Left to right: Dr. Edward Vresilovic, Gelifex's Chief Medical
Officer, with Gelifex's
Drs. Michele Marcolongo (materials) and Tony Lowman (chemical). Gelifex
received
$405,000 from venture capital firm BioAdvance in April.
Dr. Tony Lowman, associate professor of chemical engineering, was featured
in Monday’s Philadelphia Business Journal. Together with Dr. Michele Marcolongo,
assistant professor of materials science and engineering, Lowman co-founded
Gelifex, a company that in partnership with Drexel University is developing
hydrogels or special polymers that are inserted between the vertebrae
to alleviate and treat incidences of lower back pain.
The patent on this treatment, which was recently approved in Europe, is
very close to being approved in the United States. The patents will be
held by Drexel University and licensed to Gelifex. Lowman and Marcolongo
expect to begin human clinical trials by 2005. In addition to funding
from Drexel, Gelifex also received $405,000 of funding from Southereastern
Pennsylvania’s technology greenhouse BioAdvance.
In October, Lowman was also named to MIT’s
"TR100," a list of young innovators selected by the prestigious
institution's Technology Review magazine as the top 100 innovators of
this year.
To view the article in the Philadelphia Business Journal, please visit
http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2003/11/03/focus2.html.