Purdue Innovates

Phil Low is the Presidential Scholar for Drug Discovery and Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry — Biochemistry in Purdue University’s Department of Chemistry. He also is an entrepreneur whose research forms the foundation of companies Endocyte, Eradivir, ErythroCure, MorphImmune, Novosteo, On Target Laboratories and Umoja Biopharma.

On November 29, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted approval for the use of On Target Laboratories’ fluorescence imaging technology to illuminate ovarian cancer cells during surgery.

The newly authorized use of Cytalux, which was initially developed to target ovarian cancer, has the potential to improve the outcomes of thousands of patients, helping surgeons to visualize otherwise undetected cancer tissue in 24% of lung cancer patients in a clinical trial.

“Cancer cells have an enormous appetite for this vitamin, and we have exploited their greed for folic acid by attaching a fluorescent dye to it,” Low said. “The drug not only allows the surgeon to see the cancer but may also help surgeons avoid removing tissue. Being able to avoid cutting healthy tissue can be as important as removing unhealthy tissues.”

Low conducts his research as part of the Purdue Center for Cancer Research. The center is one of only seven basic science laboratory cancer centers recognized by the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. The center brings together more than 110 researchers at Purdue who study cancer at the cellular level.

Low and his team disclosed the innovation in imaging agents to the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. OTC applied for patent protection on the intellectual property and licensed it to On Target Laboratories, which is based in West Lafayette, Indiana. Low is the founder and chief science officer of On Target Laboratories.

In May 2016, Yarkin Sakucoglu dropped out of Purdue University to work with cofounders Joseph Watkins and Alihan Ozbayrak to shake up event marketing. Their startup, Socio, helps customers like Google, Microsoft, Pepsi, Comcast, and more than 570 others manage their live events, including through tailored apps. It has 61 employees, $6.75 million in funding, and its headquarters in Indianapolis, with an office in Istanbul.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020,Socio shifted its product focus to meet the needs of virtual and hybrid events, leading the charge in a new era of events.

In addition to product innovations, Socio stood up a Professional Services team and continued hiring to keep up with the explosion in demand for virtual events, reaching thousands of customers in 80+ countries. In recognition of this growth, Socio won the 2021 Mira Awards for “Scale Up of the Year.”

In 2021, Socio was officially acquired by Cisco to further their joint vision of transforming the event industry by creating the world’s first completely end-to-end hybrid event and meeting technology suite.

They share Cisco’s sentiment that the future of events, like the future of work, will be hybrid. With that comes increased complexity for event managers as they seek to host inclusive and meaningful events whether attendees join in-person or virtually. In March 2022, Socio was renamed Webex Events.

Sherine Abdelmawla is co-founder and CEO of Akanocure Pharmaceuticals, a drug development company in the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette. She also is a member of the National Small Business Association’s Small Business Technology Council and Leadership Council.

Sherine’s company, Akanocure Pharmaceuticals, has been a Purdue Foundry client since 2014 and commercializes innovations it has licensed from Purdue Research Foundation’s Office of Technology Commercialization. Akanocure aims to stop metastasis, or the spread of cancer to surrounding tissues and distant organs. According to the company’s website, metastatic activity is responsible for 90% of cancer-related deaths; once cancer spreads throughout the body, medical efforts to manage the disease fail.

The company’s novel small-molecule therapies target the processes that metastatic cancer cells depend upon. The first is lipogenesis, or the synthesis of fatty acids that healthy cells normally suppress. Increased lipogenesis has been proven as a link between cancer and its progression. The process also renders cancer cells less susceptible to anti-cancer therapies.

The second process the company targets is cell migration due to cytoskeleton deformation. The components of a cell’s cytoskeleton include actin filaments, microtubules and other associated proteins. When these components are well regulated and highly integrated, they give a cell its shape and resistance to deformation and migration. Some cancers cause cell deformability and increase the ability to move, leading to metastasis; the cytoskeleton must be drastically remodeled for that to happen.

Two years ago, Shantanu Roy and Thomas Stahura never imagined that generative artificial intelligence would become so popular, sophisticated and accessible in such a short amount of time. Now, as co-founders of the software development company Quasi, the two Purdue juniors are working hard to make their mark in an industry that’s growing and changing every day.

They envisioned developing a platform that could help users easily tap into their creativity by using AI technology to make personalized content. After their meeting, Roy, then president of The Anvil, a student organization that provides mentorship, programming and resources to student founders and startups, walked Stahura over to the organization’s office in the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship. They knew it would soon be the perfect space to transform their ideas into reality.

They made their home in the building, and in January, Roy and Stahura launched the company’s website — the first factor in determining whether this was an idea worth pursuing. The platform offered AI text generators that could write poems, essays, code and nearly everything in between. They watched in excitement as the site’s traffic slowly began to increase, and that spring, they presented their vision to a panel of a judges at the Purdue Startup Expo. Placing fourth in the competition, the duo was disappointed, but the $7,500 in prize money was more than enough to keep their dream alive.

The group has now made their home at the Convergence Center in an entrepreneurship space owned by the Purdue Foundry. In the midst of all this growth, they’re also forming connections with valuable entities like the Silicon Valley Boilermaker Innovation Group, an organization dedicated to mentoring Purdue student, faculty and alumni entrepreneurs.

Torbert Rocheford, the Patterson Endowed Chair in Translational Genomics for Crop Improvement in the Purdue College of Agriculture’s Department of Agronomy , used a process known as biofortification to naturally increase the amount of antioxidant carotenoids in corn, making the corn more nutritious, and creating a deep orange color. The human body converts certain provitamin A carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, into vitamin A, an essential vitamin that promotes eye health and supports the immune system.

“The project began as part of an ongoing humanitarian effort called HarvestPlus to improve nutrition in developing countries,” said Rocheford, who began working on naturally increasing the amount of health benefiting carotenoids in corn over 20 years ago. He did not originally plan to market the orange corn in the United States. However, when orange corn varieties were introduced in Africa, some began to ask if it was grown and consumed in the U.S. When they were told it wasn’t, some were skeptical, questioning “if it is so good, why don’t American’s eat it?”

“So, I decided to grow some here and share it. The response was overwhelmingly positive. I had people tell me that the orange corn made the best grits and cornbread they had ever eaten. So I thought it made a lot of sense to offer it to Americans, especially since it might help encourage adoption in Africa.”

Rocheford and his son, Evan, co-founded NutraMaize to commercialize the corn in the U.S. NutraMaize is marketing the corn under the brand name “Professor Torbert’s Orange Corn,”

Christopher Nilsen, CEO of Pluto Aerospace, is developing rapid and economical launch vehicle platforms for hypersonic and other suborbital applications. Pluto Aerospace received $25,000 at the conclusion of Purdue Foundry's Boost accelerator.

Seven companies took part in the program and received a $5,000 non-dilutive grant at the start. The companies participated in several weeks of programming, including consultations with entrepreneurs-in-residence, mentors and industry professionals. They concluded with business pitches to a panel of venture capitalists and angel investors; if two panelists decided a team was worthy of investment, Purdue Foundry invested $25,000.

Christopher Nilsen, Pluto Aerospace: "Boost plugged us in with the Indiana entrepreneurial community. The connections we made through Boost played a major part in our recent success. We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in this fantastic program."

Amplified Sciences, a Purdue University-affiliated life science diagnostics company focused on accurately detecting and pre-empting the risks of debilitating diseases, has been named to the fourth annual Most Fundable Companies list from Pepperdine University's Graziadio Business School.

Amplified Sciences competed against more than 3,300 early-stage U.S. companies from all 50 states. Amplified Sciences will be profiled on Entrepreneur.com and will be featured in the December print issue of the magazine. The complete list of companies is available online, where visitors can vote for their three favorites through Nov. 1.

"Recognition by the prestigious Pepperdine ranking as an investable startup helps improve our funding prospects and brings us one step closer to our first commercially available test," said Diana Caldwell, CEO of Amplified Sciences. "The Most Fundable Companies initiative was a rigorous process providing us with a data-driven analysis and roadmap for private investment. We are excited that the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School is focused on supporting startups and giving entrepreneurs a platform to showcase their business and set them up for success with investors."

Adranos Inc., a Purdue University-affiliated company that has developed a high-performance, solid rocket fuel called ALITEC for long-range missile and space launch systems, announced plans Wednesday (Feb. 3) to construct a facility in the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette to manufacture ALITEC in support of various launch systems, including hypersonic systems.

The company has obtained $5.1 million in land, funding and tax credits, collectively from Purdue Research Foundation and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.

Adranos will use these incentives to construct its facility in the Purdue Research Park. Adranos expects to serve a broad customer base, including the major military branches and relevant aerospace and defense contractors. The facility will support ongoing efforts that Adranos is currently performing through its rocket motor research and development division.

Adranos plans to create up to 50 new jobs by the end of 2025.

“ALITEC’s performance benefits make it an ideal solution for any solid rocket system that is seeking to extend range, increase payload capacity or reduce rocket form factor,” said Chris Stoker, CEO of Adranos. “This facility will enable us to scale these solutions to the large volumes that will be required by our customers.”