Proteomic Profiling Technologies LLC, a UAB biotechnology company, won $21,780 in proof-of-concept funding from the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama. The startup company founded by Michael Heaven, a graduate assistant in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, was one of four to split the Alabama Launchpad competition’s $100,000 prize.
Heaven’s team is developing an automated process to improve scientific research at the molecular level by quantitative mass spectrometry using products and software. The process facilitates high-throughput screening identification of biomarkers of disease, quantitative determination of unknown components in complex mixtures and targeted measurements of sample constituents. He hopes the analytical software will make it easier for researchers to find quantitative results from a mass spectrometer.
Heaven worked with Proteomic Profiling Technologies team member Erik Schwiebert, Ph.D., instructor in the UAB Collat School of Business, on the business plan for nearly two years. They plan to use the EDPA funding to build a prototype product that will be tested at three research facilities.