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By CHARLOTTE HSU

Published: Nov. 1, 2012

UB’s Biosciences Incubator has selected its first tenants: AccuTheranostics, AndroBioSys and Ceno Technologies, three companies that will benefit from the facility’s location in UB’s Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC) on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC).

AccuTheranostics, previously based in the UB Technology Incubator at Baird Research Park adjacent to the North Campus, is dedicated to helping cancer patients personalize chemotherapy treatment to achieve the best possible results.

AndroBioSys, the brainchild of two Roswell Park Cancer Institute researchers, is developing novel ways to detect, image and treat early prostate cancer.

And Ceno Technologies, a materials science company, is moving its biological sciences division to the incubator, where Ceno researchers will study and develop nanoparticles for delivering drugs.

Executives at all three firms cite the UB Biosciences Incubator’s proximity to potential research and clinical partners as a key benefit.

“We are on the medical campus now, which means we will have better and easier communication with the Roswell staff,” says Sherry Bradford, founding president of AccuTheranostics, which relocated to the incubator this August.

The 4,000-square-foot incubator houses offices and state-of-the-art wet labs on the fifth floor of the CTRC/Gates Vascular Institute. The 10-story building, which UB and Kaleida Health jointly opened earlier this year, is at Goodrich and Ellicott streets in Buffalo.

The incubator is run by UB’s Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR). Clients pay to rent space, but receive free access to such services as specialized equipment; seminars on entrepreneurship; guidance on business needs, such as marketing; and assistance applying for grants and seeking investment capital.

These resources are particularly helpful for life science entrepreneurs—like Bradford—who come from research backgrounds and have limited experience in the business world.

“STOR facilitates the transfer of UB discoveries into enterprises that create value and provide products and services that benefit the public good,” says Woody Maggard, UB associate vice provost who oversees STOR’s incubator program. “One of the key ways we do this is through incubating new companies, just as we have at the Baird Research Park since 1988. The UB Biosciences Incubator will extend this effort by collaborating with the CTRC to bring additional UB discoveries to market.”

About AccuTheranostics

AccuTheranostics is dedicated to helping doctors identify which chemotherapy treatments likely will work on a patient’s tumor—and which likely won’t.

To achieve this goal, the company tests different chemotherapy combinations on cells biopsied from patients’ tumors. These tests reveal which mixtures of drugs are likely to be effective in combatting each individual’s unique cancer, says Sherry Bradford, the founding president.

So far, AccuTheranostics has screened hundreds of tumors. The firm’s ChemoFit test has been 98 percent accurate in identifying resistant drugs and 97 percent accurate in identifying effective drugs, Bradford says.

As an oncology researcher, Bradford finds entrepreneurship rewarding because of the difference she is making in people’s lives. She recalls what one cancer patient told her about chemotherapy, which can cause debilitating side effects: “It’s one thing to get sick on a drug that works. It’s another thing to get sick on a drug that doesn’t work.”

“That’s why we do what we do,” Bradford says.

As incubator clients, Bradford and her colleagues have attended seminars on topics including marketing and intellectual property. STOR introduced the firm to its attorneys and a business consultant.

Bradford says moving into the UB Biosciences Incubator will help AccuTheranostics grow. The firm is applying for certification under New York State’s Clinical Laboratory Evaluation Program, which is necessary for the company to receive health insurance reimbursements for its services, company representatives say.

About AndroBioSys

AndroBioSys specializes in advanced detection, diagnostic imaging and therapeutics for early prostate cancer. One of the company’s major goals is to develop techniques that will enable doctors to target drugs and imaging agents specifically to the prostate, while limiting the exposure of these chemicals in other parts of the body.

The company’s founders are Gary J. Smith and James L. Mohler, both researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Smith is a member of Roswell’s prostate program and urology department. Mohler, another prostate cancer expert, chairs Roswell’s urology department and serves as the institution’s senior vice president for translational research. He also is a professor of urology at UB.

Smith says AndroBioSys is working to address one of the most important issues in prostate cancer treatment today: the need to give doctors better tools for predicting which prostate tumors will threaten patients’ lives.

“Statistically, one in six men is diagnosed with prostate cancer. However, the vast majority of these cancers remain clinically insignificant, such that the person is likely to die with the cancer, and not of the cancer,” Smith explains. “Since the two groups can’t be differentiated, the tendency is to treat all people aggressively, and the downside to that is two-fold. It’s very expensive, and second, there is a high probability of side effects like incontinence and impotence to what may be unnecessary treatment, which really changes the quality of life.”

AndroBioSys is developing a serum-based diagnostic assay for detecting prostate cancer and identifying the subset of patients in which the cancer is likely to progress in a dangerous manner.

The company also is studying techniques for targeting imaging agents and treatments like chemotherapy to the prostate blood vessels. Smith says the firm’s new location in the UB Biosciences Incubator will be beneficial to this research, helping to facilitate partnerships with UB researchers focused on developing innovative technologies in microvascular imaging.

About Ceno Technologies

Ceno Technologies is a global leader in developing high-quality, advanced particle technologies. The firm’s scientists develop novel materials for use by the automotive, manufacturing, military, pharmaceutical and other industries.

While Ceno Technologies formed in 2007 with a focus on materials science, the company quickly branched out into biomedical research, investigating the use of small particles to deliver drugs and support photodynamic therapy for an array of diseases.

The firm is based in the Innovation Center on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, but will move its Bio Division to the UB Biosciences Incubator.

This relocation will facilitate partnerships with medical researchers. It also will enable the company to isolate biological sciences experiments from other materials work, reducing the risk of cross-contamination, says Scottpatrick Sellitto, CEO of Ceno Technologies.

Both these factors are important as the company looks to expand its work in the biomedical sector, with the hope of bringing new research and manufacturing jobs to Western New York, he says.

“We do plan on expanding as much as we can,” Sellitto says. “We’re growing quite well, and I believe it’s a very promising year. The move to the Clinical and Translational Research Center building is going to be very helpful not just for us, but also for the partners we want to help. We collaborate with a lot of medical doctors, PhDs and university professors who have requested our services.”