Indiana Seed Fund Backs Biotech Start Up

(Photos8.com)

A new biotechnology company, whose work is based on research from the labs of the Indiana University medical school, has received investment backing from an Indiana state fund supporting life science start ups. Aarden Pharmaceuticals in Indianapolis will get $250,000 in early-stage capital from the Indiana Seed Fund.

Aarden is developing technologies that attack difficult-to-treat diseases by focusing on specific intracellular disease targets. The Indiana Seed Fund investment will support the company’s lead program, a tuberculosis treatment, through the pre-clinical stage.

The company’s technology platform is based on the work of Zhong-Yin Zhang, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Zhang is an expert in protein tyrosine phosphatases, a family of signaling enzymes that regulate an array of cellular processes.  His research in biochemistry aims to make drugs work more effectively in finding their targets.

The Indiana Seed Fund says the Aarden investment is its eleventh such transaction. The fund is managed by BioCrossroads, a public-private collaboration that supports Indiana’s new life science companies.

Related: R&D Spending Creates 11,000+ Jobs in Indiana Since 1999

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