Southwest Washington PubTalk marked its two-year anniversary Thursday evening with progress reports from leaders of six locally connected startups who had been featured speakers in earlier PubTalk sessions.
More than 130 people attended the business networking event at the Fort Vancouver Barracks. Most of the six companies — Bowserwear, Helidyne LLC, Oasis Diagnostics, Hydrovolts, GroEasy, and RedPoint International — reported progress in business development and getting products to market. Most said they still needed to improve marketing and secure additional funding.
Oasis Diagnostics Corp. has licensed technology for the non-invasive diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease from Drs. Balwant Rai and Jasdeep Kaur. Using a series of proprietary biomarkers, Oasis will develop a rapid saliva test for these debilitating diseases in its patented VerOFy point-of-care testing platform device.
Two collaborators will use a point-of-care testing tool and up to eight specific proprietary biomarkers found in saliva for diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
Oasis recently executed an exclusive, global license for the technology from the inventors who have demonstrated that 50 different biomarkers are contributory to Alzheimer’s disease but as few as three can lead to accurate diagnosis using the Oasis VerOFy point-of-care testing tool.
Oasis Diagnostics® Corporation has received an investment award from a noted organization devoted to helping visionary entrepreneurs in the Pacific Northwest.
Oasis was selected by the Zino Society from among 12 candidates whose commitment to new technology stands out in the crowd. As part of the award, Oasis receives $50,000, important connections to accredited investors and support in the form of educational tools and resources that will support its growth. The award was announced March 24 during a ceremony at the Seattle Harbor Club. read full article
With TechLink assistance, Bamburgh Marrsh (BAMA) of Vancouver, Washington, has licensed a Navy-developed technology for rapid tuberculosis diagnosis using oral fluids (saliva). BAMA was founded in 2002 specifically for the purpose of pioneering new applications using novel saliva-based diagnostic systems. This is the second license that BAMA has taken out with the Naval Institute of Dental and Biomedical Research (NIDBR), with assistance from TechLink.
BAMA will combine the Navy technology for rapid diagnosis of acute tuberculosis (TB) with patent pending technology, which it has developed. The resulting commercial product will be used to diagnose extra-pulmonary TB and childhood TB.
The latest defense against bioterrorism may use your own saliva. A new toothbrush-sized field test developed by the Navy provides a rapid, inexpensive way to determine protection levels against anthrax. A test strip samples saliva and changes color within minutes to indicate immunization status. The rapid, noninvasive test replaces slow, expensive, laboratory tests that require blood.
This new test can rapidly confirm that warfighters are protected against anthrax in the field, and also is a boon to first-responder and health-care personnel as it can quickly be determined who needs treatment.