Victims of diabetes and other common related illnesses may soon have access to new therapies without all of the crippling side effects. BioTherapeutics Inc. is working to develop nutritional interventions against a variety of chronic inflammatory and infectious diseases.
One of Virginia Tech's own associate professors, Josep Bassaganya-Riera, founded the company. After spending many years at Iowa State University, Bassaganya-Riera came to Tech in 2003, and began work with BioTherapeutics in 2007. His work is renowned by many of his peers, including many licensing associates here at Tech.
"I find it exciting to see a VT inventor with the entrepreneurial drive and vision to get a new venture off the ground," said Jackie Reed, an associate for Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties. "I am confident that BioTherapeutics has what life-science investors will be looking for."
Bassaganya-Riera explained that the idea for the company originated from findings on abscisic acid paired with the newly surfaced realization that this could be "just the tip of the iceberg."
"We discovered a naturally occurring, bioactive compound capable of improving diabetes and decreasing inflammation," Bassaganya-Riera said.
BioTherapeutics has been developed from work conducted by the Nutritional Immunology Group, led by Bassaganya-Riera, at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute and Virginia Tech's department of human nutrition, foods and exercise. Barry Whyte is the strategic and research communications officer at VBI.
"Part of our mandate is to support the transfer of technology and competencies from the academic to the private sector," Whyte said. "The spin-off of BioTherapeutic from Virginia Tech is a good example of one of the innovative ways that we are looking at to fill the commercialization gap and address some of society's pressing unmet medical needs."
"In academia, we have our role as educators and researches, but first and foremost, we have to solve important problems in society," Bassaganya-Riera said. "The mission of this company is to improve human health and well-being by discovering new nutraceuticals that will battle chronic inflammatory and infectious diseases."
People who suffer from diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases could see some relief through advances by BioTherapeutics. The company wants to expand upon its research by pursuing innovative techniques and ideas using naturally occurring compounds that have been proven by clinical and laboratory research to treat diseases.
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