Amy Bishop on the cover of the R&D Report

The only journal focused on North Alabama’s engineering, spaceand genetics community, anchored by Cummings Research Park. W I N T E R 2 0 0 9

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By ANNA THIBODEAUX

AHuntsville startup company’s innovative new cellgrowth machine promises to cut the costs, size andmaintenance involved in the mechanics of cell gen-

eration, and it’s about to hit prime-time. When the firstdevice – dubbed InQ – rolls off the production line thissummer, its inventors believe it’s going to replace the petridish, its more than 130-year-old predecessor, in laboratoryexperimentation and advancing biotechnology.

“It’s a smart petri dish that grows cells as if they’re inyour body,” says Aaron Hammons of the portable cellincubator. What makes InQ so hot is that, whenresearchers throw out their petri dishes, they will alsosever their ties to all the expensive machinery needed tokeep cell growth processes

Across theGreat DivideHuntsville firm’s revolutionary cell-culturingmachine will start to change science this summer

Winter 2009 HUNTSVILLE R&D 27COVER STORY

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Winter 200928 HUNTSVILLE R&D COVER STORY

progressing in those dishes. Instead,they will work with a vastly smallermachine that is portable and inexpen-sive. Hammons is the CEO of ProdigyBiosystems, the company formed todevelop and market the device, and hesays his first impression was, “Whyhadn’t someone done this before?”

InQ co-inventor Amy Bishop creditsthe coming together of a group of peo-ple with certain skills and crossoverknowledge in a series of highly fortu-nate events fueled by Huntsville’s evolv-ing entrepreneurial spirit.

“It’s great to actually see it hit themarket, and the sooner the better,”says Bishop, assistant professor in theDepartment of Biological Sciences at

the University of Alabama inHuntsville. “My colleagues think itwill change the face of tissue culture. Itwill allow us, as researchers, to not livein the lab and control our tissue cul-ture conditions, including the sensitivecultures including those like adult stemcells. The conditions to differentiatethose have to be exact, and the incuba-tor will help that.”

Tired of applying 1920s science tothe rapidly advancing work of biotech-nology, Bishop approached her hus-band, Jim Anderson, chief science offi-cer of Cherokee Labsystems inHuntsville, about inventing a portablecell incubator. Together, she andAnderson designed a sealed, self-con-

tained cell incubation system that ismobile and eliminates many of theproblems with cultivating tissues in thefragile environment of the petri dish. Italso has its own on-board computerthat maintains and regulates the incu-bator, allowing tighter control of thecell environment.

Hammons’ market research indicatesup to 40 percent of cultures in a petridish are lost to contamination, so themore stable InQ seems like a no-brain-er. But even the most obvious ideas alsoneed the right conditions for success.

BETTER CHEMISTRYAbout 1 1/2 years ago, Bishop

BOB GATHANY

From left, Amy Bishop, UAH co-inventor, Aaron Hammons, Micah Harvey and Dick Reeves, former Biztech CEO.

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brought their design to Dr. WilliamGathings, who was then working atthe UAH Office of TechnologyCommercialization, which choosesideas to patent. Gathings approachedHammons, then a consultant atBizTech, a business incubator inHuntsville, about doing the marketresearch for the project. Hammons wasso impressed with the device that hecalls it his “duh moment,” and ProdigyBiosystems was born. It was one ofBizTech’s first clients in its newlyformed Technology CommercializationService, which was developed to bridgethe gap between universities and themarketplace.

“InQ should bring major productiv-ity improvements to researchers doingbiology projects around the world,”says former BizTech CEO Dick Reeves,who now serves there as a consultant.“It brings modern information techol-ogy to the biology lab, which for somereason has been bypassed so far. Thehuman-body-like environment it cre-ates for the cells a researcher is study-ing will make it possible to speed upbiological experimentation and studyby major accounts.”

Hammons’ studies verified the con-cept’s viability and BizTech formed thecompany that is bringing InQ to mar-ket. A business team was assembledincluding Hammons as CEO, and herecruited Micah Harvey to be vicepresident of product development forthe engineering work. Bishop andAnderson wanted to play a role in theproject, but did not want to managethe company to develop and market it.

InQ could present BizTech’s firstsuccess in filling the technology-to-market gap that has long hinderedinnovation’s path to application. Fromthe onset, Reeves says InQ was anexciting project. He recalls whenUAH’s Technology CommercializationOffice brought Bishop and Anderson’s“Frankenstein” prototype to BizTechand asked about marketing it.

“At the time,” Reeves says, “AaronHammons was consulting for BizTech

COVER STORY

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and looking for a biotech-related proj-ect he could head up, and we hookedthe need with the resource.” Hammonssays what attracted him to the projectwas seeing cell culture, engineeringand software come together for thefirst time. His market analysis revealedno one else was coming close to doingthat in a mobile device with miniaturecomponents and digital controls, or inthe price range of $2,000 to $2,500per unit.

“I just saw a huge opportunitythere,” Hammons says. “This will bemy first one taking to market. It’s mov-ing pretty fast, but you have to get tomarket as fast as possible. If you canhave excited, stressed and scared at thesame time, that’s what my emotionwould be.”

Harvey initially assisted with themarket analysis and then 3-D model-ing to sell the concept to AlabamaLaunchpad and investors earlier this

year. From there, his role changed toproduct development.

The company, then called IntelCell,placed third in the AlabamaLaunchpad’s business plan competi-tion in 2007. Hammons says the com-petition helped fine-tune their busi-ness plan, as well as provided the$25,000 prize money that helpedlaunch the company and gain investorconfidence. Alabama Launchpad is aproject of the Economic DevelopmentPartnership (EDPA) of Alabama thatpromotes economic development inthe state. The EDPA has been a leaderin initiating the movement to capital-ize on the universities’ research to cre-ate jobs and wealth locally. It recog-nizes technologies and provides seedmoney for three start-up businesses ayear. The program also is aimed atraising awareness of how entrepre-neurship is an important economicdevelopment driver.

GOING TO MARKETHammons says one of the first chal-

lenges was naming the company. Theyfiled a trademark to call it IntelCell. Butfor legal reasons, the company was soonrenamed Prodigy Biosystems.Hammons says they wanted the newname to reflect the incubator as a smartpetri dish that doesn’t just grow cellsbut also nurtures them. “If you ask any-one doing cell cultures, they’ll tell youcells are their babies,” he says ofresearchers pulling long hours to carefor them.

While there were stressful momentsabout raising money, Hammons says hisworries quickly eased.

“It was an easy sell, because the partof our investors who are scientists gotinto the science and the tech investorsgot into the engineering and science,”he says. “And this is a time whenbiotech is really taking off in Huntsville.

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We’re taking off at the perfect time, atthe perfect place.”

The major challenge lies in convinc-ing scientists to use the InQ, whichHammons considers an especiallydaunting marketing task when the petridish has been around more than 130years. Despite its headaches, he saysthat’s what they’re accustomed to using.“For some people it’ll be an easy sell,while other scientists are only interestedin their own research, and learning atechnology might take away from thatresearch,” he says. “The challenge is toprove InQ can get results 10 timesfaster, with more accuracy and moredata.”

Because 85 percent of the world’sresearch occurs in the U.S., they will ini-tially target sales in the domestic mar-ket, then expand internationally two tothree years later. They hope to sell 500units the first year, mostly to neurosci-entists like Bishop who would be more

likely to welcome the incubator to culti-vate neurons, which are finicky. “Wefeel if we can tackle that market, we cantackle any market with aid from Amy,and then we can spread out fromthere,” Hammons says. Within fiveyears, they hope to be in neural cell,stem cell and all primary human tissuemarkets.

For Harvey, the challenge has beento shrink the refrigerator-sized unit toone that can fit on a desk without los-ing effectiveness, while anticipatingfuture needs. Even with three yearsexperience in product development, hesays it’s proven the most challengingwork of his career. He’s striving forthat delicate balance where he keepsall the moving parts together whilekeeping on path with their slogan of“Growing Smarter. Harness the powerof a cell incubator.”

Also, Hammons is determined toavoid the InQ becoming a “big black

brick.” It will be customizable andavailable in just about any colordesired, even pink.

Bishop says the device being smaller,more affordable and more controllable,with more software integration, takes itin a different direction than their com-petitors. “We just kind of scooped theindustry by going in the right directionat the right time.”

It’s a direction that Hammons sayswill provide much more information toscientists who are accustomed to thelimited data coming from their petridishes. “We can measure every millisec-ond or every hour, depending on what’sneeded. Compare getting a datasheetwith 100,000 datapoints compared to‘the cells are OK today,’” he says ofInQ. They are recruiting professors andresearchers for a three-month beta testof the unit and hope a successful trialwill help jump-start business by word ofmouth.

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INQ’S TIMINGFrom a science perspective, Bishop

praises the pro-technology environ-ment at UAH and BizTech.

“I feel I’m part of a new wave ofbiotechnology, cell biology and neuro-science,” she says. Citing a study thatindicates using rats as study subjectsmay be invalid because they’re not assimilar physiologically to humans asoriginally thought, Bishop says InQ’stiming is particularly significant. “Thismeans science must push toward usinghuman cells to test drugs, injuries, etc.This is a crisis point.” The InQ wouldallow use of adult stem cells, which shesays can be backed up to a near-embry-onic cell state without controversy,while still furthering the technology.Tissue cultured in less than year wouldeliminate the enormous culling of ratsneeded in order to obtain a viableresearch test group.

“There are a lot of American inno-

vators out there, and the differencebetween the one who comes up with agreat innovation and me is, all theseelements come together in a synergy tomake it happen,” Bishop says. “Andit’s why American inventors are sup-ported in a real and immediate way, soAmerica can have a renaissance ininnovation, and I think Huntsville isdoing that.”

At UAH, professors are coached ontheir inventions as potential intellectu-al property and on how to get their dis-coveries to the market to really helppeople. Bishop feels fortunate to havehad that input, which she says isn’tbeing provided at many Ivy Leagueinstitutions, where she says innovationmoney is going to overseas researchersbrought in as low-cost staffing to theexclusion of American researchers andinnovators.

InQ represents the first of whatReeves hopes will be a steady stream of

new companies coming out of newtechnology developed in the labs ofuniversities. BizTech has been incubat-ing new companies started byHuntsville engineers and scientists formore than 11 years. Two years ago, itpartnered with UAH to provide theseservices for ideas created in the univer-sity’s research labs. The effort providesa bridge to the marketplace for aca-demics who create innovations butdon’t want to be an entrepreneur.“With its usual wanna-be engineersand scientists,” Reeves says, “BizTechhas a person who wants to be theentrepreneur, to lead the company andto activity participate in its day-to-daybusiness.”

BizTech’s technology commercial-ization service fills the entrepreneurialrole, which Reeves says involves doingall the organizational work on a con-cept, from determining commercialmerit to cost and design. During this

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period, the newly founded company isa client and receives office space,advice and services needed in order todevelop. When the development workis done, a company is formed, a man-agement team is recruited, money israised from investors and then the newcompany spins off as an independent.

As a client, Prodigy Biosystems’office and labs are at BizTech’sSparkman Drive location. BizTechassembled the company’s managementteam and board of directors, and earli-er this year helped draw $1.25 millionin angel investors for its capital.

SILICOTTON VALLEY?Huntsville’s continuing emergence

as an innovation player in Alabama ishelping address what Reeves says isone of the state’s great challenges –equipping its people and economywith the tools needed to provide joband wealth creation in the knowl-edge-based economy. “Without thesejobs, our young people will have to goelsewhere to earn the style of livingthey feel should be theirs,” he says.“Huntsville has always been a leaderin the formation of Alabama’s tech-nology industry, taking pieces of tech-nology coming out of our governmentlabs and turning those into new infor-mation technology companies likeSCI, Intergraph, Adtran andAvocent.”

Now, Jim Hudson and his team atHudsonAlpha Institute forBiotechnology are leadingHuntsville’s way into the biotechnolo-gy field, Reeves says, using technolo-gy to personalize medicine. “InQ isjust another example of how thebroad array of skills we have here canbe complemented with business devel-opment skills to bring new jobs andwealth to the state. I expect to see asteady stream of projects like the celldrive happen here in the years tocome.”

Alabama’s business incubators areworking together to organize them-

selves into a network that can bringthese capabilities to every part of thestate, he says. The BizTech model oftechnology commercialization will bea key element in that plan.

“You have to create the right kindof environment for this to work, andyou have to be bring together theright kinds of people,” Reeves says.“Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft’s for-mer chief of technology officer, put itthis way: ‘Huntsville has always had

many of this kind of person, comfort-able with uncertainty and withincomplete information, willing topush the established envelope in orderto accomplish something new. Dr.Amy Bishop and her husband, Jim,inventors of the InQ, are this sort ofperson. They are difficult people formany of us to deal with, because theyare unwilling to accept the establishedways of things, and they believe thatbetter is possible.’” ■

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Amy Bishop on the cover of the R&D Report

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