Biotech bonanza: Phthisis among local groups awarded grants

Several Charlottesville-area organizations were recently awarded state grants totaling about $1.8 million, including a company that has set out to develop advanced technology for diagnosing diseases from intestinal parasites.

“Where our diagnostics fit in is they allow the physicians to have their patients tested and to know definitely: Do they have these two parasites, yes or no?” said Crystal Icenhour, president of Phthisis Diagnostics.

The Charlottesville-based company recently received about $550,000 in state grants, which the company plans to use toward the development of advanced diagnostic kits.

About three out of four food- and water-borne illnesses are never definitively diagnosed, according to Icenhour. In cases in which physicians use molecular diagnostics, however, the likelihood of a doctor being able to make a definitive diagnosis shoots up to about 98 percent, she said.

While there are some labs that use made-from-scratch molecular diagnostics, Icenhour said, “It’s much easier for a laboratory to just buy a molecular diagnostic kit that’s already gone through the regulatory approval process and use that for the patient diagnoses.”

With the grant funding, Icenhour expects Phthisis Diagnostics will be able to market molecular diagnostic kits by 2013.

“Our first diagnostic will be for intestinal parasites. These are things that you get when you drink contaminated water,” Icenhour said. “These are parasites that we are commonly exposed to in the United States, and the current way that they’re diagnosed is using an old technology that is not very accurate, and it’s not very sensitive. … So, a patient eats or drinks something, they become ill, and most of the time, the physician never really knows what they had.”

That imprecise approach often has doctors making a “differential diagnosis,” she said.

“A differential diagnosis is an educated guess as to what the patient has, and [physicians] will give them a treatment,” she said. “Hopefully, that treatment will work. If the treatment doesn’t work, then they will try to do some additional testing.”

Hap Connors with Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology said the center awarded the grant money to Phthisis based on the “sound approach to developing innovative and unique diagnostic applications that will improve the delivery and reduce the cost of healthcare services for millions of people.”

Phthisis Diagnostics was one of eight local groups out of 22 across Virginia recently awarded a total of about $3.6 million in funding. The center received more than 90 eligible grant proposals.

The University of Virginia was among the recipients of CIT grants, receiving $120,000 for the development of technology aimed at detecting bone abnormalities. Other grants received locally are slated to treat influenza and diagnose pancreatic cancer, among other initiatives.

The Center for Innovative Technology recently awarded about $3.6 million in grants to 22 companies and organizations in Virginia. Of those, eight are in the Charlottesville area, with their grant funding totaling about $1.8 million:

Phthisis Diagnostics Inc., $548,877: molecular diagnostics

Alexander BioDiscoveries, LLC, $50,000: influenza treatment

Gencia Corp., $50,000: sepsis bioenergetics treatment

HemoSonics, LLC, $99,728: advancements of in vitro assessment of hemostasis

Indoor Biotechnologies Inc., $50,000: mold detection

iTi Health Inc., $100,000: pancreatic cancer treatment

University of Virginia, $120,000: bone-imaging technology

HemoShear, LLC, $500,000: vascular injury advancements

RetiVue, $250,000: retinal screening technology and services