FOUNDER SPOTLIGHT
RAPHAEL C. LEE, MD, SCD, FACS
Professor of Surgery, Medicine,Translational Medicine, Molecular Medicine, and Organismal Biology
"Transferring discoveries from university laboratories into the commercial arena is often a necessary step in providing return on federally funded research. Maroon Biotech was founded to make available the first drug therapeutics capable of regenerating normal molecular structure and organization to physically damaged tissues. Now validated by several independent studies, we are excited about the benefit that Maroon’s technologies can provide to people who have suffered major traumatic injuries."
FAST FACTS
FOUNDER(S):
Raphael C. Lee, MD, ScD, PhD
INNOVATION(S):
Biotechnology/Pharmaceuticals
EMPLOYEES:
7
HEADQUARTERS:
Chicago, IL
FOUNDED:
2002
TSC MEMBER INSTITUTION(S):
University of Chicago
FUNDING AGENCY(S):
National Institutes of Health
STATUS:
Private
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MAROON BIOTECH
ABOUT THE COMPANY:
Maroon Biotech has developed a new category of pharmaceuticals called surfactant chaperones. This technology has the capability to restore structure and viability to cells disrupted by physical and chemical trauma. By reversing post-traumatic molecular alterations, Maroon Biotech’s technology promises to improve recovery from vehicular, military and other types of severe traumatic injuries, electrical shock and reperfusion injury. The technology has already demonstrated effectiveness at treating experimental spinal cord injury, myocardial infarction (heart attack) and brain injury.
Fundamentally, surfactant chaperones mimic behaviors exhibited by naturally occurring stress proteins that protect living systems after injury. The safety of certain synthetic surfactants that act as molecular chaperones has been proven over time. In particular, polymeric surfactant chaperones that are symmetric block copolymers of polyethylene oxide-polypropylene oxide-polyethylene oxide (PEO-PPO-PEO) have been used to reduce blood viscosity for more than 50 years.
UNIVERSITY-BASED RESEARCH CONNECTION:
The capability of this surfactant to repair damaged cell membranes was unknown until the late 1980’s when Raphael C. Lee, MD, ScD, PhD, Professor of Molecular Medicine and Surgery at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, discovered its unique cell membrane healing properties.
ROLE OF FEDERAL RESEARCH FUNDING:
Funding for Dr. Lee’s research has come primarily through grants from the National Institutes of Health.
 Read The Full Report Here
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MAROON BIOTECH