NEW CEO APPOINTED TO INPHOTON, LLC
Indianapolis, IN (June 11, 2007) - INphoton LLC, a privately held Indianapolis-based life sciences company, has named Steven R. Plump as its new CEO and President. Plump, formerly with Eli Lilly and Co., said, "I am delighted to join INphoton, which has great science, people and potential. I look forward to working with customers and alliance partners as we move from novel science to commercialization."
Plump retired last year from Eli Lilly and Co. as Group Vice President of Sales/ Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer after 30 years of service. Dr. Bruce Molitoris, a principal and one of the founders of INphoton noted, "We are fortunate to have Steve join our team with his broad global experience in sales, marketing and general management."
INphoton was established in 2005 from a team of MDs, PhD cell biologists, microscopists and veterinary surgeons. Over the past seven years, the group has worked together to develop a new approach to in vivo imaging, utilizing cutting-edge quantitative technologies in microscopy to accelerate preclinical drug development. Multiplex real-time high resolution imaging delivers information-rich, cell-specific evaluations of drug distribution, toxicity and efficacy in vivo with unparalleled mechanistic insight.
MICROSCOPY ASSAYS FOR PRECLINICAL DRUG DEVELOPMENT
Indianapolis, IN (February 13, 2007) - INphoton, LLC today announced that it had recently received a Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant from the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for assay technology development using intravital multiphoton microscopy. This award is a partnership with the Indiana Center for Biological Microscopy at the Indiana University School of Medicine. The amount of the award is $100,000, which will be matched by the State of Indiana 21 st Century Fund.
"This award will facilitate INphoton, LLC efforts to commercialize intravital multiphoton microscopy for preclinical drug evaluation in the kidney and other organs", Kenneth Dunn, Ph.D., the Principal Investigator for this work, said. "This imaging technology complements and extends existing imaging modalities like PET and CAT scanning, but multiphoton microscopy has higher resolution in space and time, providing subcellular resolution and allows greater power to evaluate potential therapeutic agent's function and action."
Multiphoton fluorescence microscopy makes it possible to image cell specific distribution and effects of drugs in organs of living animals. An integrated team of scientists will develop and refine procedures for quantifying fluorescent drug delivery, cellular uptake, intracellular distribution, metabolism and physiologic/therapeutic effects in living rodents. The combined technology and expertise is unique among contract research organizations who offer imaging services to the pharmaceutical industry. In the past 5 years, the group has pioneered the development of intravital multiphoton microscopy for studies of organ function and disease and has partnered with several pharmaceutical and startup biotech companies to provide unique insights for their drug discovery research. The studies supported by the STTR grant award will strengthen the technological approach and allow more robust services, including better resolution, sensitivity and multi-parameter capabilities.