About six years ago, as a sideline to his main job of manufacturing robots that probe inside pipes, Bruce Schlee and his uncle, a Vietnam vet, began developing an energy drink for the military. The men took over one of Schlee’s vacant buildings, tinkered with flavorings, learned what Schlee calls “the intricacies of FDA certification,” and came up with a liquid concentrate packaged like restaurant ketchup packets. “It’s hard to ship cans of Red Bull or Monster to Afghanistan,” Schlee explains. Doctoring water was fun, but Schlee figured “we’re only going to sell so much Kool-Aid,” and the energy drink mostly sat on the shelf.
One day, a Navy SEAL buddy Schlee had met through his robotics venture stopped by the drink plant, and Schlee handed him some of his concentrate stick packs to pass out in the special forces community. They were a hit.
Schlee, his friend and another SEAL launched Strike Force. “The beverage industry is an incredibly competitive and costly place to go play in, with thousands of startups,” says Schlee. The company decided to focus on a narrow demographic—the military—and the SEALS opened doors. They also committed to controlled growth—no huge orders they couldn’t fill. Now Strike Force is the fastest-growing energy drink brand on Amazon, says Schlee.
With a limited budget, Strike Force relies on grassroots marketing and social media and benefits from unsolicited photos and testimonials, which give the product credibility. If a customer posts, someone at Strike Force usually responds within an hour.
Schlee wants to become “a worldwide player in the beverage space” by continued overseas expansion of manufacturing and distribution.
TARGET MARKET: Military, first responders, outdoorspeople
START-UP INVESTMENT: About $40,000 in personal funds
NO. OF EMPLOYEES: Fluctuates up to 25
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “It’s easy to come up with the whiz-bang something,” says Schlee. “It’s harder to get it in front of people, get them to try it, and turn it into a repeatable sale.”
Most electronic circuits are thick and rigid. Nanowires shrink the technology. However, nano-anything is expensive to produce. Gusev’s company has figured out an affordable way to lay down nanomaterials (semiconductors essential to circuits) with a souped-up inkjet printer. The ink-based nanowires can cover a large, thin and flexible surface, making possible printed electronics, “a whole new industry,” he says.
US Nano has created a platform technology on which others can build. Ink-based nanowires promise breakthroughs in making biological sensors to diagnose disease quickly and easily, for instance, or to detect toxic chemicals in water. For example, by sensing hormones, one early application of printed nanowires determined the sex of sturgeons at age 1 instead of the usual age 4, allowing caviar raisers to cull the males and save money. But the FDA regulation gauntlet for human health products requires a “big partner,” says Gusev, “and large companies are slow to move, like an aircraft carrier.”
Gusev says US Nano will continue R&D—he’s currently in year two of five or more—to fine-tune the printed circuits and license the proprietary technology to scientists at major universities across the globe. Scientists, he says, are eager for affordable nanomaterials for their own research.
TARGET MARKET: Companies that will use or adapt the technology to make products (middlemen, rather than end consumers)
START-UP INVESTMENT: $1 million NSF grant; $2.5 million in private capital
NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 8, a Ph.D.-loaded team that includes Gusev and vice president Dr. Louise Sinks
SALES: None to date. However, Gusev has a revenue-generating venture, UltraFast Systems, which manufactures optical spectrometers (instruments that show the intensity of light) for research ranging from nanoscience to solar energy conversion and storage.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “The pro of developing a platform technology is that it can be used in many areas, but the con is that it’s not obvious where to apply it,” says Gusev. “Customers have to know that they want this. We need to find the first application that will get us to revenue.”
Nick O’Donnell, the 23-year-old founder of Terraform Designs, turns math into furniture and light fixtures with the help of Rhinoceros, a computer-aided design software. He plays with the geometry found in nature to create curved and angular forms. For instance, the mineral aragonite inspired a multifaceted lamp of the same name.
After college, O’Donnell found affordable access to high-tech woodworking machines at the Sarasota Suncoast Science Center’s Faulhaber Fab Lab. He designs his form, loads the Fab Lab’s laser cutter with birch plywood, and the computer code directs the cut with minimal waste. O’Donnell sands, stains, sears and assembles the panels. His innovative approach earned him a prestigious 2016 Governor’s Young Entrepreneur Award.
Next up for O’Donnell is to relocate from the Fab Lab into his own office and work space, buy his own laser cutter and hire three full-time employees to handle the workload. Investors would be nice, too, he says.
TARGET MARKET: Homeowners, interior designers, wholesale light stores, developers
START-UP INVESTMENT: $3,000 in prize money from a second place finish in Florida State University’s InNOLEvation Challenge business competition in his senior year
NO. OF EMPLOYEES: None, except occasional helpers
SALES: $35,000 in the first year, which has been enough to move out of his parents’ Lakewood Ranch house and “keep from having to get another job,” he says.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “In my head, I see who I need to be as a triangle: artist, engineer, businessperson. My strength is the first two, the designing and making. I need to pair myself with a mentor who’s good at outreach and sales.”
Our bodies are teeming with bacteria, trillions of microorganisms that make up the human microbiome. Some are pathogens that cause illness, but most coexist with human cells, and research has confirmed that these bacteria are essential partners in controlling inflammation and fighting disease.
Sarasota allergist and immunologist Eva Berkes and her husband, oculofacial surgeon Nicholas Monsul, wanted to harness the benefits of these bacteria when they formed Quorum Innovations in 2010. In November 2016, QI received its first patent for drug development technology for skin and digestive inflammatory and metabolic disorders. It’s a milestone in a long journey.
The couple is in talks with potential corporate investors and licensees, including pharmaceutical companies with experience meeting stringent FDA guidelines. In the meantime, QI launched its over-the-counter skincare line, BioEsse.
They foresee more personal care products with therapeutic benefits, such as a body wash for hospital patients that helps prevent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. And they continue to work on licensing technology and developing new drugs and treatments that herald “a new era in immunology.”
TARGET MARKET: Consumers for the cosmetics; pharmaceutical companies for the drug development platform
START-UP INVESTMENT: Personal funds
NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 8
SALES: Online sales of BioEsse cosmetics have grown 15 percent per month; products include a facial cleanser ($34) and eye cream ($72).
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “It’s difficult to start a biotech company,” says Monsul. “We’re trained as physicians. We had to learn about intellectual property, regulatory pathways and funding. Sarasota is not a hotbed—yet—of biomedical research.”
As a kid, Granato loved playing Super Mario Bros. on his Nintendo so much that in 1988 he and a grade-school pal designed their own game, Mystic Searches. Granato drew scenes, recorded music and sent Nintendo a pitch, which the company politely refused. A quarter century later—after graduating from film school, touring with his rock band and teaching interactive media development at an inner-city Baltimore school—Granato unearthed his Mystic Searches box in his parents’ garage and entered a “nostalgic warp zone.”
Why not make the game now? Never mind that Nintendo of America discontinued the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console in 1995. As Granato discovered from the success of his crowd-sourcing ask, a large and welcoming subculture of retro gamers share his sensory pleasure in 8-bit NES games: the smooth black plastic cartridges, the pixelated images, the synthesized chiptunes. Unfortunately, today’s game-making programs don’t work for the old, constrained environment of 8 bits (units of data) since video games have blasted to 128 bits and beyond.
That meant Granato and team had to build new hardware and software, “accidentally creating a sort of middleware” and a potentially marketable NESmaker tool.
Another byproduct of this years-long journey into retrogame reconstruction is a documentary, which has received positive reviews at screenings in Baltimore and Sarasota. Granato edited thousands of hours of video interviews into The New 8-bit Heroes, which champions “the value of ambitions we have as kids.” While he finishes and markets Mystic Searches and the NESmaker, Granato is arranging screenings of The New 8-bit Heroes documentary, which may include the Sarasota Film Festival, and he hopes to land a distributor.
TARGET MARKET: Retro gamers for the 8-bit game and NESmaker
START-UP INVESTMENT: $54,000 raised on Kickstarter
NO. OF COLLABORATORS: Many, including concept artist Austin McKinley, narrative developer E.A.A. Wilson, pixel artists, hardware and tool developers, and a chiptune composer
SALES: TBD. Granato is taking preorders for Mystic Searches ($40 for the standard edition) and The New 8-bit Heroes ($14.99 on Blu-ray).
Sarasota, FL, September 21, 2016– Quorum Innovations has successfully isolated LfQi6 from the human host. Demonstrating strong biofilm formations. Bioactives from LfQi6 have novel bimodal biofilm modulation. Quorum Innovation’s Probiomic Therapeutics™ inhibit and detach pathogenic biofilm while enhancing commensal resident biofilm. Reducing inflammation, promoting inherent defense barriers, and immune functions by upregulating the expression of essential homeostatic protein and filaggrin in human tissue.
Quorum Innovations has demonstrated stability of the LfQi6 Probiomic TherapiesÒ in alcohol, aqueous, and lipid vehicles. Providing for a wide range of applications.
Dr. Nicholas Monsul, MD – CEO and Dr. Eva Berkes, MD – Chief Medical Officer founded Quorum Innovations in 2011. “Quorum Innovation’s new drug candidates are extracted from the human microbiome in a “vertical advance” that creates a new era in immunology by helping to overcome microbial resistance to antibiotics. Once delivered, like native human microbiota in healthy individuals, Quorum Innovation’s Probiomic TherapeuticsTM act like microbiome-based software to direct human cells to express particular proteins within target tissues. By matching the particular Probiomic TherapeuticTM to the desired protein effect in the chosen organ of interest, our new human microbiome-based therapeutics have the power to regulate human and human microbiomial physiology like no other therapeutic system today.”
Emerging research on various types of inflammation indicate direct links to many clinical conditions and a dysbiotic or abnormal microbiome. When the skin is inflamed, its barrier functions become compromised leading to conditions such as atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, acne and rosacea. This has led the pharmaceutical and personal care industries to seek better ways to prevent and address skin inflammation and chronic inflammatory disorders.
Quorum’s bio-extracts, have demonstrated proof of concept in ex-vivo, in-vitro, and initial human clinical testing. Pre-clinical and clinical models show that these bio-extracts modulate the innate immune system by rebalancing the microbiome to: 1) reduce skin inflammation as measured by IL-1a levels, 2) enhance the diversity of the protective commensal population, 3) disperse and facilitate the kill of pathogenic biofilms such as MRSA and pseudomonas, 4) prevent formation of new pathogenic biofilms, and 5) up-regulate filaggrin. This results in effective treatment with minimal systemic exposure.
Founded in 2011, Quorum Innovations, LLC (“Quorum”) is a biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class immuno-modulators for chronic medical conditions.
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If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Dirk Henson at (941) 951-0126 or email at info@quoruminnovations.com.
]]>Their work may seem straight out of a science-fiction movie: manipulating the human microbiome — the trillions of microbacterial cells on and in the body.
These cells, which can adhere to almost any human surface — mouth to skin to gut — can glom together to form biofilm, a fortress that helps them resist the current antibiotic arsenal.
The Quorum Biofilm Research Laboratory, part of the five-physician Hawthorne Clinic in Sarasota, is challenging the conventional wisdom about antibiotics, in a way not seen since 19th-century physicians began to question the value of draining patients’ blood to rid them of disease.
Read the full article here: Herald Tribune
]]>ATLANTA — A probiotic extract being developed from the human microbiome could offer drug-free topical therapy for patients with atopic dermatitis, and could protect against pathogenic biofilms, new research shows.
In terms of restoring the damaged skin barrier, "it worked very nicely, equivalently to dexamethasone, yet it is not a steroid," said lead researcher Eva Berkes, MD, chief scientific officer for Quorum Innovations in Sarasota, Florida, which is developing the product.
"The extract also showed activity against pathogenic biofilms, and has anti-inflammatory effects," added Bobban Subhadra, PhD, director of research and development for the company.
The findings, presented in two posters here at the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology 2014, are "very promising," said Peter Lio, MD, professor of clinical dermatology and pediatric dermatology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who was not involved in the study. In addition, they could "shed light on other important roles for normal commensal flora," he added.
Staphylococcus aureus biofilms — both methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible (MSSA) — play an important role in patients with moderate and severe atopic dermatitis, said Dr Lio.
"Therapies that can disrupt these biofilms have tremendous potential to not only decrease infection risk, but to improve other aspects of the disease as well, since the bacterial colonization likely contributes to inflammation and skin barrier disruption," he explained.
Dr Berkes would not reveal the name of the probiotic because the company's patent on the extract is pending, but she said it is a bacterium with official World Health Organization probiotic status.
"We processed it without chemicals — it is a purely physical processing — to increase its activity, so that it does a little more than it did in pure form," she said.
In the studies presented, the topical extract was used on normal skin samples taken from plastic surgery patients.
In the first study, detergent was used to remove the protective skin lipids so that the dried skin samples resemble atopic dermatitis, Dr Berkes explained.
When the topical probiotic extract was applied to the samples, the effect was similar to dexamethasone in that it restored the integrity of the skin barrier, as measured with skin impedance testing, which is the ability of the skin to resist electrical current, she said.
In addition, levels of filaggrin protein — a critical component of the skin barrier — were twice as high in extract-treated skin as in untreated skin.
In the second study, the probiotic extract was tested for three antibiofilm properties: adhesion, inhibition, and detachment.
Antiadhesion properties were doubled in skin treated with the extract, compared with skin treated with the antibiotics vancomycin and meropenem. In addition, the extract was as effective as the antibiotics in inhibiting the attachment of MRSA biofilm (more than 85% at a concentration of 1 mg/mL), and was five times more effective at detaching MRSA biofilm.
The extract also had bioactivity against MSSA, inhibiting 50% to 60% of MSSA biofilm formation on surfaces.
These findings suggest that the extract "could synergistically both treat and prevent MRSA biofilms in chronic skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis," said Dr Subhadra.
Biofilm diseases are common. They are the cause of almost all hospital-acquired infections and are associated with "incredible morbidity and mortality," said Dr Berkes.
However, no antimicrobial drugs have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat biofilm infections.
"All antibiotics approved by the FDA to date have been tested only in the free-floating form, not attached to any surface," she explained. "However, both pathogenic and benign microbes that live on body surfaces preferentially live in biofilm form. They live in communities protected by microbially-produced extracellular polymers that confer tremendous defense against antibiotics."
With current antibiotics being "notoriously bad" at killing pathogenic biofilms, "this is an area of tremendous need," said Dr Berkes. "As practicing physicians, our eyes have been opened to these clinical issues of unmet and even urgent need."
The company is currently conducting a clinical trial to test the extract as a cosmetic skincare product, and another trial is in the works that will look specifically at atopic dermatitis response, she reported.
"While very promising in vitro, there may be other relevant factors that overshadow this property, so guarded optimism is required moving forward," said Dr Lio. "For example, it remains to be seen if this effect will bear out in patients with filaggrin gene mutation, an important subtype of eczema."
Dr Berkes is chief scientific officer, vice president of research and development, and founder of Quorum Innovations. Dr Subhadra and Dr Lio have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) 2014: Abstracts P328 and P329. Presented November 8, 2014.
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Only Probiotic Skin Care Line Made From Human Microbiome
[January 5, 2016 – Sarasota, Florida]
Daily exposures as common as stress, diet, and the environment can affect skin aging, possibly by affecting billions of health-promoting bacteria that normally live on our skin, called the skin microbiome. Additional research shows that maintaining a well-balanced skin microbiome with a daily dose of topical probiotics applied to the skin may be just as important as oral probiotics for a healthy GI tract.
How do skin probiotics work? The tiny molecular messages packaged into probiotics fit skin cells like a lock-and-key, and send skin-balancing messages to help the skin to look younger, improve its hydration, and stimulate the skin immune system. However, if the right amount and type of these tiny bacterial signals are not present, an out-of-balance skin microbiome can result. Research shows that an imbalanced skin microbiome is associated with, and may even promote, skin conditions such as eczema, acne, and rosacea, as well as skin aging. Common skin exposure such as soaps, environmental toxins and irritants, and even many skin care products can damage the skin microbiome. For these reasons, skin with its billions of bacterial friends deserves daily probiotic support, just like your GI tract.
What does skin on probiotics look like? Well, it depends on the quality of the probiotic. The vast majority of probiotics are taken from animals, food or soil. These probiotics — called xenobiotics — are not native to the human body. BioEsse® Probiotic Essence for the Skin is the only skin care system containing patent-pending, concentrated BellaCell®, a probiotic sourced from the human microbiome, and which therefore naturally belongs on the human body. BellaCell® and the skin care system BioEsse® (facial cleanser, serum, lotion, and eye cream) were discovered and developed at Quorum Innovations (Sarasota, FL).
BioEsse® clinical tests show results in 2 weeks, with improved skin texture, more even complexion and less facial redness, decreased fine lines, wrinkles and pores, improved skin hydration, and frequently, a new-found skin “glow” reported by many BioEsse® consumers. BioEsse® Probiotic Essence for the Skin contains dermatologist-recommended topical probiotics, which promote healthy skin bacteria. The BioEsse® line is an eco-luxe, “green” skin care line, containing only 100% naturally-derived, pure ingredients, minus the heavy, toxic preservatives, chemicals and synthetic ingredients that can damage skin and overall health. BioEsse® is “all about the probiotic technology,” comment Dr. Nicholas Monsul, and Dr. Eva Berkes, clinical physicians and co-founders of Quorum Innovations.
About Bioesse®
Bioesse® is based upon bio-identical probiotic technology clinical skincare powered by the human microbiome. Bioesse® integrates skincare into a Whole Health philosophy. Bioesse® believes in a natural harmony between beauty and health. Its products are 100% organic and 0% toxins. Medicine has gone far afield for cures – the seas, the rain forest, and synthetic chemicals. But the Bioesse® science – the science of the human microbiome – has simply, quietly gone home, to our very origin, the human body – where we may have the best of medicines waiting for us right there, all along. We believe our clients will enjoy experiencing the Bioesse® difference – “Beauty in Balance”. Bioesse® 2068 Hawthorne St. Suite 201 Sarasota, Florida 34239 |info@bioesseprobiotics.com | www.bioesseprobiotics.com | (941)953-2238.