Newswise — A new company is being created as a spin-off from Virginia Tech research to develop nutritional interventions against chronic inflammatory and infectious diseases. BioTherapeutics Inc. will promote health and well-being through the discovery and development of nutraceuticals — naturally occurring molecules that can be integrated into nutritional products and functional food ingredients.
BioTherapeutics Inc. was newly incorporated in August, 2008, with the purpose of introducing novel Virginia Tech-developed nutraceutical technologies into the marketplace. The company was founded by Dr. Josep Bassaganya-Riera, Associate Professor at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech, who has more than 15 years experience working at the interface between immunology and nutrition. Dr. Bassaganya-Riera said, "BioTherapeutics Inc. will provide a platform for translating new scientific knowledge arising from leading university research into products and technologies that improve people's health and well-being."
The mission of BioTherapeutics Inc. is to develop novel, orally active, naturally occurring compounds that have proven scientific efficacy and have been shown by clinical research to have substantial health claims. Each technology in BioTherapeutics' product pipeline has shown efficacy in mouse studies and is linked to chronic inflammatory or infectious disease prevention or treatment. BioTherapeutics has already licensed three U.S. patents from VTIP and filed another in Europe.
The products developed by the company will be based on technologies licensed to BioTherapeutics Inc. by Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties (VTIP). VTIP works with inventors to identify companies that may be interested in Virginia Tech inventions, negotiates licensing agreements and manages the income from royalties and licensing fees that is shared with inventors and Virginia Tech. The technologies were developed from Dr. Josep Bassaganya-Riera's work at VBI and Virginia Tech's Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise.
"We are always pleased to license university-owned technologies to start-up companies formed by faculty entrepreneurs," said Mark Coburn, president of VTIP. "This is an important component of VTIP's mission. We like to encourage and cultivate the entrepreneurial spirit of faculty inventors and assist companies like BioTherapeutics in the further development of their licensed intellectual property portfolio. Through these activities we hope to support economic development in southwest Virginia."
Learn more about Dr. Bassaganya-Riera, his research, and his publications at http://www.vbi.vt.edu/faculty/personal_pages/josep_bassaganya-riera.
About BioTherapeutics Inc.
BioTherapeutics Inc. was created to develop a diversified pipeline of novel nutritionals with strong intellectual property protection. Its core business is the development of "nutraceuticals," which are naturally occurring ingredients for nutritional supplement and functional foods. BioTherapeutics Inc. focuses on developing nutritional, preventative and therapeutic interventions against chronic inflammatory and infectious diseases. BioTherapeutics Inc. plans to partner with other nutritional supplement manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies in the joint development of ground-breaking, evidence-based nutritional technologies by implementing product-specific research & development plans and commercialization agreements.
About the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute
The Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech has a research platform centered on understanding the "disease triangle" of host"pathogen"environment interactions in plants, humans and other animals. By successfully channeling innovation into transdisciplinary approaches that combine information technology and biology, researchers at VBI are addressing some of today's key challenges in the life sciences. http://www.vbi.vt.edu
About Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc. (VTIP)
Formed in 1985 as an affiliated corporation of Virginia Tech, VTIP is passionate in its pursuit of excellence in technology commercialization, creating market opportunities from scientific innovation. We strive to make a positive contribution to society through our expertise in protecting, marketing and commercializing technology and innovation. Our goal is to pursue innovative strategies to help translate scientific progress into tangible products, while returning income to the inventor and Virginia Tech to support further research and education. VTIP facilitates the licensing of technology to companies, encourages new faculty startup ventures, works with publishers and distributors of software, and supports the transfer of research and knowledge to other universities, research institutes and companies. For more information about VTIP, visit http://www.vtip.org.
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