-Life sciences startup awarded over $95,000-
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Activation Capital
Contact: Sara Maddox
Email: sara@activation.capital
804-828-4545
RICHMOND – Governor Northam announced the recipients of the 2021 Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) Awards. CCF awards are given to 34 small technology-focused businesses working on commercializing research in a number of sectors including life sciences, clean energy, data analytics, agricultural and environmental technologies, autonomous systems, cybersecurity, and space and satellites. These awards are the first round for CCF, developed through the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA).
Meru Biotechnologies, a company located in the Bio+Tech Center in the Virginia Bio+Tech Park, a life sciences campus of Activation Capital was awarded $95,850 for the development and commercialization of TruBind Technology for drug discovery. TruBind used in combination with the VERSA, our compensated interferometry reader, will transform biomarker validation, cancer biomarker detection, in vitro diagnostics and drug discovery.
Speaking about the award, Meru Biotechnologies CEO Dan Rodenhaver said, “We are honored to be awarded the CCF Grant. The funding will be instrumental in helping bring Meru’s State of the Art technology to market and will help advance our vision to improve drug discovery, health and life science research.”
Chandra Briggman, CEO of Activation Capital said, “Meru Biotechnologies is leading the way in drug discovery innovation. The awarding of these dollars shows the belief the Commonwealth has in the company’s ability to improve diagnostics and the drug development process for researchers and doctors and improve patient outcomes and standards of care.”
About Activation Capital: Activation Capital engages and connects the many influential players in our innovation ecosystem, and strives to give startup founders access to the tools and resources they need to navigate the entrepreneurial process. These resources include the VA Bio+Tech Park campus focused on life sciences and advanced technology companies; the Riverflow Growth Fund, a seed fund; and the Ecosystem Direct Investment Fund (EDIF), which provides grants to entrepreneur support organizations. The Activation Council supports and coordinates these efforts among the many available resources to foster innovation in companies of all kinds. Activation Council brings clarity and perspective in the short term and vision for the long term, generating more collision points that lead to successful business outcomes. Activation Capital provides the resources and connections for any person to develop their idea from start to phenomenal.
About Meru Biotechnologies: Meru Biotechnologies is a biotechnology company focused on enabling researchers to measure drug-drug target binding. Meru’s technology addresses the challenges associated with multi-step surface immobilized techniques, as well as the significant limitations of existing ligand binding assays encountered when testing in complex samples. Meru’s TruBind™ is the world’s first label-free, conformation-sensitive, free-solution assay technology for biophysical characterization of molecular interactions with complex drug targets. TruBind™ empowers unlabeled binding affinity measurement, target engagement verification, and mechanism-of-action elucidation in a single assay platform. A key part of Meru’s solution is the VersaBT system, a small workstation that fits on the benchtop and supports the drug discovery workflow end to end. The VersaBT is broadly accessible due to its ease of use, small sample size requirement, and utility across the sample spectrum. Meru Biotechnologies believes that the VersaBT will shorten the drug discovery timeline by simplifying the measurement of conformational changes that occur when molecules bind to each other, thereby confirming binding and accelerating the discovery and development of novel high value products including small molecule and antibody-based therapeutics, liquid biopsy, and companion diagnostics.
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