializing gene pathway analysis technology developed at Wayne State University called
Pathway Guide. The platform helps researchers trying to understand the data generated by high-throughput experiments, including next-generation sequencing. It aims to eliminate false positives in diagnosis, as well as correctly identify biologically meaningful pathways in a given disease.
Advaita's technology is being used by a number of large research universities, including Harvard, Columbia University Medical Center and the
Karmanos Cancer Institute.
"We have a number of high-profile institutions that are using our tools," Draghici says. "We are also getting ready to release a new web application called
iPathwayGuide."
Advaita employs a staff of 11 people, along with three summer interns. It has hired two people over the last year, including a project manager and PhD-level research scientists. It is currently looking to hire up to two software developers as the company aims to ramp up the commercialization of its technology over the rest of the year.
"We would like to expand our user base substantially," Draghici says. "We'd like to include some big pharmaceutical companies as customers."
Source: Sorin Draghici, president & CEO of Advaita
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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