Posted 01.01.2009

Driven by genius

Colorado Inventor Showcase winners

By Eric Peterson

Beacon Biotechnology CEO Fred Mitchell with a disease-sensing chip for the BrightSPOT Reader. (Photo by Mark Manger)

The state’s inventors strutted their latest stuff at November’s Colorado Inventor Showcase at the University of Denver’s Daniels Cable Center. The DaVinci Institute event, also sponsored by ColoradoBiz, featured innovations in everything from software to toilet seats, with the judges naming five inventions — the BrightSPOT Reader, VanDyne SuperTurbo, BioHAWT, AlchemyGrid and Fiberlight — as the year’s best.

Inventor of the Year: Beacon Biotechnology team for the BrightSPOT Reader
The 2008 Inventor of the Year is not a person, but Beacon Biotechnology LLC’s Aurora-based team.

"There are three entities that contributed IP (Intellectual Property)," Beacon CEO Fred Mitchell says. "Combining the three pieces makes something completely different and very powerful."

The first entity, Arizona-based Prolume, contributed a synthetic luminescent blue molecule found in deep-sea crustaceans that is thousands of times brighter than that of a firefly. The second firm, Colorado-based imaging specialists Black Forest Engineering, added a light-sensing chip. And the third contributor, Aurora-based Avidity, bonded Prolume’s light-generating molecules to Black Forest’s light sensors.

The end result is the disposable BrightSPOT Reader, "a product that detects infectious disease," Mitchell says. "We can do over 100 tests on one chip, and one chip handles a single drop of blood. If it’s positive, a spot lights up. The results are much more predictable than traditional methods."

The exact position of the spot corresponds to a given disease, tipping off a PDA-based reader to deliver test results on the spot. "You’re able to do this at the point of care," Mitchell says. "The current way of testing people, you have to have a lab that runs the test nearby." Mitchell says there are some "dipstick" tests on the market, but they "do not have the degree of differentiation of our test."

With regard to Third World HIV testing, the BrightSPOT Reader "is less expensive than processing in a lab, and it also has an increased value because it happens in the village," Mitchell says. Health-care providers can take measures immediately, "rather than go back later and find that person who tested positive — and everybody that person has slept with."

Beacon’s team used HIV antibodies sourced from the National Institute of Health to test its concept and was able to perform simultaneous detection of multiple diseases. The goal is to develop a commercially viable prototype in 18 months.

"Our goal is an infectious disease chip that would look at HIV and hepatitis infections," he adds. Both diseases actually encompass "a number of different species," and one chip could detect and differentiate the variances.

The target market is global, with a focus on HIV-ravaged Africa. With a background in the medical device industry, Mitchell initially got involved as an investor in Beacon Biotechnology in 2007, and then was recruited as the company’s chief executive in late summer 2008.

"I used to run a hospital chemistry lab and later worked for Bayer Diagnostics. I had a long background in medical devices. I saw the power this technology had."

The company’s staff consists of two full-time scientists, plus Chief Financial Officer Larry Lansing and Chief Technical Officer Millard Cull, who also are the CFO and CEO, respectively, of Avidity. At times, Avidity lends technical and manpower help. Both Beacon and Avidity call Fitzsimons Bioscience Park in Aurora home.

"We’re a young company, so part of what we’re doing is fundraising," adds Mitchell, citing a short-term goal of $3 million to get the BrightSPOT Reader into a commercially attractive state and a long-term goal of $20 million to bring a product to the domestic market. www.beaconbiotechnology.com

Consumer Product of the Year: re:thought (BioHAWT), Robert Irwin
Robert Irwin, the co-founder of Denver-based sustainable services firm re:thought, looked to Mother Nature for inspiration with the BioHAWT (an acronym for biomimetic horizontal axis wind turbine).

Studying industrial design at the Art Institute of Colorado in 2005, Irwin began envisioning a wind turbine for the residential market. "I was concerned with the ongoing need for energy," Irwin says. "The renewable energy sector is exciting to me."

But instead of looking to the old windmills on the Colorado plains, he took design cues from such influences as Nautilus shells and pine cones.

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