Firms may get up to $250,000 in one-time matching loans
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- North
Carolina's smallest, most high-tech biotechnology "plumbing company" is the
first recipient of an innovative new loan from the North Carolina
Biotechnology Center.
Advanced Liquid Logic, a microfluidics "lab-on-a-chip" spinout from
Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, is the first company in the
state to get a Biotechnology Center Strategic Growth Loan (SGL). The
$160,000 boost is the latest of several loans from the Biotechnology Center
to the Research Triangle Park-based firm.
The Biotechnology Center launched the SGL concept earlier this year to
help promising new biotechnology companies anywhere in the state survive
the difficult startup process. An SGL may provide as much as $250,000, but
the loan must be matched by an equal "angel network" or venture capital
loan or investment. The SGL addresses a sometimes-deadly cash gap faced by
many start- up companies between early-stage seed funding and later
investment from venture capitalists, business partners and shareholders.
"We're glad the Biotechnology Center is there to help meet a critical
need," said Richard West, Advanced Liquid Logic president and CEO. "The
challenge we face is that there is just not enough early stage capital in
this region to fund even the most promising companies. Over the last few
years venture capital financing has moved downstream to later-stage
companies, where products under development are closer to providing market
return for investors." He said a network of angel investors provided the
required SGL match for his firm.
West, a Duke engineering graduate, joined Advanced Liquid Logic
technical co-founders Michael Pollack and Vamsee Pamula in early 2005. He
understands well the trials and triumphs of entrepreneurship. Before
heading Advanced Liquid Logic he was founder and CEO of TriVirix,
originally a tiny Chapel Hill-based venture-funded medical equipment
contract manufacturer that West shepherded through growth into an employer
of some 500 people. New owners have since taken the firm to Minnesota.
Kenneth Roozen, executive administrator of the South Carolina-based
Charleston Angel Partners, said the Biotechnology Center's due-diligence
process and resultant funding, though separate from that undertaken by
angel networks, provides a significant boost to an applicant's appeal. It
contributed to his group's decision to invest in Advanced Liquid Logic, he
said.
"This is the kind of leadership that makes North Carolina a fertile
field for seed- and early-stage funding," said Roozen. "Having our
investment matched dollar-for-dollar with this SGL program helps an already
interesting opportunity spring to the front of the line. In addition,
members of our group who are North Carolina residents will receive a tax
credit from the State of North Carolina for their investment."
"We're delighted that the new SGL program helps meet the capital needs
of promising young companies such as Advanced Liquid Logic," said Ken
Tindall, the Biotechnology Center's Senior Vice President, Science &
Business Development. "Great ideas must be nurtured to be converted into
great North Carolina companies."
The Biotechnology Center has been providing a variety of loan programs
to new biotechnology ventures for more than 17 years, primarily targeting
start- up company research. But the SGL isn't restricted to research
funding, said John Richert, Vice President of the Biotechnology Center's
Business & Technology Development Program.
"The difference here," he said, "is that these funds can also be used
for a wide range of needs -- hiring key non-executive employees, to help
secure patent rights, to pursue business-development or licensing
opportunities. The key restriction is that they can't be used for so-called
brick-and-mortar capital outlays or executive-level salaries or benefits.
But the program applies fewer restrictions on the matching investments."
Advanced Liquid Logic's core technology involves electronic wizardry
for moving and analyzing miniscule droplets of liquid -- droplets measured
in microliters and even nanoliters. That's a millionth and a billionth of a
liter, respectively. To put that into perspective, West said a typical
raindrop contains about 50 microliters of water.
Though the field of microfluidics research is growing, West said his
firm is approaching it in a unique way. Most efforts in the field have been
in channel-based technology using pumps, valves and pipes made on a micro
scale, he said.
"But ours is done on a flat printed-circuit board or other specialized
surface, and we move material around by turning switches on and off using a
set of physics called electro-wetting. When you wax your car you can see
how it makes water bead up on the surface. We're able to switch that
droplet's properties from beading up to sitting down on the surface,
manipulating its surface energy by turning electrodes on or off."
Put a bunch of electrodes in an array of a specific design, and you
can, by sequentially turning them on and off, move droplets of blood or
other fluid around the surface. The concept holds huge promise in both
diagnostic and research instrument applications.
The firm has amassed more than $5 million in loans and grants since its
founding in 2004 by Pollack and Pamula -- mostly in grants from the
National Institutes of Health. It's one of two early-stage North Carolina
biotechnology companies that received $15,000 Business Development Loans
from the Biotechnology Center last year.
The firm is also among 16 North Carolina organizations awarded a total
of $696,000 in state innovation grants as part of the new One North
Carolina Small Business Fund, approved by the General Assembly last year
with $1 million for the first round of grants for small businesses involved
with research and technology development. Successful applicants had to
already have a federal Small Business Innovation Research or a Small
Business Technology Transfer award. Advanced Liquid Logic received $34,782
for a NASA-sponsored project to develop its lab-on-a-chip to perform
diagnostic tests.
The Biotechnology Center, headquartered in Research Triangle Park, is a
private, non-profit corporation supported by the N.C. General Assembly. Its
mission is to provide long-term economic and societal benefits to North
Carolina by supporting biotechnology research, business and education
statewide.
Visit the Biotechnology Center's Web site at http://www.ncbiotech.org, and
Advanced Liquid Logic at http://www.liquid-logic.com.
SOURCE North Carolina Biotechnology Center
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Related links:
http://www.ncbiotech.org
http://www.liquid-logic.com
CONTACT:
Jim Shamp, News & Publications Editor, North
Carolina Biotechnology Center, +1-919-541-9366 or
jim_shamp@ncbiotech.org
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