Rutgers Start-up Companies

Ask.com

2009-09-19T13:58:00.002-04:00

A wholly owned business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI), Ask.com is a leading search engine on the Web. Millions of people turn to Ask.com to get what they are looking for online everyday. In 2001, Ask acquired Teoma, a 10-person start-up out of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and its unique index and search relevancy technology. Teoma was the first, and is still the only, major search technology based upon the clustering concept of subject-specific popularity: ExpertRank. In fact, Teoma means "expert" in Gaelic. Teoma has been the heart of Ask search technology since 2001. The power of the Teoma algorithm, now known as ExpertRank, makes Ask one of the world's most powerful and unique search engines.

Ask.com

Axion International Inc.

2009-09-19T13:35:00.000-04:00

Axion International designs. develops, and manufactures a new generation of eco-friendly structural building materials that are unlike virtually anything currently available. Axion's patented technologies, developed at Rutgers University, transform recycled consumer and industrial plastics into a myriad of structured products.

Compared to traditional infrastructural materials such as wood, steel or concrete, Axion's American-made products are more durable, significantly longer lasting, and formulated using proprietary processes comprised of 100% recycled plastic.

Axion International Inc.

Trident Biomedical, Inc. to Commercialize Rutgers’ Polymer Technologies for Advanced Medical Applications

2009-09-19T13:15:00.000-04:00

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Rutgers University and Trident Biomedical, Inc. (Trident), have announced an extensive license agreement covering a portfolio of more than 50 biomaterial patents and patent applications.

The portfolio is based on the inventions of Professor Joachim Kohn and his students at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, over the past 20 years. These polymer-based biomaterials safely degrade predominantly into naturally-occurring nutrients and metabolites within the body. These new biomaterials have the potential to provide dramatic improvements over existing therapies in a broad range of medical applications including orthopedics, tissue regeneration, surgery, infection prevention and drug delivery.

To fund the development of these second-generation polymer technologies, Trident has raised $1.26 million in its first round of financing from a group of private investors. Trident was assisted in this endeavor by Conexus Capital Advisors, Inc., a New Jersey-based financial advisory firm focusing on mergers, acquisitions and capital raisings. Robert Marcus, chairman of the New Jersey law firm of Norris McLaughlin & Marcus, will serve as the chairman of Trident’s board of directors.

Full Story

Connotate Technologies Inc.

2009-09-19T12:44:00.000-04:00

Connotate goes beyond search to create actionable business intelligence and collect unique and valuable data from the Web and Enterprise. As a leading provider of Web-monitoring and Web-mining solutions, Connotate uses knowledge management tools and machine-learning Intelligent Agents that can be trained to do anything a human can to harvest, monitor, extract, mash up, repurpose and integrate disparate sources of information and data. Located in New Brunswick, NJ, Connotate is rapidly expanding both its client base and employee staff. Our clients include large hedge funds, financial firms, global publishers, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, energy and Internet businesses, and federal and state government agencies.

Connotate Technologies Inc.

Tokutek Inc.

2009-09-19T12:34:00.000-04:00

Founded in 2006, Tokutek is an early stage company located in Lexington, MA. Tokutek was formed to commercialize a new storage technology developed at and licensed from MIT, Stony Brook, and Rutgers. Tokutek was founded to transform the way data is stored and retrieved, and deliver a quantum leap in the performance of databases and file systems. Tokutek software is based on Fractal Tree™ technology which dramatically accelerates key database and file system operations. Tokutek’s patent-pending technology is a result of eight years of research and development by experts in cache-oblivious algorithmics and is used to accelerate key database operations by orders of magnitude. Tokutek’s solution is based on a revolutionary new Fractal Tree™ technology. The Tokutek solution plugs into the back-end of any database, allowing operating practices to continue without change while the performance of the system improves dramatically.

Tokutek Inc.

REVA Medical

2009-09-19T12:06:00.000-04:00

Founded in 1998, REVA Medical is dedicated to developing interventional medical devices that leverage the Company's novel stent designs and biomaterials to improve the treatment of vascular disease.

The Company's flagship product is a bioresorbable coronary stent that is designed to fulfill the temporary need for a stent and then fade away, leaving only the healed vessel behind. This product promises to revolutionize the treatment of coronary artery disease.

REVA's chosen polymer - a tyrosine-derived polycarbonate developed by researches at Rutgers University - was developed specifically for vascular stent applications. It offers sustained biocompatibility, mechanical properties for stent performance and clinical visibility, all desired features for optimal polymer stent performance.

REVA Medical

Phytomedics Inc.

2009-09-19T12:01:00.000-04:00

Phytomedics mission is to discover, develop and manufacture novel multi-mechanism / multi-component pharmaceuticals using proprietary platform technologies.

Using itsunique set of capabilities, Phytomedics is leveraging a new FDA regulatory pathway to develop blockbuster pharmaceuticals cheaper, faster, with less risk, and longer exclusivity horizons than conventional drug development processes.

Phytomedics Inc.

SilaGene, Inc

2009-09-19T11:59:00.001-04:00

A team of researchers led by Rutgers' Samuel Gunderson has developed a novel gene silencing platform with very significant improvements over existing RNAi approaches. This may enable the development and discovery of a new class of drugs to treat a wide array of diseases. Critical to the technology is the approach this team took to specifically target RNA biosynthesis.

Gunderson, an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has created highly efficient gene silencing agents that function via a novel mechanism of action. The agents are single-stranded oligonucleotides, called U1 Adaptors, that have dual, and independent, functions. First is a target-gene binding domain that can be tailored to any gene. The second domain inhibits mRNA maturation by binding U1 snRNP, a component of the cellular splicing apparatus.

Silagene, Inc.

TYRX, Inc.

2009-09-19T11:59:00.000-04:00

TYRX utilizes a completely novel and proprietary family of bioresorbable polymers to create drug eluting products. These polymers have fostered the design and commercialization of a wide variety of drug-eluting products, from coated medical devices to sustained release injectable formulations. All of these polymers are created from naturally occurring substances and degrade in the presence of water. TYRX was the first and remains the only company to have achieved FDA clearance for a dual-drug eluting product that contains a novel resorbable material.

TYRX was initially founded on the premise that more effective implantable devices could result from the creation of better bioresorbable materials. The company created that vision via a broad license from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey to technology invented in the laboratory of Joachim Kohn, PhD. The Company currently holds in excess of 16 patents that permit the design, synthesis, and use of thousands of unique resorbable polymers.

TYRX, Inc.

WellGen, Inc.

2009-09-19T11:26:00.000-04:00

WellGen develops and commercializes Medical Foods that treat and prevent disease. WellGen uses a proprietary Nutrigenomic science-based discovery model called Alignomx™ to validate proprietary natural products that affect expression of genes at the root of the inflammatory process. They are substantiated for efficacy and safety by human clinical testing. WellGen’s Medical Foods address unmet needs. Where appropriate, products are also commercialized in Functional Food or Dietary Supplement markets.

WellGen, Inc.

Scientific Learning Corp.

2009-09-19T10:51:00.000-04:00

Scientific Learning provides education software to K-12 schools, educational institutions, speech and language clinics, and learning and tutorial centers around the world.The origins of Scientific Learning go back more than 30 years to the work conducted by our founders, noted research scientists Drs. Michael Merzenich and Bill Jenkins at the University of California, San Francisco, and Drs. Paula Tallal and Steven Miller at Rutgers University. Their research collaboration established several key findings:

The core cognitive and linguistic attributes that allow a student to learn can be improved through intensive intervention.
Acoustically modified speech technology can help build a wide range of critical language and reading skills.
Computers can be used to create interactive, adaptive learning interventions based on a neuroscience foundation that yield years of growth in as little as a few weeks.

Based on this research, Drs. Merzenich, Jenkins, Tallal, and Miller created the Fast ForWord® family of reading intervention products. These products use patented technology to create an optimal learning environment that exercises and trains the brain to process more efficiently.

Scientific Learning Corp.

Nexomics Biosciences, Inc.

2009-09-19T10:42:00.000-04:00

Nexomics Biosciences is dedicated to developing and commercializing novel scientific discoveries. Nexomics utilizes proprietary platform technology to offer a broad array of gene-to-structure services to the biopharmaceutical community.

The Nexomics patent portfolio provides proprietary technology to enhance our service offerings as well as support novel drug target validation. Nexomics leverages its expertise in protein biochemistry, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and xray crystallography to aid its customers discovery efforts.

Nexomics Biosciences, Inc.

Kordinate LLC

2009-09-19T10:19:00.001-04:00

Kordinate LLC. offers asset-tracking and equipment utilization analysis products for clinics and hospitals with limited resources that spend a huge amount of time searching for their equipment and personnel. Kordinate's technology can help you manage your assets by knowing where they are and how they are used all the time.

Kordinate's solutions accurately position RFID tags in real-time in many challenging radio environments, for example irregular indoors spaces, as well as apply to long-lived energy-constrained applications.

Kordinate's unique combination of hardware and software work with minimal human effort. Simply place a few landmarks at known locations, use your network for normal data traffic, and then begin tracking the location of all your WiFi, Zigbee and Bluetooth devices or our special lines of tags. No additional set up is required.

Kordinate LLC

Blueberry Health Inc.

2009-09-19T10:14:00.000-04:00

Blueberry Health Inc. was founded by Rutgers and New Jersey blueberry farmers. Blueberry Health's chief commercial products are its Jersey Blues Iced Tea and its Herbalist and Alchemist Blueberry Solid Extract. Both are sold in health food stores and specialty retailers. The market for Jersey Blues sweetened and unsweetened iced tea extends into Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and the extract product is sold nationwide.

Blueberry Health Inc

Titan Folding Technologies, Inc.

2009-09-19T09:15:00.000-04:00

Titan Folding Technologies Inc. enables a new generation of stronger, lighter and lower cost structural panel materials. This unique process endows conventional sheet materials with exceptional and superior performance characterizes. Paper takes the strength of plastic…plastic approaches the strength of aluminum…aluminum challenges the strength of steel.

Titan folding will manufacturer initial product entries in large markets related to structural and configurable panels that provide stronger, lighter and cost effective alternatives for walls, floors, roofs, modular shelters, recreational vehicles, containers, pallets and other industries.

•University invention: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Protected IP: US Patent and Patent Applications

Titan Folding Technologies, Inc.

XStream Systems, Inc.

2009-09-19T08:33:00.000-04:00

XStream Systems, Inc. is a material identification company that specializes in pharmaceutical authentication. Our solutions provide rapid verification of pharmaceuticals anywhere along the supply chain. Through simple-to-operate systems, we bring analysis where it is need most.

The XT250™ Material Identification System enables testing of pharmaceuticals inside the original manufacturer’s bottles, leaving the seal intact. The equipment’s superior sample penetration allows the identification of contents inside opaque plastic, cardboard and even metal packaging.

XStream Systems, Inc.

UV Solutions Inc

2009-09-19T07:41:00.000-04:00

UV Solutions Inc. (UVS) has developed an innovative method for the generation of ultraviolet light for use in surface photochemistry. By varying the excimer gases employed, nearly any output wavelength can be produced in the range between 60nm and 353nm.

UVS technology delivers the narrowest bandwidths possible for all wavelengths available. Bandwidths of 3nm or less are of particular importance in the curing industry where photochemistries are often compromised due to the non-specific wavelengths commercially available.

Lamps based on these new methods are the most efficient ultraviolet light sources available. UVS electricity-to-light conversion efficiencies are greater than 50% -- today's conventional systems can claim less than half this efficiency at best.

UVS technology is all the more extraordinary in that its lamps are made entirely of recyclable materials and completely eliminate any use of mercury.

UV Solutions Inc

Angiologix Inc

2009-08-30T07:33:00.000-04:00

Angiologix Inc. is a medical diagnostic device company whose revolutionary products diagnose a key marker of cardiovascular disease – endothelial dysfunction. The company will capitalize on the rapidly growing market for cardiovascular diagnostic products by providing its customers – physicians and patients – with tools for the early detection and monitoring of cardiovascular disease. The company envisions that products for the diagnosis of endothelial dysfunction will become as ubiquitous as blood pressure monitors.

Scarlet Computing Solutions, LLC

2009-07-21T06:14:00.000-04:00

Scarlet Computing Solutions, LLC provides hosted software solutions to universities that simplify the admissions process.

Brighter Ideas, Inc.

2008-09-19T10:31:00.000-04:00

Brighter Ideas, Inc. (Bii) is a biotechnology organization committed to advancing GFP and fluorescent protein technology through industry leading expertise in research and education. Bii offers unique high throughput screening assays, protein purification kits, purified antibodies and premium quality proteins.

Brighter Ideas, Inc.