Life Science Member Profiles of the Month
Drug & Laboratory Disposal,
Inc.
Founded:
1977
President: Brent Walter
Facility: Plainwell, Michigan
Employees: 49
www.dld-inc.com
Drug & Laboratory Disposal, Inc. (DLD) began providing small volume
chemical waste disposal services in 1977 as a result of sweeping new
environmental legislation requiring the identification and regulation of
hazardous waste.Drug & Laboratory
Disposal is a licensed treatment, storage, and disposal facility (TSDF), and
although it is capable of handling up to 5,000 gallons of client waste at a
time, it specializes in disposing of chemical and biotech waste in containers
ranging from a few ounces to 55 gallons.
In 2002, DLD received its Reverse Distributor license from the DEA. As a result, DLD is now one of the few
facilities in the country that possesses both a DEA license to dispose of schedule I-V controlled
substances and an EPA license to treat almost all hazardous and nonhazardous
chemical waste.
Drug &
Laboratory Disposal’s status as a TSDF allows its processed, outgoing wastes to
be manifested with DLD as the named waste generator.(In contrast, non-TSDF companies such as waste brokers ship their
client’s hazardous waste directly to the final hazardous waste disposal
facility with their client listed as the generator.) Although all waste processed by DLD is subsequently disposed of
at larger facilities, the ability to list itself as the generator on outgoing
waste reduces its clients long-term exposure to environmental liability.
Drug &
Laboratory Disposal is unique in many other ways as well.One significant example is its emphasis on
knowledgeable drivers. Rather than
trying to teach a truck driver to be a chemist, DLD basically takes degreed
chemists and teaches them to be truck drivers by thoroughly training them in
the applicable waste and transportation regulations. These ‘drivers’ then possess
the skills and expertise to properly identify, sort and package nearly all
hazardous waste as well as to prepare the manifest and transport the waste to
DLD for treatment. As a result,
DLD’s customers experience unequaled customer service. This is especially helpful to incubator and
other small customers who often lack the necessary time and resources to learn
and comply with all the applicable hazardous waste storage and transportation
regulations.
Drug &
Laboratory Disposal’s client list ranges from Fortune 500 pharmaceutical giants
to incubator biotech companies. It is
currently the preferred disposal vendor for over 30 Michbio member companies,
50 hospitals, and 45 universities and colleges within the State of Michigan.
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POLY Bioinformatics
POLY Bioinformatics
Founded: 2007
Director: Michael Conlin
Headquarters: Ann Arbor, MI
Team 7
Phone: 734-678-7342
Website http://www.polyergic.com/polybio.htm
POLY
Bioinformatics provides information technology, advanced analytics, and
bioinformatics consulting services to assist organizations in collecting, organizing, and
managing chemical and biological data, and converting that information into
useful knowledge.
POLY Bioinformatics provides software systems and
services enabling scientists and researchers to better process, analyze,
visually explore and understand very large amounts of disparate data. One observer described POLY
Bioinformatics as “… ‘rocket science' software applied to Biotech and Pharma
challenges”.
To reduce data collection costs, POLY
Bioinformatics also assists clients in automating laboratory processes. With a certified ISO 9001/13485 auditor on
staff, POLY Bioinformatics has experience developing systems, processes, and
documentation in compliance with the ISO 13485 medical device standard. POLY Bioinformatics can assist clients in
audit readiness evaluations / preparations.
To shorten
development cycles and improve the quality and speed of data
analysis, POLY Bioinformatics utilizes sophisticated data mining and analytics
in conjunction with high-performance systems that enable rapid, complex
analysis of very large data volumes.
The approach leverages
human intelligence and creativity with computational speed and automated
analysis. Solutions integrate multiple
data sources, including clinical and discovery research information, to provide
researchers with direct access to all pertinent information. POLY Bioinformatics has significant
experience in data preparation, high-content data analysis and very large scale
database implementation and performance optimization.
POLY Bioinformatics can assist organizations in areas such as:
o
in silico testing and high-throughput virtual
screening
o
drug discovery computational modeling services
o
predicting compound results for in vitro assays
o
identifying the most biologically active compounds
o
optimizing compounds in multiple-objective test
scenarios
o
identifying novel drug candidates
o
developing
and conducting training programs
Laboratory automation projects
POLY Bioinformatics principals have performed include:
o
Developed
LIMS interfacing application for 22 different automated laboratory instruments
o
Instituted
ISO 13485 compliant software development process for a leading biotechnology
diagnostic instrumentation company
o
Designed,
developed and integrated software/firmware/electromechanical subsystems for
multiple laboratory automated diagnostic instruments
o
Instituted
automated testing resulting in 10X increase of software, firmware and hardware
maturity
o
Architected
and developed software for multiple automation control platforms, motion
control, instrument applications, digital/analog input/output modules, and
software/firmware interfaces & embedded firmware
o
Project
Charter development for an automated clinical instrument
POLY Bioinformatics is productizing technology to facilitate automated
recognition of information in scientific literature in combination with
automated annotation and indexing to facilitate search by researchers. POLY Bioinformatics is currently seeking
researcher perspectives regarding literature search and review challenges. Researchers are encouraged to contact POLY
Bioinformatics directly for further discussion.
The POLY Bioinformatics team includes specialists in computational drug
discovery, combinatorial chemistry, bioinformatics, molecular modeling,
cheminformatics, high-performance computing, sophisticated analytics, machine
learning, and data mining.
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Venomix, Inc.
Venomix, Inc.
Founded: 2005
President
& CEO: John L. McIntyre, Ph.D.
Headquarters:
Southwestern Michigan Innovation Center, Kalamazoo
Employees:
five
Website:
http://www.venomix.net/
Venomix, Inc. is developing a new generation of
insecticides using peptides from spiders. The company’s technology is based on ground-breaking research
conducted at the University of Connecticut.
Over 50 unique, spider-venom peptides with novel sites of action have
been identified. This patented
technology is exclusively licensed to Venomix. Venomix products are ideally suited
for the environmentally conscious, twenty-first century. The company closed a $2.2 million first
round financing in April of 2007.
The company has three products under
development. All are highly effective
against insects and related pests and all are harmless to non-target species,
including humans. Because Venomix
insecticides work through active sites that are different from current chemical
pesticides, they bypass existing problems of insect resistance and cross
reactivity.
The global market for Venomix insecticides is in
excess of $15 billion. Target markets
include agriculture, animal health and specialty non-crop uses such as
household insects and commercial pest control. Because spider-venom peptides have broad insecticidal
properties, each product developed by Venomix will likely have applications in
more than one market. This will greatly
expand the market potential for Venomix products.
There are three elements in the company’s business
strategy. Venomix is currently
developing three spider-venom peptides.
It will sell these products directly in selected agricultural
markets. The company anticipates its
first product sales in 2010.
Concurrently, Venomix will partner with major insecticide manufacturers
for agronomic crops applications, such as corn, soybeans and wheat. These partnerships will include up front
licensing fees, cooperative research and development and royalties on
sales. One such agreement has been
signed with Chemtura Corporation. In
addition to an up-front payment, the Chemtura contract calls for research
milestone payments, the first of which has been reached. Finally, Venomix will partner with companies
to expand the sales of the three Venomix-developed products beyond the markets
directly targeted by the company.
Venomix also plans partnerships for international sales, with the
possible exception of Mexico.
Venomix has developed a robust research and
development strategy to maximize the value of its technology. The first element of the strategy is to
develop a series of spider-venom peptides for use as insecticides. Three such peptides, each with a different
mode of action, are currently in the development pipeline. Venomix has fully characterized the three
peptides and the active binding site for each.
The second element of the R&D plan is to use both rational design
technology and high throughput screening to develop chemicals that mimic the
insecticidal activity of spider-venom peptides.
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