Daniel Raftery, professor of analytical and physical chemistry, is hopeful that a new technology developed in his laboratory will help in the early detection of cancer.

Raftery's lab has developed new methods in detecting small molecules, or metabolites, in blood or urine that can be used to diagnose diseases such as cancer at their earliest stages. Raftery and his Indiana University collaborators have also used the approach to provide a new method for detecting a number of genetic disorders found in infants and young children.

Their goal is to commercialize this diagnostic technology so that patients can benefit from this breakthrough. Dr. Raftery launched his start-up company, MatrixBio Inc., to do this with the help of Purdue’s Discovery Park and Purdue Research Foundation’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC).

Julie Goonewardene, who holds a joint appointment between the Burton Morgan Center and OTC has been instrumental in assisting Raftery, and other Purdue faculty, to engage with investors who can help raise seed money to move forward with their innovations. The two made a joint presentation where Raftery was one of ten faculty chosen to present his research to the President’s Council in Naples, Fla.

Raftery explained that the success of the Phase I clinical trials attracted seed money for moving the technology into Phase II testing. The next phase is to test the technology in clinical trials. For more information, contact Julie Goonewardene, Office of Technology Commercialization/Discovery Park Purdue Research Foundation, at jkgoonewardene@prf.org/ (765)496-7519.