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PROVIDENCE, R.I., March 1, 2004 — William Lee long suspected that nanostructured, intelligent membranes could solve many problems in one broad brush. His startup company aims to prove that theory right.
eMembrane Inc., based in a business incubator funded by the state of Rhode Island, has developed a technology to graft nanoscale filaments onto a polymer surface. Those filaments can then be customized to bind to specific targets such as ions, proteins or whole cells as they wash across the surface — much like a hairbrush captures hair in its bristles.
That capture-and-hold approach could prove useful to many industries because it sifts molecules from a sample without disrupting their natural three-dimensional structure. Pharmaceuticals crave such a tool for protein separations; industrial plants could use it for improved water filtration. Textile manufacturers could even incorporate the brushes into clothing to reduce unpleasant odors.
The technology, electron-beam-induced grafting, has existed in some form for decades; nuclear power plants, for example, have used it as a method to cleanse uranium from coolants. Lee, a chemical engineer who worked as a research associate at Massachusetts General Hospital, wanted to explore its potential for life sciences and formed eMembrane in November 2000.
The company has two full-time employees and $345,000 in seed capital now, although Lee plans to close on a round of venture funding and hire more staff this quarter. eMembrane licensed its basic technology from the Environmental Purification Research Institute in Japan, which first developed the application of odor-eating cloth. It has also filed 13 patent applications of its own.
Lee stresses that the real advance in his technology is the process of binding the filaments to the substrate, known as electron-beam-induced grafting. The materials themselves –polymers for the substrates, monomers for the filaments — can be any of numerous substances available from Dow, DuPont and other industrial giants. Those materials are well-understood by chemical engineers and can be easily adapted for specific uses.
“It really can be anything related to polymers,” Lee said.
The filaments range from 10 nanometers to 300 microns tall. The smallest filaments would catch ions, to collect toxic metals from water. Larger filaments could hold gas or protein molecules, while the largest could capture whole cells or viruses in a bioweapon defense system. Lee has squeezed as many as 10 trillion filaments onto a square centimeter of substrate, spacing the filaments about 4 nanometers apart.
The brush-coated polymers look like plain white tubes, usually bundled and fitted into plastic cylinders so samples can wash through them. The tubes start with a diameter of 3.2 millimeters across, and expand to 4.4 millimeters once eMembrane’s brushes are grafted onto the surface.
Lee’s first target is proteomics. Scientists are eager to use high-throughput screening to study the millions of proteins that carry out cellular function, and today’s technology to cultivate a supply of proteins is liquid chromatography. The problem is that liquid chromatography works two-dimensionally: a sample is pushed into a flat surface, where receptors catch the target molecule. That risks bending the molecule out of shape.
“We want to eliminate liquid chromatography,” Lee says. He believes eMembrane’s three-dimensional approach captures molecules more efficiently, holding them in vertical stacks and horizontal planes. It also allows his brushes to capture small amounts of a target in a sample.
John Pellegrino, formerly director of membrane research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and now an independent consultant, described Lee’s idea as “relatively nifty.” Affinity membranes have long been used to scrounge up monoclonal antibodies or DNA fragments, he said, but the technique might have untapped potential in other industries.
Affinity membranes do have some advantages over liquid chromatography, Pellegrino said, such as generating less waste. On the other hand, “chromatography is a workhorse. People know it and they know what to do with it.” eMembrane’s success will hinge on the stability of its product and its ability to manufacture in volume, Pellegrino said.
Undoubtedly large, the market for separation equipment is difficult to pinpoint since it cuts across many industries. Amersham Biosciences AB and Millipore Corp. are a few business that sell membranes; Exxon Mobil has research efforts in the field. Avecia Pharmaceuticals, Astec Inc. and others sell separation gear based on chromatography.
Analysts at Frost & Sullivan estimate the market for protein separation equipment stood at $800 million in 2003, growing at about 8 percent per year.
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Company file: eMembrane Inc.
(last updated March 1, 2004)
Company
eMembrane Inc.
Headquarters
4 Richmond Square, Suite 500
Providence, RI 02906
History
Founded in November 2000, eMembrane was originally located at William Lee’s home in Cambridge, MA. In November 2003 the company moved to the Slater Center for Biomedical Technology, a Brown University business incubator.
Industries potentially served
Agriculture
Biomedical / Life Sciences
Chemicals
Water Safety
Military / Defense
Apparel
Test & Measurement Equipment
Employees
2
Small tech-related products and services
Using technology licensed from Japan’s Environmental Purification Research Institute, eMembrane specializes in electron-beam-induced grafting, in which nano- and micro-filaments (10 nm — 300 µm) are grafted onto a polymer. When a substance “washes” across the polymer surface, certain targets within the substance (ions, proteins, etc.) will bond to the specially prepared filaments and be safely captured without damage to their shape or condition.
While polymer surfaces and filaments for this purpose are available from other suppliers, eMembrane adds value to separation technology because of its method for grafting filaments to polymers. It is commercializing this technology by developing a non-woven cloth that traps and neutralizes odors. Ultimately, however, eMembrane hopes to serve the proteomics market.
Though the company does not yet have a product on the market, it has cited the following as being “in the pipeline”:
- MemMap: library of membranes
- FunTips: series of pipette tips
- FunTubes: series of microfluidic tubes
- ProteinHunter, VirusHunter and CellHunter: series of functionalized membranes
Management
William Lee: president & chief executive officer, co-founder, director
Jeff Morgan co-founder, director
Financials
The company’s primary seed funding of $345,000 came from its co-founders, undisclosed angel investors and the Slater Center. Lee hopes to complete a venture financing round of $2 – $6 million by the end of Q1 2004.
Selected competitors
Millipore Corp.
Harvard Bioscience
Merck KgaA
Amersham Biosciences AB
Barriers to market
eMembrane’s core technology is competing with liquid chromatography, well-established in the separation equipment sphere. While adoption of the eMembrane method could mean less waste, speedier work and three-dimensional protein captures, it also means that the company will need to be able to produce their polymer “brushes” in large volume and ensure procedural stability.
Relevant patents
13 patent applications pending
Contact
URL: http://www.emembrane.com/
Phone: 401-861-9770
Fax: 401-861-9777
E-mail: [email protected]
— Research by Gretchen McNeely