April 9, 2008

Purdue Technology Center, Quadraspec finalists in separate categories for two international awards

The Purdue Technology Center is a 2008 Outstanding Incubator of the Year Award finalist and Quadraspec is a 2008 Outstanding Incubator Graduate Award finalist. The winners will be announced May 6 at the organization's 22nd International Conference on Business Incubation in San Antonio.

The Purdue Technology Center and Quadraspec are both based in the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Ind.

"Just 14 nominees throughout the country have been named finalists," said Joseph B. Hornett, senior vice president, treasurer and COO of the Purdue Research Foundation. "It is incredible that two of these finalists are part of the Purdue Research Park, especially when you consider that there are about 1,100 business incubators around the country."

Purdue Research Park's BusinessMaker ProcessTM combines a research/commercialization parallel process to help guide new businesses through the start-up phase.

"We work with Purdue researchers throughout the discovery-to-delivery process to help license intellectual property, recruit investors and a management team, and prepare a product for market introduction," said Timothy Peoples, director of the Purdue Technology Centers. "We also have a strong incubation program for startup or expanding companies unrelated to Purdue University."

The Purdue Technology Center was established in 1993 and have 39 incubator companies and 53 incubator graduates.

"We've benefited greatly from being part of the Purdue Research Park and the Purdue Technology Centers," said Chad Barden, chairman and CEO of Quadraspec. "Since graduating from the Purdue Technology Centers, we've built a team of more than 40 employees with combined salary and wages of over $1.8 million."

A graduate of the Purdue Technology Centers of West Lafayette, Ind., Quadraspec provides drug discovery platforms that more completely measure the proteomic impacts of new compounds. These platforms will impact the drug research and development industry by allowing efficient assessment of the root cause of disease symptoms.

Quadraspec was formed in 2004, and its products are largely based on the pioneering research of Purdue professors David Nolte and Fred Regnier, who were searching for ways to measure protein interactions in efficient ways.

The NBIA Incubation Awards honor the business incubation programs, graduates and client companies that exemplify the best of the industry. Four panels of judges made up of National Business Incubation Association members selected finalists in each of the four categories: Outstanding Incubator Client, Outstanding Incubator Graduate, Incubator Innovation and Incubator of the Year.

Finalists are:

Outstanding Incubator Client, Technology Category:

* Millennial Media, client of the Emerging Technology Centers, Baltimore

* Summit Data Communications, client of Akron Global Business Accelerator, Akron, Ohio

Outstanding Incubator Client, Nontechnology Category:

* B. Deo-Volente, client of the Galesburg Business Incubator, Galesburg, Ill.

* One-Stop Cellular, client of Dan River Business Development Center, Danville, Va.

Outstanding Incubator Graduate, Technology Category:

* PharmOptima, graduate of the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center, Kalamazoo, Mich.

* Quadraspec, graduate of the Purdue Technology Centers, West Lafayette, Ind.

Outstanding Incubator Graduate, Nontechnology Category:

* DVF Food Service, graduate of the Dan River Business Development Center, Danville, Va.

* Smith Research Corp., graduate of the Louisiana Business and Technology Center, Baton Rouge

Incubator Innovation Award:

* The "Global Technology Commercialization Initiative," an innovation of the Akron Global Business Accelerator, Akron, Ohio

* The "International Student/Business Growth Coalition," an innovation of the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College Business Incubator, Candler, N.C.

Incubator of the Year, Technology Category:

* Environmental Business Cluster, San Jose

* Purdue Technology Centers, West Lafayette, Ind.

Incubator of the Year, Nontechnology Category:

* Dan River Business Development Center, Danville, Va.

* Darebin Enterprise Centre, Alphington, Victoria, Australia

The National Business Incubation Association estimates that in 2005 alone, North American incubators assisted more than 27,000 startup companies that provided full-time employment for more than 100,000 workers and generated annual revenue of more than $17 billion. Approximately 5,000 business incubators operate worldwide.

About the National Business Incubation Association

The National Business Incubation Association is the world's leading organization advancing business incubation and entrepreneurship. Each year, the NBIA Incubation Awards honor the business incubation programs, graduates and client companies that exemplify the best of the industry.

About Quadraspec Inc.

Quadraspec's patented SDI™ label-free detection technology is changing the face of diagnostic medicine. Built around research done at Purdue University, Quadraspec enables the rapid analysis of up to 100 unique tests on up to 1,000 unique patients per hour. Quadraspec's fully integrated, multiplex-capable diagnostics platform enables high-throughput, label-free, highly sensitive bioassays and diagnostics. With market disruptive costs to researchers and laboratories and applications from discovery through development, Quadraspec aims to become the next generation gold standard diagnostics platform.

About Purdue Research Park

To the Purdue Research Park, https://www.purdueresearchpark.com

Sources:
Joseph Hornett, (765) 496-1658, jbhornett@prf.org

Timothy Peoples, (765) 494-6630, trpeoples@prf.org

Chad Barden, (765) 775-1026, cbarden@quadraspec.com

Purdue Research Foundation contact:
Cynthia Sequin, (765) 494-4192, (765) 413-6031 (mobile), casequin@prf.org