Vanderbilt licenses first technology of new fiscal year to startup

Vanderbilt has licensed its first technology for fiscal year 2015 - software and a device that speeds the acquisition of data and improves the quality of data for high throughput screening. The technology was developed by Dave Weaver (pictured right with licensing officer Tom Utley), associate professor of pharmacology and scientific director of the high throughput drug screening core, and will be commercialized through Wavefront Biosciences, a startup company that Weaver helped form and currently presides over.

The new device will be assist other research facilities in drug discovery and very early stage development. It uses a lens system to amplify the image of cells during a high throughput assay. The current standard for similar machines is to image tens of thousands of cells simultaneously and to average those signals. The new device has resolution down to the individual cell and can therefore answer more specific questions and allow for more eloquent drug design and development.