OrthoSystems Inc., a biotechnology start-up company founded by Syracuse
University researchers, has been awarded a $977,000 Phase II grant from the Small
Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Institutes of Health to
further develop and commercialize the company's core technology-a novel
technique to aid in the discovery of biological probes that can be used in the diagnosis
and treatment of disease.
OrthoSystems is affiliated with SU's Center for Advanced Systems and Engineering
(CASE Center) and is located in SU's Center for Science and Technology. The
company was founded in 2003 by SU alumnus Mark McPike G'01 and chemistry
professors Philip N. Borer and Bruce Hudson.
To maximize the potential of their core technology, OrthoSystems researchers needed
to find a faster way to discover DNA probes. Previous SBIR funding enabled the
company to purchase an instrument called a Geniom One (from Febit Inc.) that can
synthesize up to a half million DNA strands on a glass slide. The instrument is one of
only eight such instruments in the United States, says McPike, OrthoSystems' chief
science officer.
While DNA contains all of a person's hereditary information, in its most elemental
form, it is composed of four chemical bases-adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C)
and thymine (T)-held together by sugar and phosphate molecules. The ingredients
can be chemically combined in millions of different ways to create synthetic DNA
libraries.
The Geniom One synthesizes DNA on a glass biochip. After the biochip is created,
the researchers inject samples of protein molecules derived from living cells onto the
biochip to test whether any of the DNA strands will bind to the protein. DNA
molecules that bind to proteins are called aptamers. Aptamers are powerful molecules
that have the potential to be used in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. When
positive "hits" are identified on the glass biochip, the researchers use a traditional
DNA synthesizer to create larger quantities of a DNA "hit" for further study.
"We are using DNA in a very non-traditional manner," McPike says. "The libraries
of DNA we create in the laboratory are not related to any living organisms; however,
the synthetic DNA aptamers do have the potential to bind with protein molecules
that come from living organisms. That binding property can be exploited to create
new drugs or new diagnostic tools."
For example, if an aptamer binds to a surface protein on a virus, there is a potential
that the aptamer could be used as a drug to prevent or slow the progression of the
virus, McPike says. In other cases, such as in cancer therapy, an aptamer could act as
a "bloodhound" to facilitate the delivery of a drug molecule to its target cells.
Aptamers can also be used as biosensors to diagnose diseases or to detect proteins in
environmental samples, such as water.
OrthoSystems has received other phase I and phase II grants from the National
Institutes of Health and the Department of Homeland Security. Grant support from
the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems has been
awarded to both the company and SU to develop sensors to test for environmental
contaminants in public water supplies. Other support for related projects in Borer's
lab at SU has come from the NIH and the New York State Office of Science,
Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR).
McPike says much of the fundamental research that forms the basis for the
company's core technology was done by Borer and Hudson in their SU research labs.
The two scientists have collaborated for many years to find new ways to attack the
virus that causes AIDS. As an SU graduate student, McPike collaborated with Borer
on his HIV research before graduating in 2001 with a Ph.D. in chemistry. McPike
spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in
Boston and returned to Syracuse in 2003 to work with Borer in the new company.
Borer's research focuses on the structure, dynamics and stability in nucleic acid (DNA
and RNA) systems. After receiving a Ph.D. from the University of California at
Berkeley in 1972, he held a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. A
member of the Berkeley team that developed the first rules for the stability of base-
paired RNA and DNA structures, Borer was also a consultant, staff scientist, and
director of research and development for New Methods Research Inc. (NMRi), which
created and sold software for use in chemical and biochemical analysis; and a co-
founder of Advanced Resonance Technologies Inc., which develops products for
chemical analysis by nuclear magnetic resonance.
Hudson specializes in biochemical applications of fluorescence spectroscopy and in
neutron scattering and diffraction. He is an expert in thermodynamics and chemical
kinetics. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1972 and has held
positions at Stanford University and the University of Oregon prior to coming to SU.
Peter Kent, president of OrthoSystems, directs the company's overall market and
operational strategy, including high-level product development and key industry
partnerships. Kent is a licensed engineer, who has also managed a public water
system and is familiar with methods for monitoring water quality. He received a
bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in business
administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
