UA research-based company may speed disease detection and drug development

(BIO5 Institute – The University of Arizona) A company based on a University of Arizona chemist’s research may one day speed drug discovery and disease detection.

The new company, bioVidria, was started by Mary Wirth, UA Professor of Chemistry and a BIO5 member. BioVidria takes microarrays―slides containing collections of molecules that are used to detect other molecules, including those whose presence indicates disease―and coats them with a very thin layer of silica nanoparticles. The nanoparticle-coated microarrays are 10 times more sensitive than microarrays without the coating, and so they can detect much smaller concentrations of molecules―and thus potentially also detect cancers and other diseases sooner than is currently possible. The coated microarrays can also aid in developing drugs to treat diseases, and they can help with other forms of chemical analysis.
Potential bioVidria customers include pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies from around the world, as well as academic researchers. The Arizona Board of Regents recently gave its approval for Wirth, who developed the coating while a researcher at the university, to take on ownership of the company.

“All of us know people who’ve died of cancer, and if only the disease had been caught earlier, they would have survived,” Wirth says. “This technology is designed to achieve earlier diagnosis, so that more diseases are diagnosed at a stage where they’re curable.”

“BioVidria will allow research into drug discovery and disease detection to be done more robustly,” adds BIO5 Business Director Nina Ossanna, who is the senior licensing associate for the UA’s Office of Technology Transfer. “This is a fundamental technology with a lot of applications.”

The coating Wirth developed consists of particles only a few hundred nanometers, or billionths of a meter, wide―just one hundredth the width of a strand of human hair.  Because the silica nanoparticles are so small, a huge number of them fit into even bioVidria’s very thin coating, and a coating of so many small particles, working together, can detect more sensitively than conventional materials.

Usually cramming so many small particles together causes other problems―collectively the particles tend to become opaque rather than transparent, in much the way a fiber optic cable looks milky even though the individual fibers that comprise it are clear. An opaque coating would block rather than enhance the detection of molecules. But it turns out that so long as the silica nanoparticles are all the same size, they organize themselves into a crystalline pattern that allows them to remain transparent, even in large quantities.

Biovidria is on the verge of product launch, with product samples being beta tested by prospective customers. Wirth decided to found bioVidria in order to assure her work gets out where it can do the most good. “It’s a big step to form a company because it takes an enormous amount of your time,” Wirth says. “But if you have an idea that is useful it’s your duty to make it available.”

Wirth worked with the UA Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) and BIO5 to patent the silica coating and license it to bioVidria. “She [Wirth] expressed interest in starting a company, and so we supported her in doing that,” says Pat Jones, Director of OTT. “We also introduced her to the Arizona Center for Innovation (AZCI) to help set up the company. It was a very nice collaboration between OTT, BIO5, AZCI and a researcher.”

BioVidria’s manufacturing will remain in Tucson. “That’s one benefit of having a research university in our community,” Ossanna says. “New technology starts new companies that employ people here.” Three new biotechnology companies based on UA faculty research have received Arizona Board of Regents approval over the past few months. “BIO5 and OTT support starting companies that bring technology beyond the university for the public’s benefit,” Ossanna says.

“Academic research has a really big effect on people’s lives,” Wirth adds. “Virtually everything you see around you has been improved by academic research.”