Stheno develops optical detection systems for research & development and quality control monitoring for the pharmaceutical industry.

Sword Diagnostics is a life sciences company created in response to the needs of the research, pharmaceutical, and clinical communities. Although researchers are discovering thousands of biomarkers associated with both healthy and diseased-related biological processes, today's life science tools are unable to effectively measure, quantify, and determine the ultimate value of these biological markers. Sword Diagnostics' technology is directly aimed at making it easier to understand these newly emerging biomarkers, as well as extending the utility of existing diagnostics assays. Sword's mission is to provide the next-generation detection technology to life scientists, enabling them to continue advances in medical research, drug discovery and the provision of health care products and services.

IIT Research Institute (IITRI) is a contract research organization (CRO) that aims to provide non-clinical toxicology and other drug development services to government and industry. IITRI offers particular expertise in oncologics drug development, inhalation toxicology and technology, carcinogenesis and cancer prevention, and biodefense. IITRI's Drug Discovery Division is a research-based group whose focus is the design and synthesis of new small molecule therapeutics for cancer and infectious disease.

Echelon Biosciences is a company that received a SBIR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Near Infrared Substrates for Imaging Autotaxin Activity In Vivo. Their project aims to synthesize ATXRed, an in vivo imaging agent that is specifically activated by the enzymatic activity of autotaxin. Autotaxin is an extracellular enzyme that generates the phospholipid growth factor lysophophatidic acid (LPA). LPA is involved in a variety of biological functions, such as angiogenesis, wound healing, brain development, immunological competence and the regulation of blood pressure. Both LPA and autotaxin have also been implicated in numerous diseases, especially metastatic cancer. Autotaxin was identified as one of the 40 most induced genes in aggressive breast cancer. The broader impacts of this research are the discovery and commercialization of tools that easily highlight specific biological pathways in living organisms. ATXRed will be welcomed by basic researchers in many fields associated with autotaxin and LPA. However, the utility extends beyond the basic research sphere. ATXRed smart probes could also aid pharmaceutical researchers searching for pharmacological inhibitors of autotaxin and LPA receptor agonists and antagonists. ATXRed would be a powerful tool in many rodent models of human cancer. In vivo autotaxin imaging probes could also aid in the clinic by helping to identify and monitor disease progression and treatment. Ultimately, ATXRed could help guide surgical resection of tumorstumors previously identified by the smart probe to have elevated autotaxin activity. In total, ATXRed probes have the potential to impact basic research, drug discovery and the clinic as a prime example of molecular medicine applied from bench to bedside.

Firebird Biomolecular Sciences, Inc. supplies nucleic acid components, libraries, polymerases and software to support human diagnostics, synthetic biology and human therapy. A partner with the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution (FfAME), Firebird aims to provide a scientific, research-based environment to help create a more integrated science for the current century and to transfer technologies from basic research into products and processes to meet commercial and medical needs.

PlexPress is a life science company doing work in gene expression analysis technology to advance biological science, drug discovery, crop science and diagnostics. PlexPress seeks to rapidly provide reliable information at low cost. Its products simultaneously measure multiple genes from multiple samples. PlexPress operates from Los Altos, California and Helsinki, Finland.