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Thursday, December 19, 2002

By Pamela Gaynor, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

LaunchCyte Inc. has licensed its first homegrown technology, a computer model for simulating the ways different pharmacological compounds affect inflammation in the human body.

The Oakland-based developer of biotechnology ventures formed a company, Immunetrics Inc., 18 months ago to help researchers at the University of Pittsburgh advance their technology and find commercial applications. At the time, LaunchCyte also obtained an option to license the technology.

A host of diseases either begin with or result in inflammation, making the possibility of thwarting it or altering its progression with medication a lucrative area for drug development. Among other diseases, Immunetrics' technology is being used to understand sepsis, a runaway inflammation that results from infection or trauma. The often fatal condition affects 750,000 patients in the country annually.

Computerized tools, such as the software Immunetrics has developed to mathematically model the effects of a particular compound, can help pharmaceuticals manufacturers more quickly determine which drugs are candidates for clinical trials and how to design the trials for better results.

LaunchCyte's chief executive officer, Tom Petzinger, said the formation of Immunetrics illustrated the way LaunchCyte works to turn a university-based scientific research endeavor and into a commercial opportunity.

In addition to Immunetrics, LaunchCyte has founded two other ventures, both built around technology licensed from universities outside the region. LaunchCyte also obtained an option last week to license a second technology locally, from Carnegie Mellon University.

The Immunetrics venture also highlights the promise of interdisciplinary projects combining the region's medical expertise with its information technology mathematical talent, Petzinger said.

Doctors from Pitt Medical School along with a Pitt math professor collaborated on research to track inflammatory responses in the human body and to turn their findings into equations that could be used to predict how various chemical compounds would alter the inflammation.

LaunchCyte brought in an outside information technology developer to consult with the scientists. The consultant, Steve Chang, was named CEO of Immunetrics in August.

Before joining the company, Chang had headed an Internet venture called Futuristics that was sold. Futuristics had been developed from technology acquired from the former Westinghouse Electric Corp., where Chang had earlier worked in information technology.