By James Klein, Larta VOX Editor

Intrinsic Bioprobes, Inc. (IBI) was given the Small Company Innovator of the Year award at the third-annual Arizona Governor's Celebration of Innovation in November, 2005. The company completed Larta Institute's 2005 National Institutes of Health Commercialization Assistance Program and presented at Larta's 2005 Venture Forum.

More than 1,000 people attended the Governor's Celebration of Innovation, which recognized entrepreneurs, academics and others from the State of Arizona who have contributed to high-tech and biotech advances.

Governor Janet Napolitano honored Arizona's most technologically innovative companies in three categories: Large Company, Small Company, and Startup. IBI qualified for Small Company Innovator of the Year because it has been operating for at least two years and generates less than $50 million in annual revenue.

The event was held at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix and was sponsored by the Arizona Technology Council, the Southern Arizona Tech Council, the Arizona Commerce Department and the Aerospace and Defense Cluster.

The Tempe-based Intrinsic Bioprobes develops technology to quickly analyze proteins and biomarkers in order to speed up the drug development process for treatments related to cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

IBI was one of 114 companies that graduated from the first year of the National Institutes of Health Commercialization Assistance Program (NIH-CAP), a nationwide program designed to assist some of the most promising life science companies bring their technologies to market. Intrinsic Bioprobes is also one of 124 life science companies participating in the current 2005-06 NIH-CAP, which began in October, 2005.

A select number of NIH SBIR Phase II grantees are chosen each year for the NIH-CAP, a ten-month program of training workshops, individual mentoring and consulting sessions, and public capital-raising events. NIH-CAP is funded by the National Institute of Health, and is managed and executed by Larta Institute.

"Larta's NIH-CAP was very helpful, in large part because of the people," explained Randall W. Nelson, Ph.D., President and CEO of Instrinsic Bioprobes. "Our mentor was Dr. Jerry Galwas. His thirty-plus years of industry experience really helped us improve our presentation and communication style in front of prospective partners. Because he has worked in the kinds of companies we want to approach, and has had companies like ours present to him in the past, he knows what works and was able to give us that perspective."

Intrinsic Bioprobes was also one of 130 companies that presented to over 1,000 investors, potential partners, customers and others at Larta Institute's 2005 Venture Forum conference May 25-26 at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles. The 2005 Venture Forum showcased 70 NIH-CAP life science companies and 60 other companies representing a variety of industries. The next Venture Forum will be held in the San Francisco Bay Area in June, 2006.

"Working through Larta, we can see how to take our company to the next level, which likely means partnering with a bigger company," continued Nelson. "We have a tangible product line that could benefit from a larger company's distribution chain. Our products could become part of their product line. Larta could help us find that partner."

IBI is a ten-year old Arizona State University spin-out company with an exceptional track record in the development and use of mass spectrometry-based approaches for the characterization of proteins retrieved directly from human biological fluids and extracts. The company is a private C-class corporation in the State of Arizona, with the majority shareholders employed in the company. IBI's mission is "…to improve the diagnosis and treatment of disease through the application of novel proteomics findings and proprietary technologies".

The company has received numerous government research grants, including three NIH grants in 2005 alone: an exploratory grant from the National Center for Research Resources, a Phase I STTR grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and a Phase I SBIR grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

On December 13, Intrinsic Bioprobes was issued its tenth patent, entitled "Mass Spectrometric Immunoassay". The patent (USPTO 6,974,704) is the first in a series of applications, and protects methods using antibody-based affinity isolation in combination with MALDI-TOFMS for determining the presence of analytes (proteins) in physiological samples. This targeted proteomics approach has broad application in clinical research and diagnostics, as described in a recent manuscript authored by a scientist at IBI and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [Nedelkov, D., et al, Investigating diversity in human plasma proteins, PNAS, Vol. 102, Pages 10852-857 (2005)].

IBI's Nelson attributes his company's success to three components: focus, innovation, and diligence. "Focus is about recognizing a problem and working towards a practical solution," said Nelson. "As a company, we've focused on developing products for analyzing proteins in humans using targeted proteomics technologies. This approach is in contrast to grooming a startup company for an IPO, which was a path many companies took in the late 90's. Many companies that raised millions of dollars for proteomics research simply aren't around anymore. We've taken a more traditional organic approach, which foremost required developing products that generate revenues.

"Innovation is the second key component. Over the past decade we have conceptualized, designed, patented, built and applied innovative approaches to analyzing human proteins. More times than not, people don't get past the first step - conceptualizing. In proteomics, it seems everyone is focused on bringing out new technologies, and very few do. They don't realize how hard it is to move past the conceptualization stage and bring technologies to market.

"The third component is diligence. Essentially, you don't just pick up a bat and instantly become Babe Ruth. It takes time to understand and refine what you are up to, become good at it, and finally lock onto a viable commercial product. Most people don't have the patience for it. This sort of diligence results in IBI being one of the few startup proteomics companies that have survived over the past decade.

Intrinsic Bioprobes will likely be among the many outstanding NIH-CAP companies presenting at the 2006 Venture Forum in June. For more information on the Venture Forum, contact Jill Whalen at jwhalen@larta.org or 213 765-4836.

For more information on Intrinsic Bioprobes, click here or go to http://www.intrinsicbio.com/.

For more information on the NIH-CAP, click here, go to http://www.larta.org/nihcap.asp, or contact Ketaki Sood, Program Director, NIH-CAP, Larta Institute at (213) 765-4824 or ksood@larta.org.

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