Italian Company Zcube Licenses Technology Developed by ASU Researcher
for Innovative Treatment and Monitoring of Chronic Respiratory Diseases
Zcube and Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE) have entered into a licensing agreement that
will allow Zcube to use ASU technology to develop and commercialize next-generation medical
devices that can better monitor and treat chronic respiratory diseases like asthma.
Scottsdale, AZ (PRWEB) December 15, 2010 -- Zcube, Srl, the research venture of Italian pharmaceutical
leader Zambon Co., SpA, and Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE), the technology venturing arm of
Arizona State University, have entered into a licensing agreement that will allow Zcube to use ASU technology
to develop and commercialize next-generation medical devices that can better monitor and treat chronic
respiratory diseases like asthma.
“The technology Zcube licensed from AzTE is a game-changer for the monitoring and treatment of chronic
respiratory diseases,” said Lorenzo Pradella, General Manager of Zcube. “The tiny sensors – nearly flat and less
than 1 cm across – will allow us to make portable devices to monitor and treat disease activity in real time and
for far less cost that what is currently available.”
Devices that measure the concentration of relevant markers like nitric oxide (NO) in human exhalations can
accurately determine tissue inflammation and disease activity. However, the current state-of-the-art device is
large, must be plugged in, and is commercialized at significantly high costs.
Miniature sensor technology developed in the laboratory of Professor N.J. Tao at ASU’s Biodesign Institute
solves these problems. Devices based on the tiny chips can be the same size as current asthma inhalers, will
operate on rechargeable batteries, and can be manufactured much more inexpensively due to proprietary sensor
and micro-electronics.
The long-term development goal is a device that will measure exhaled relevant markers concentration in real
time and help doctors to adjust the dosage of an inhaled medication in response. Accurate data acquisition via a
microcontroller and real-time data transmission via a Bluetooth chip will allow patients to perform
measurements at any location.
If combined with GPS technology, the device could also track the location where the dosages occurred. This
could be an important help with disease management as it would serve to alert the patient and health care
provider to the places where asthma initiating agents were being encountered.
Zcube was founded in 2003 in an effort to support emerging life science technology and research worldwide.
Since 2007, Zcube has placed particular emphasis on drug delivery systems and medical devices in different
therapeutic fields. Zcube has already established collaborations with universities in Europe and Israel. Zcube is
also a Limited Partner of Mission Bay Capital, LLC, the venture fund bolstering the fund’s ability to invest in
promising bioscience companies emerging from the University of California and a member of the Quantitative
Biosciences (QB3) Industrial Advisory Board in San Francisco.
AzTE identified Zcube as a company that understood the emerging medical device venture space and could
help bridge the gap between laboratory invention and commercial viability.
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“Our licensing agreement with Zcube is proof that even global companies recognize the cutting-edge research
with real-world impact being performed at ASU,” said Augustine Cheng, managing director of AzTE.
“Professor Tao’s technology has the potential to revolutionize the way chronic respiratory diseases are treated
worldwide.”
About Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE)
AzTE is a non-profit organization operating as the exclusive intellectual property management and technology
transfer organization for Arizona State University and its research enterprise. AzTE’s industry and university
veterans bring together ASU researchers and industry partners to transform discoveries into marketable
products and services, taking innovation out of the lab and into the commercial marketplace. AzTE’s board of
directors includes successful industry executives, entrepreneurs and investors. AzTE currently offers for
licensing more than 300 novel technologies in the life and physical sciences. For more information:
www.azte.com.
About Zcube
Zcube is a global leader in translational medicine, with a strategic focus on the development and
commercialization of novel drug delivery systems (DDS) and Medical Devices. As the Research Venture of
Zambon Company S.p.A., Zcube validates and invests in early stage innovative technologies with the potential
to generate new products and new technology ventures in therapeutic areas of strategic interest. The primary
source of scouting for Zcube are world-class universities and labs with significant research programs in the area
of life science, bioengineering, and drug delivery, as well as recent academic spin-off companies. Zcube is
among the investors in three startup companies PharmEste Srl (Ferrara, Italy), SuppreMol GmbH (Munich,
Germany) and ProtAffin Biotechnologie AG (Graz, Austria). For further information please visit www.z-cube.it
.
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Contact Information
Derek Sarley
Arizona Technology Enterprises
http://www.azte.com
480-884-1564
Stefania Torelli
Zcube
Online Web 2.0 Version
You can read the online version of this press release here.
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