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RESEARCH CENTER SET UP IN DELRAY
by Marcia Heroux Pounds - Business Writer/Sun Sentinal
Dec. 9, 2004
The second spin-off from the Center of Excellence in Biomedical and
Marine Biotechnology at Florida Atlantic University has set up shop in
Delray Beach.
Custom Synthesis Inc., was founded by Susan Lepore, an engineer who is
the company's chief executive. Her husband, Salvatore Lepore, assistant
professor of chemistry at FAU, will serve as a scientific consultant.
Lepore, a former researcher at Eli Lilly and Co., focuses his research
at FAU on organic chemistry usually applied to drug discovery.
CSI provides custom-made chemical compounds used in pharmaceutical drug
development. That streamlines the research process for scientists.
The company has been retained by Scripps Florida to work with its
medicinal chemistry group. Scripps scientists have begun their work in
FAU space while awaiting their planned campus in northern Palm Beach
County.
"Scripps was pivotal in the decision" to start the business, Susan
Lepore said. "It's becoming apparent to me biotech and pharmaceutical
research is really taking off."
Jeanie McGuire, head of technology transfer at FAU, said while some
university research takes time to translate into a product, "CSI has a
product tomorrow morning because they're providing a service."
Spinning off companies from the university is important because "it
helps gets our science into the marketplace to help mankind, implement
the university's economic development mission to grow and support jobs,"
McGuire said.
CSI is the second company to come out of the Center of Excellence. The
first was Tequesta Marine Biosciences, which is developing products
based on research by FAU researcher Russell Kerr.
The company is being financed by the Lepores, who are leasing lab space
from FAU. Future plans include licensing technology from FAU. That could
include research by Salvatore Lepore on chemical agents used in
diagnostic tests, such as brain tumor analysis. The university has filed
for a patent based on the research.
"We anticipate some fairly rapid growth so we'll be bringing on board
some organic chemists," Susan Lepore said. The firm's first employee is
Anita Khoram, who recently graduated from FAU with a master's degree in
organic chemistry.
The Center of Excellence in Biomedical and Marine Biotechnology was
established in Fall 2002 and FAU's Division of Research and Graduate
Studies received a $10 million grant from the State of Florida in
September 2003.
The Center's major objective is to promote and facilitate the transfer
of university technology into the private sector, said Larry F.
Lemanski, vice president for research and graduate studies at FAU.
Marcia Heroux Pounds can be reached at mpounds@sun-sentinel.com or
561-243-6650.
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