Biotech Company with KU Roots Wins National Competition, Secures Funding T=to Help Move Research 'From Bench To Bedside'
The human body contains trillions of cells at any given moment, each doing highly specialized work to help us function — but they don’t operate in isolation. Imagine a sophisticated FedEx or UPS delivery network empowering communication between our cells. The nano-sized delivery vehicles in this scenario are called exosomes, and a company born from technology developed at the University of Kansas is harnessing the power of these tiny vessels to enable tomorrow’s medical breakthroughs.
Clara Biotech, founded by KU engineering alumnus Jim West and former KU professor of chemical & petroleum engineering and chemistry Mei He, has spent the last three years refining a novel technology to isolate and purify exosomes, which can be used for early disease diagnosis, targeted drug delivery, cancer immunotherapy and other forms of regenerative medicine.