Purdue's Low to participate in IBJ panel discussion on outlook for Indiana's life sciences industry

May 7, 2013  


Philip Low

Philip Low 
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LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University researcher Philip Low will join a panel of experts on Friday (May 10) for the Indianapolis Business Journal's Power Breakfast Series focusing on the outlook for Indiana's life sciences industry.

Low, the Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and director of the Purdue Center for Drug Discovery, will be part of the panel discussion, which begins at 7:45 a.m. at the J.W. Marriott, 10 S. West St., in downtown Indianapolis.

Joining Low on the panel will be Kristen Eilenberg, chief executive officer at Lodestone Logic and Infuse Accelerator; R. Matthew Neff, president of CHV Capital Inc.; Brian Stemme, project director for BioCrossroads; Brian S. Williams, Global Healthcare Strategy at PricewaterhouseCoopers International Ltd.; and Raul Zavaleta, CEO of Indigo BioSystems Inc.

The life sciences experts will address three main questions:

* Why is Indiana not seeing as much venture capital investment in life sciences companies as most of its Midwest peers?

* How will digital health innovations change the business landscape for biotech and medical device startups?

* Are Indiana's research universities turning out as many life sciences companies as they should be?

For more information or to register for the event, go to http://www.ibj.com/ibj/event?eventId=183

While studying signal processes involved in transporting large molecules across the cell membrane in plants in 1989, Low and his Purdue team discovered that they could gain entry for a large molecule into a cell by linking it to a vitamin used by the cell. He immediately recognized that this process could be used medically and began to study the same process in mammalian cells.

Today, Low is using a method of sneaking molecules directly into diseased cells while avoiding healthy tissue - a process that will save lives and improve the quality of life for patients undergoing treatment.

So far, Low and his team at Endocyte Inc., a publicly traded company he founded at the Purdue Research Park, have successfully increased cancer drug potency while reducing toxicity. Six drugs in the end stages of clinical trials for kidney, lung, ovarian and endometrial cancers are the result of this work.

Low received his Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego in 1975 and joined the faculty at Purdue in 1976. 

Writer: Phillip Fiorini, 765-496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu

Source: Philip Low, 765-494-5273, plow@purdue.edu 

Related website: 
Low laboratory 

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