ALLIANCES
CerMed has multiple partners to assist in our product development and market research efforts
One of the world’s leading MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems*) design, development and manufacturing companies, Innovative Micro Technology (IMT), is based in Santa Barbara, CA. They are a development and manufacturing partner to CerMed that combines cooperative design services with a unique mix of experience in prototyping, process-development, high-volume manufacturing, metrology, test and analytical capabilities to service a wide variety of clients. IMT established a Life Science division to specifically address the need for small, smarter and more efficient devices including, micropumps for drug delivery and patient management, non-invasive medical sensors and point-of-care diagnostics. IMT is an ISO certified manufacturing facility which includes 30,000 sq. feet of fully automated Class 100 clean room fabrication capabilities.IMT is working with CerMed to design, develop, test, and ultimately manufacture the disposable MEMS cartridge for the Cervical Screening Test System, essentially a flow cytometer on a chip. They have proven development success in complex MEMS flow devices, and an innovative and talented team that has completed similar development projects for other applications. Most importantly, their strong Intellectual Property position that transfers royalty-free to CerMed’s product, adds additional protection to CerMed’s IP position.
*MEMS are Micro-electro-mechanical systems, the technology of the very small, and merges at the nano-scale. They are also known at micromachines in Japan or Micro Systems Technology in Europe. MEMS are made up of components between 1 and 100 micrometers in size.
Duke University is a private research university founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, and moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James Duke established The Duke Endowment, prompting the institution to change its name. The University is organized into two undergraduate and nine graduate schools, all ranked among the 12th highest in the US.
Duke’s research expenditures are among the largest ten in the US. Duke University Medical Center (Duke University Hospital) is a 924 bed academic tertiary care facility. Since its establishment in 1930, the hospital has grown from a small regional hospital to an academic medical center. Duke University Hospital is the flagship teaching hospital for the Duke University Health System, a network of physicians and hospitals service Durham and Wake County, North Carolina and is one of the three Level I referral center for the Research Triangle of North Carolina.
Duke is a leader in women’s health care (oncology/gynecology), and as part of its research has developed proven antibody clones for detection of certain cervical biomarkers. With their strong clinical resources, including access to cervical cancer patients, and research network, they are an excellent partner to CerMed in the selection, development, and testing of antibodies to our target biomarkers. In addition to their focus on antibody product development, they are testing CerMed’s product at various stages of product development, and will provide expertise in clinical protocol development and clinical validation of CerMed’s Cervical Cancer Screening Test System.
University of California, (UCSF), San Francisco, CA
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is one of the world’s leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. USCF’s medical, pharmacy dental, nursing and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world. The UCSF Medical Center is consistently ranked among the top 10 hospitals in the world. Women’s health is among the most renowned treatment centers, and has the nation’s leading HIV/AIDS treatment and research center. Collaborations with African Universities to deal with HIV have been established.
Founded in 1873, the mission of UCSF is to serve as a “public university dedicated to saving lives and improving health”. Though one of the ten campuses of the University of California, it is the only campus dedicated to graduate education in health and biomedical sciences. UCSF has developed a reputation for unique interdisciplinary collaboration between the health science disciplines, which has led to some of the most important discoveries in the biosciences. Among those discoveries is that normal cellular genes can be converted to cancer genes; the development of fetal surgery, and the identification of HIV as the cause of AIDS.
In 2009, UCSF School of Medicine ranked fifth overall among research-based medical schools; the top in the western US. It is one of only two medical schools that ranked top 10 in both research and primary care. In additional UCSF ranked in the top 10 in seven of eight medical school specialty programs, including first in AIDS medical care, second in women’s health, and third in internal medicine.
USCF is working with CerMed in multiple areas. For the Cervcial Cancer Screening Test System, USCF has provided input on relevant product design elements, is helping to design clinical protocols, provide clinical specimens to CerMed for early testing, and run clinical studies. For CerCap HIV, UCSF is providing relevant product design input for polymer-based drug elution aspects and will help to design and run clinical studies.