Space:
Company achieves ‘visibility’ in SCRA’s incubator space
By Shelia Watson
Contributing Writer
For Don Olson, chief executive officer of FirstString Research Inc., having an office in the South Carolina Research Authority’s Trident Research Park is all about synergy.
“The close proximity to the people at SCRA provides a closer working relationship,” he said. “It’s easier to work in a collaborative environment with them.”
Collaboration is the hallmark of a company derived from research at the Medical University of South Carolina and created through the university’s technology transfer process. And as the biotechnology company proceeds in its animal testing prior to human testing of its wound-healing process, Olson said an association with SCRA provides the company visibility.
FSR’s product deals with the skin’s wound-repair process using a bioengineered peptide, based on a naturally occurring protein in the body that helps accelerate wound healing and tissue regeneration with significantly reduced scarring. The process was developed by Rob Gourdie, a professor of cell biology at MUSC and a Clemson professor of bioengineering, and MUSC post-doctoral fellow Gautam Ghatnekar.
Human trials will determine the peptide’s efficacy in humans and its introduction into the marketplace for use by physicians. Olson said the company would like to have a product in the hands of plastic surgeons within two or three years.
Other uses could include organ tissue regeneration. The peptide already is being tested in heart-injury experiments in Gourdie’s laboratory.
In order to make the technology available on the market, FSR was formed in December 2005 with assistance from MUSC’s Foundation for Research Development, which helps develop university-based technology for business use. The company has applied for both U.S. and international patents.
Operating out of incubator space in the SCRA’s building has been an enormous help during the company’s early growth stage, Olson said.
“The rates are competitive, the facility is gorgeous and the additional facilities like the conference rooms are readily available,” said Olson. “It’s a fully furnished office including telephone, Internet, fax. It was totally turnkey to move in.
“They even have coffee service,” he laughed.
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