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Luke Ulrich and his partner, Igor Jouline, knew they had a great idea. They just had to find a way to make it happen.
“We use computers to figure out how bacteria functions in the real world,” he said. “There are pathogens and bacteria out there that cause medical problems, and all this data is put into public databases. We can take that data and analyze it, comparing things at the genetic level.”
Ulrich said the result is information that can be handed off to pharmaceutical companies or university labs. With that in mind, he and Jouline formed Agile Genomics LLC and applied for a government grant with the Small Business Innovative Research program.
He was fresh out of grad school, he said, and was not expecting good news.
“I had just finished my Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in bioinformatics, then I started looking into commercializing what I was working on,” Ulrich said. “Then we got notification that SBIR would fund us, so we started ramping up and going full time this year.”
He settled in South Carolina because of his wife’s job, and that’s when he stumbled on the opportunity for matching grant money from SC Launch, the South Carolina Research Authority collaboration that assists entrepreneurial startup companies with counseling, seed funding and access to a resource network.
The grant and matching funds will get them from Phase I to Phase II, when Ulrich will be able to apply for a grant totaling between $750,000 and $1 million.
“In Phase I, you’re developing proof of concept of your idea,” he said. “But Phase II is where you really knock it out. This money is helpful in getting us to that point.”
Leveraging Funds
As the program extends into its second year, Phase I matching grants will become available again on a first-come, first-served basis through June 30, 2009.
Bill Mahoney, president and CEO of SCRA, said such programs are a means of helping originate businesses in or attracting them to the area.
“Our intent for the SC Launch matching grant program is to further increase the number of South Carolina small businesses that apply for federal research dollars within the state,” Mahoney said. “This program can also increase the productivity of Phase I research for South Carolina startups, which can make them more competitive when they apply for Phase II funds.”
Phase II awards allow startups to further develop technology into expanded commercial offerings, he said.
Nine companies, four from the Lowcountry, received SBIR/STTR Phase I matching grants, totaling $863,936. The companies represent intellectual property from South Carolina commercial ventures and from South Carolina’s research universities, Clemson University,
The Medical University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina. They are:
- Luke Ulrich, Agile Genomics LLC, Charleston.
- Kelvin Brockbank, Cell & Tissue System Inc., North Charleston.
- Spenser Robert, First String Research Inc., North Charleston.
- Harold May, Microbial Fuel Cell Technologies LLC, Mount Pleasant.
- Brian Morin, Innegrity LLC, Greenville.
- Rubina Asif Khan, Nitek Inc., Irmo.
- Michael Bolick, Selah Technologies LLC, Simpsonville.
- Remis Gaska, Sensor Electronic Technologie Inc., Columbia.
- Jeffrey DiMaio, Tetramer LLC, Pendleton.
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