Member SpotlightsBIOENTREPRENEUR SERIES Translating Discoveries into Medical Technology Daniel J. Kenan, M.D., Ph.D. Scientific Co-Founder, Affinergy  Dr. Daniel Kenan’s motivation in co-founding Affinergy was to translate his discoveries in vascular biology into technology that directly helps patients. “Affinergy's proprietary technologies can create a wide array of bioactive surfaces on synthetic materials,” states Dr. Kenan. “We believe our proprietary coatings can significantly improve patient outcomes while reducing healthcare costs. Affinergy allows device companies to create new products, improve existing products, and streamline manufacturing processes through a modular and highly specific coating system unlike any other on the market.”Affinergy, Inc. develops biomaterial coatings that can selectively bond or repel specific materials and regulate biology at the surface of devices implanted into the body. This proprietary and patented technology for surface modification and biomolecule immobilization is called Interfacial Biomaterials (IFBM). Applications include: improving bone ingrowth on orthopedic devices such as hip implants, preventing infections/biofilms on catheters and other medical devices, improving blood filters, and encouraging biological processes to grow new arteries. Dr. Kenan and Dr. Mark Grinstaff developed Affinergy’s technology at Duke University. The story of how Affinergy was created weaves together the co-founders’ persistence, foresight and cross-disciplinary cooperation with serendipity thrown in as the catalyst. It begins in the labs of both scientists…one day, Dr. Kenan received a telephone call from Dr. Grinstaff, a chemist, who wanted to know whether Dr. Kenan’s phage display libraries could produce peptides that would bind to the polymers he was studying. Dr. Kenan was amused by this inquiry, because in his research, such binding was referred to as “background” and considered undesirable because it interfered with the biology-based screening he was interested in studying. Nevertheless, he collaborated with Dr. Grinstaff and to his surprise found that identifying peptides that bound very strongly to the polymers was a great challenge. The project was a couple of years in development before a third generation of peptides was designed that bound tightly to the polymers. Since some of these peptides displayed amazingly high affinity and specificity, the team decided to explore their binding to other synthetic materials. They focused on such medically important metals as stainless steel and titanium. At this point, Drs. Kenan and Grinstaff hit a Eureka! moment and realized the clinical significance of their work. They began looking for peptides that bound to certain cell types or could recruit specific cell types to an implant. In the end, they started building peptides with dual modalities: the ability to bind metal and the ability to bind and/or recruit cells. Because Drs. Kenan and Grinstaff had so many ideas about improving materials used in surgical and medical devices, they felt they would be too limited by the academic environment. With encouragement and support from their departments, the New Venture Capital Clinic in the Fuqua Business School and the university itself, they decided to form Affinergy. They are currently waiting for their license from Duke so that they can secure venture capital investments. They expect this green light in early Spring. ### Dr. Kenan is an assistant professor of Pathology at Duke University Medical Center. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology at Duke in 1995. He later received his M.D. at Duke where he continued residency training in Pathology. In 1997, Dr. Kenan became the Director of the Combinatorial Sciences Center at Duke. His laboratory employs novel combinatorial technologies to address fundamental questions in tumor vascular biology. The ultimate goal of his research is to develop a better understanding of the role angiogenesis plays in cancer biology and to convert this knowledge into improved therapies for cancer. All solid tumors require ongoing angiogenesis and vascular remodeling in order to exhibit malignant behaviors such as rapid growth, tissue invasion, and metastasis. Angiogenesis is regulated primarily at the level of the endothelial cell through a complex network of interactions with extracellular matrix components, paracrine and endocrine factors, chemical factors, cell-cell signaling, and mechanical stimuli. Endothelial cell biology is poorly understood in the native environment of tumors due to their scarcity and the difficulty in isolating endothelial cells from tissues. Novel technologies developed in Dr. Kenan’s laboratory are being applied to overcome these difficulties. These technologies rely on the ability to generate and screen very large recombinant peptide and antibody libraries using bacteriophage display. Thus, the laboratory can readily derive both peptide and antibody probes specific for virtually any molecule on the endothelial cell surface. These technologies can also be applied in both differential and proximity cell-based screens to identify the co-regulatory components of receptor complexes in their native environment on the cell-surface. ### http://www.affinergy.com ### << Previous Next >> [ View All Member Spotlights ] |
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