News item posted on 2015-05-05

CSB Postdoc exhibits technology entrepreneurship

Congratulations to Michael Feldkamp, postdoc in the Chazin Lab, on being a member of the 2015 TechVenture Challenge’s winning team. The TechVenture Challenge is an educational event that allows students to learn the process of commercializing early technologies and showcases emerging intellectual property from Vanderbilt University. “First Diagnostics,” Feldkamp’s team, presented Corafix (fluorocoxib A), a fluorescently labeled selective inhibitor of the COX-2 enzyme developed by Vanderbilt investigators.

Corafix increases the accuracy of conventional colonoscopy in animal studies when given 24 hours before the procedure. Under a special light, cancerous and pre-cancerous cells that bound Corafix now “glowed,” enabling better visualization.

Other team members were Elizabeth Conrad, graduate student in Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Biomedical Engineering graduate student Samantha Sarett, law student Hailey Verano, and team leader, Kelsey Beavers. Dr. Jashim Uddin, of the Marnett Lab, developed Corafix and served as the team’s scientific mentor.

The team also entered and won a similar competition for the Board of Trustees. That competition was comprised of other groups that had won various business pitch competitions on campus.

Michael’s current research is focused on finding compounds capable of selectively inhibiting RPA interactions.

Read more about the winning team in the VUMC Reporter. Find out more about the TechVenture Challenge here.

Author: Stephen M. Doster