NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The University of Maryland, Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park have granted molecular diagnostics firm Cellth Systems an exclusive license to commercially develop a cell-tethering technology that allows for real-time analysis of circulating tumor cells.
Cellth also said today that TEDCO has awarded it $150,000 through the Maryland Innovation Initiative program, which will help advance the device toward commercialization.
The technology licensed to Cellth allows researchers to quantify phenotypic changes in CTCs in real time as they are exposed to a battery of chemotherapeutic drugs, Philip Robilotto, chief commercialization officer of the UM tech transfer initiative UM Ventures, said in a statement.
The technology allows for "immediate, detailed, quantitative, real-time examination," added Stuart Martin, co-inventor of the platform and a professor in the departments of physiology and oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "There is no need for cells to grow or express proteins, avoiding the traditional weeks- to months-long cell growth process, and yielding a drug-response study within an hour."
Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed.