POLY Bioinformatics triples staff through licensing research

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 | Source: Concentrate

A year and a half ago, POLY Bioinformatics got its start as a division of POLY, a Manchester-based advanced software technology company. Since then POLY Bioinformatics has sunk roots in downtown Ann Arbor, carving out a niche of licensing innovations from University of Michigan research.

The first product is called ChemReader, an automated tool that can recognize chemical structure images in documents. It's the brainchild of Kazuhiro Saitou, a chemical engineering professor at U-M. POLY Bioinformatics spent its first year developing the product and is now shopping it around to pharmaceutical, bio-tech, and consulting firms.

"In fact, some of them have been contacting us about getting this technology to them," says Michael Conlin, director of business development for POLY Bioinformatics.

The spin-off now has licensing agreements with U-M, Wayne State, Michigan State, Central Michigan, and Western Michigan universities. That has allowed it to expand its team from two to six people. Conlin expects his company to double in size as it continues to harness the technology coming out of Michigan's universities.

"We're looking for advanced software technology we can license," Conlin says. "We're looking for students we can hire and professors we can enter joint partnerships with."

Source: Michael Conlin, director of business development for POLY Bioinformatics
Writer: Jon Zemke

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