When the Bio-1 Fellowship Training Program began in late October 2009, a handful of bioscience businesses jumped at the chance to participate as Fellowship Host Companies -- thanks to the strong partnership between Bio-1 and BioNJ, the premier bioscience industry organization in New Jersey with over 250 member companies.  One of the program’s initial participants was a start-up biotechnology firm called Aestus Therapeutics, Inc.  Founded in May 2005 and based out of the North Brunswick Incubator, Aestus immediately saw the benefits the fellowship program would have aligning up-and-coming biotech companies with exceptional talent.  It was no surprise that Aestus was one of the first companies to be matched with a talented young man holding a BS in Biotechnology from Rutgers University, named Sehul Patel. 

In order to understand the advantages of the fellowship, it’s important to look at what the company is about.  Aestus Therapeutics, Inc. is a private translational medicine company focusing on the accelerated development of new treatments for nervous system disorders.  Aestus’ business strategy is based on the problem that new drug targets for neuropathic pain are needed but missed by large pharma - due to the lack of integration of drug research and development disciplines and the lack of innovation in order to facilitate “assembly line” research.  Aestus has come up with a solution through genomic data analysis by a proprietary bio-mining engine for key neurological diseases, such as neuropathic pain, schizophrenia and ALS.  The company’s biological pathway and genomic analysis yield new links between these diseases and drug targets that have been well-characterized for other indications.  In other words, they identify drugs acting at these targets that have a good safety and toxicology profile in Phase 1+ clinical trials but have stalled in development for the originally intended indications.  Aestus validates these compounds in pre-clinical animal models of the disease, creates IP around these discoveries and in-licenses the successful compounds for subsequent proof-of-concept Phase 2a clinical trials.  Once successful in the Phase 2a clinical trials, the product will be out-licensed to, or co-developed with, a pharma partner for subsequent late-stage clinical development. 

Its detailed business portfolio requires a talented employee base to get things moving.  Aestus currently has four full-time employees, with five more openings upon financing.  The Aestus team includes Tage Honore, CEO; Daniel J. Lavery, Director of Research and Genomics; Aaron Dubberley, Director of Intellectual Property; and Andrei Kouranov, Director of Bioinformatics.  The management team has proven expertise in drug discovery for nervous system disorders, having already delivered three novel drugs to the market. 

Among Aestus’ core staff, Sehul Patel has been able to work in a welcoming and career-driven environment.  As a fellow since October 26, 2009, Sehul has been trained to access disease-specific datasets of gene expression information from human tissue and animal models of complex central nervous system disorders - from both public (GEO, EBI) and Aestus proprietary databases.  He has learned how to provide detailed annotation of the experimental design and execution of these gene chip datasets to permit their evaluation before analysis.  Sehul’s training has taught him how to QC the datasets with regard to reproducibility of data and signal-to-noise determinations (CV plots), to establish thresholds for statistically significant fold-changes in gene expression.  He has been trained in, and has become very proficient in, how to graphically present the data in an accessible format, providing rapid evaluation of multiple datasets across experiments.  Sehul has been able to take a hands-on approach on the use of a proprietary Aestus web interface, enabling him to beta test and de-bug the interface for automated batch QC of Affymetrix datasets.  

Although Sehul’s training might sound complex, the truth is that is exactly the point.  Through Aestus’ participation in Bio-1 Fellowship, this fellow has received valuable training, giving him the expertise in a unique niche in the bioscience industry.  As Sehul is about to finish his third month in the program, Aestus is excited to extend his fellowship for an additional three months, allowing Sehul to continue getting the experience that employers seek.  If the Bio-1 Fellowship is about workforce development, then the match between Aestus and their fellow is a success.

The Bio-1 Fellowship is administered and managed by BioNJ. For more information on the Bio-1 Fellowship, please contact Matt Alcalde, Program Coordinator, Bio-1: 732-932-4100 ext. 6331 or malcalde@bionj.org or visit http://www.fellowship.bio-one.org. 

For more information on Aestus Therapeutics, Inc. please go to www.AestusTherapeutics.com.