Scott Acton, professor in the Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Transitioning research to the marketplace has become the ultimate goal for many universities and think tanks across the country. The complex translational processes involved in converting research to products and successfully delivering those products to fill a market need have academicians, CEOs and politicians taking notice.
It’s no wonder, then, that U.Va. engineers are committed to this process: in November 2006, U.Va. Engineering researchers developed CellTrek, an innovative software application that will revolutionize drug research and the winner of a University-wide business concept competition, sponsored in part by U.Va.’s Darden Graduate School of Business.
Developed by a team of U.Va. Engineering researchers — Professor Scott Acton of the Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Professor Klaus Ley of Department of Biomedical Engineering and alumnus Adam Goobic (ECE BS ’02, ECE MS ’03) — CellTrek speeds up the drug discovery process for inflammatory diseases such as heart disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis and arthritis, among others, by up to a factor of 50. CellTrek will most directly benefit the health care industry — from pharmaceutical companies to doctors to, most importantly, individuals suffering from these conditions. The research team plans to market and sell CellTrek through their company, Just Tracking Inc.
CellTrek software could help track and monitor drug effectiveness in a variety of circumstances. For example, a cardiovascular research laboratory might collect video on thousands of cells in a single experiment to record how they respond to a certain type of drug or other treatment. The video would then be passed to Just Tracking Inc. via the Internet. A Just Tracking employee would then use CellTrek to automatically trace all cells in the experiment. CellTrek comprehensively records all tracking information and automatically produces a complete report. This vital data is then passed back to the research lab, communicating a new, thorough understanding of the drug’s performance during the experiment.
The primary indicators of the intensity of the inflammatory process are the velocity and distributions of thousands of rolling leukocytes (white blood cells). Currently, researchers track leukocytes by hand, one at a time. In a single experiment, that can mean hours of video that must be viewed frame by frame, where an hour of footage equals 108,000 frames and each frame contains anywhere from 10 to 50 leukocytes. The manual tracking process is extremely time intensive, laborious and inherently flawed due to researcher bias (i.e., the researcher may unconsciously tend to select only bright cells or only ones in certain orientations over a period of time). CellTrek speeds up this portion of the research process and eliminates researcher bias. The software works to automatically collect and report vital information on inflammatory processes, including the velocity, acceleration, flux (number of leukocytes flowing through a point) and sheer force (the force at which a leukocyte crashes into endothelium walls) of the leukocytes.
“This technology holds promise for solving a host of biomedical problems,” said Acton. “Further advances in this technology could enable tracking microbubbles in ultrasound-guided drug delivery, natural killer T cells in the liver in the investigation of drugs for cancer and epithelial cells in wound-healing processes.”
The research team sees the product as filling the immediate need to enhance the development of inflammatory and anti-inflammatory medicine to improve treatment for a variety of conditions. According to the CellTrek team’s business plan, projected total revenues by year three could reach $14.5 million.
The University of Virginia’s highly ranked Darden Graduate School of Business obviously sees the potential. Acton, Ley and Goobic advanced through several rounds before defeating approximately 26 teams and presenting in front of four venture capitalists judges and the audience for the first place prize.
The U.Va. Business Concept Competition, co-sponsored by Darden’s Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club and the Batton Institute, serves to encourage the development of new business ventures by members of the U.Va. community. In addition to winning $3,000, the team receives the opportunity to qualify for the Darden Progressive Incubator, which includes one summer of additional monetary support, up to three months of infrastructure support, a business expense allowance, and guidance and mentoring by an advisory board consisting of Darden alumni, faculty and others.
“The multitude of people’s lives this research could help improve is staggering,” said James H., Aylor, dean of the Engineering School. “By transferring world-class research into a viable, award-winning business plan through the collaborative work being done by U.Va.’s Engineering School and Darden, this engineering team helps prove that U.Va. engineers use a variety of skill sets to influence our economy, our health care and our everyday lives.” |
