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Cambridge, MA (I-Newswire) April 28, 2011 - Semprus BioSciences today announced it will host the final round of judging for the Life Sciences Track of the 2011 MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition on Monday, May 2. The five finalist teams will pitch their business plans to a judging panel that includes Semprus Chief Technology Officer Christopher R. Loose and representatives from the competition.
In 2006, Loose and Chief Executive Officer David L. Lucchino were the Robert P. Goldberg Grand Prize winners of the MIT $100K Competition, comprising 130 teams. They have since transformed Semprus into a 27-person company that has raised a total of $28.5M in equity financing.
The MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition is a year-long educational experience designed to encourage
MIT students to act on their talent, ideas, and energy to produce tomorrow's leading firms. More than 5,000 MIT students and colleagues have competed in the $100K since it began in 1990. Hundreds of companies have launched since then, including Semprus BioSciences, and more than a dozen have grown past the $100M revenue mark.
“The MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition is always thrilled to have the support and cooperation of young enterprises,” said John Casey, assistant director of the MIT $100K. “We're even more excited when we can say that a partner is not only a product of MIT, but is also a former $100K winner. In that we're very appreciative to Semprus both for facilitating the 2011 Business Plan Contest and for inspiring students such as our contestants and ourselves to reach such success.”
“Kendall Square is one of the few places on the globe where innovation is being driven by an open and collaborative network of scientists, business professionals and engineers,” Lucchino said. “My co-founders, MIT Institute Professor Robert Langer, Sc.D., and Semprus CTO Chris Loose, Ph.D., and I are proud to help propel the innovation cycle for aspiring entrepreneurs at MIT. Anytime we have the opportunity to give back to the MIT community, we jump at the chance.”
Semprus BioSciences is a venture-backed biomedical company with a dual mission: to provide complicationfree medical devices designed to preserve patients' long-term health and quality-of-life and to contribute to healthcare cost efficiencies. The company’s current focus is to develop a vascular access catheter with the first single surface modification that is designed to simultaneously reduce microbial adherence and thrombus accumulation over the life of the device. The company spun out of the labs of biomedical researcher and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Professor Robert Langer, Sc.D., in 2007.
About Semprus BioSciences
Semprus BioSciences is a venture-backed biomedical company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The company’s innovative, multi-faceted Semprus technology signifies a breakthrough in medical device
technology. Its current focus is to develop a vascular access catheter with the first single surface
modification that is designed to simultaneously reduce microbial adherence and thrombus accumulation
over the life of the device. In December 2010, the company completed an $18 million Series B financing coled by SR One, the corporate venture capital arm of GlaxoSmithKline, and Foundation Medical Partners
(FMP), a national healthcare venture capital investment firm with a strategic relationship with Cleveland
Clinic. Combined with previous financing rounds, Semprus has raised a total of $28.5 million in equity.
Visit http://www.semprusbio.com for additional information.
Semprus BioSciences won Frost & Sullivan’s“2010 North American Enabling Technology of the Year Award for Surface in Functionalization Technologies” for its Semprus Platform in December 2010.
Semprus BioSciences was selected as one of “50 Companies to Watch” by Medical Devices & Diagnostics Industry magazine in June 2010.
Contact: Michael Devine
m.devine@semprusbio.com
617.577.7755 ext. 202
Holly P. Glass
holly.glass@semprusbio.com
571.243.1952
About Semprus BioSciences:
Semprus BioSciences, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a venture-backed biomedical company with a dual mission: to provide complication-free medical devices designed to preserve patients’ long-term health and quality-of-life and to contribute to health care cost efficiencies. Our innovative, multi-faceted approach to durable surface modifications signifies a breakthrough in medical device technology. Our current focus is to enable the first permanently dual-functional (anti-colonization and anti-thrombogenic) vascular access catheter with a single surface modification.
Founded out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Langer Lab, the company has developed the next-generation biofunctional surface platform – which is focused on achieving clinical benefits that far exceed current market offerings containing silver, heparin, and antibiotic coatings. Through covalent chemical bonding of our Semprus Surfaces™, a permanent non-leaching biomaterial modification to the device surface, our technology is expected to vastly improve patient outcomes by preventing serious medical complications, such as infection, blood clots, improper healing, and cell overgrowth. We have assembled a world class product development team – scientists, industry executives and clinical experts – who specialize in reducing such complications at the confluence of the human body and implantable devices.
In December 2010, Semprus BioSciences completed an $18 million Series B financing round co-led by SR One, the corporate venture capital arm of GlaxoSmithKline, and Foundation Medical Partners (FMP), a national healthcare venture capital investment firm with a strategic relationship with Cleveland Clinic. Prior to this, Semprus completed a Series A financing round co-led by a venture capital firm focused on building next-generation life science companies, and Pangaea Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in advanced materials, energy, biomedical, and environmental technology companies, in December 2008. This funding came on the heels of our $2.5 million seed capital raised in 2007.
Additionally, we have worldwide licenses secured from MIT and the University of Washington, and hold numerous proprietary intellectual property filings. Our laboratory and office complex is located in Kendall Square, Cambridge's innovative biomedical center, and employs 27 full-time professionals.
Company Contact Information
Semprus BioSciences
Michael Devine
One Kendall Square
Building 1400W, 1st Floor
02139
Phone : 6175777755
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