Mitegen Awarded $250K NIH STTR Phase II Grant

The funding, to begin July 1, 2011 and continue through until April 31, 2013 will provide for tooling and manpower to further proprietary ultra-transparent drop-pinning plate technologies that have been developed at Cornell University and licensed to Mitegen.   First generation prototypes were developed in 2010 for initial performance studies, and yielded excellent results with X-ray scatter significantly lower than currently available plates.

“This patented technology promises to address many deficiencies of existing crystallization plates, and allow in-situ X-ray inspection of crystallization experiment outcomes.” says Robert Thorne, Chairman and CTO of Mitegen. “Our goal is to deliver a low-cost plate in a standard format so that it can be rapidly adopted.”

30% of the award will be filtered back to Cornell for continued fundamental research on drop pinning and exploration of applications to other areas of biotechnology.  The remainder of the funds will be used to develop second generation prototypes, tooling, and supply chains.  Test product will be available to Beta partners later in 2011 and commercial production of the first products will commence thereafter.
 
“Mitegen is proud to continue its tradition of innovation and advancement in tools for small molecule handling and crystallography.  Awards such as this are fundamental to the development of new products and the growth of emerging businesses”, according to Robert Newman, CEO of Mitegen  ” we are grateful for the continued partnership of universities such as Cornell and funding from NIH to help develop the science behind future innovations that will lead to more effective products for research scientists worldwide.”