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SC Launch Company Receives National Cancer Institute AwardGREENVILLE, S.C. --(Business Wire)-- SCRA Technology Ventures' SC Launch company KIYATEC announced today that it has been awarded a $1.975 million, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Contract from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The NCI is one of the 27 institutes and centers that comprise the National Institutes of Health. SC Launch has made several rounds of investment in KITAYEC. The two year award will allow KIYATEC to expand its 3D breast cancer model to address two issues at the forefront of cancer therapy strategies: cancer's interaction with the patient's immune system and cancer's interaction with the patient's blood supply. In addition, KIYATEC will broaden its technology platform beyond its current use in primary ovarian cancer and breast cancer testing and into glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a type of brain cancer with a 5 year survival rate of less than 10 percent. The funded contract has the potential to radically change the future of cancer patient care, expanding the number of options oncologists have to more effectively fight cancer. "This contract is exciting because it recognizes the great potential of our technology, team and strategy to have significant impact on drug development and clinical care," said Matt Gevaert, Ph.D., KIYATEC's CEO. "We congratulate the KIYATEC team and the Greenville Health System's Institute for Translational Oncology Research on this outstanding news," said SCRA CEO Bill Mahoney. "SCRA Technology Ventures and its SC Launch program are pleased that our investments in life sciences companies, like KIYATEC, are making excellent market progress. Thse investments are helping fulfill our mission to grow South Carolina's Knowledge Economy, and we look forward to many future successes." The SBIR program provides federal funding to small Research/R&D businesses that have a potential for commercialization. In September 2013, KIYATEC was awarded an approximately $295,000 Phase I NCI SBIR contract upon which this larger Phase II contract builds. SC Launch helped secure multiple investment rounds with co-investors in the company. The Phase II contract is being funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services under Contract Number HHSN261201400019C. ABOUT SCRA TECHNOLOGY VENTURES SCRA Technology Ventures helps innovative companies grow and develop new technologies, creating jobs and advancing the Knowledge Economy throughout South Carolina. This SCRA business sector provides support and mentoring to early stage, start-up technology companies through its flagship SC Launch program. Since 2006, SCRA has deployed over $82 million in funding for entrepreneurs and infrastructure to support over 290 high-tech, early-stage enterprises. SCRA has directly invested over $19 million into the program's top 71 South Carolina start-ups, attracting over $301 million in add-on, private investment. The sector also supports commercialization and growth by facilitating the transfer of intellectual property and accelerating the transition of inventions to the marketplace. Multiple economic impact studies show SCRA's cumulative output on South Carolina's economy to be over $16.6 billion, and that the company has helped create approximately 15,000 technology-related jobs in the state, with annual wages averaging between $55,000 and $77,000. ABOUT KIYATEC, INC. KIYATEC prioritizes accurate ex vivo prediction of patients' response to drug treatment, with a focus on data correlation to human clinical outcomes. The company creates and utilizes live phenotypic 3D cell-based models for drug response profiling. These models are applied in order to generate information relevant to preclinical testing, clinical trials and clinical diagnostics applications. By accurately predicting patient drug response without ever exposing actual patients to drugs, KIYATEC will create informed drug selection that minimizes clinical trials' failures and maximizes patient outcomes in the clinic. For more information, please visit www.kiyatec.com or follow KIYATEC on Twitter (News - Alert) (@KIYATEC).
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