EXCLUSIVE REPORT ATLANTA—Axion BioSystems Inc., which has developed an advanced microelectrode array technology for research, clinical and drug discovery markets, has raised slightly more than $1 million in a friends and family round of funding. Axion president and CEO Tom O’Brien tells TechJournal South the money should be enough to get its products to market and producing revenue this year.
The company previously received funding and support from the Georgia Research Alliance and its VentureLab, which was created to help move research at the state’s universities into commercial markets.
The 9-employee company’s technology came from out of Georgia Tech’s NeuroLab and Axion is conveniently located in the Advanced Technology and Development Center near the campus. “We have a great collaboration with Georgia Tech and a growing one with Emory,” says O’Brien.
“Our operations are located in the ATDC Bioscience center, in close proximity Georgia Tech’s NeuroLab , so it’s a good place for us to be,” he says. It’s also close to the Petit Microelectronics Research Center (MiRC), the biomedical hub of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN).
MiRC includes cutting edge tolls for micro and nanofabrication, while NeuroLab provides access to rapid prototyping tools, machine shop facilities and specialized electronics testing equipment for neural research.
James Ross, Ph.D., Axion’s chief technical officer, was previously a product development engineer for Advanced Micro Devices and the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Teneo Micro Instruments.
During his tenure at the Microelectronics Research Center and the Laboratory for Neuroengineering, he was instrumental in producing over a dozen critically enabling technologies for the manipulation and sensing of neural tissue (many of which are patent pending).
Chief Engineer Edgar Brown is currently a research engineer at the Laboratory for Neuroengineering in Atlanta, Georgia. He possesses more than 20 years experience in analog, digital, and mixed signal circuit design.
Swaminathan Rajaraman, the company’s MEMS Engineer, is currently working toward his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech.
He has over 10 years of academic and industrial research experience in MEMS, biotechnology and semiconductors. He has previously worked with Analog Devices and CardioMEMS in developing MEMS fabrication technologies for optical micro-mirrors and implantable sensors respectively.
Axion’s proprietary technology allows simultaneous stimulation and recording of neural tissue—an industry first—and includes low-power chips that service thousands of channels.
O’Brien says the company’s products will allow faster drug-screening than current ones, among other advantages. It electronically stimulates live cells and records their reaction.
While its current development is focused on pharmaceutical drug screening, ongoing development will result in devices in the medical arena, the company says.
O’Brien says Axion is fairly close to getting its first drug screening product out and does not anticipate seeking more money now.
O’Brien was most recently a senior executive at Philips Medical Systems, a division of Royal Dutch Philips, after the sale of Intermagnetics. At Intermagnetics Tom held the role of executive vice president, Corporate Development and president, Invivo Medical Devices.
“Financially, we’re in good shape,” O’Brien says. “We have a modest burn and this should be enough to carry us for a couple of years.”
Online: www.axionbiosystems.com
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