Aurora Spectral Technologies LLC, a startup company founded by UW-Milwaukee associate professor Valerica Raicu and Thomas Mozer, has reached license and equity agreements for technology developed at UWM through the university’s research foundation
Aurora Spectral Technologies LLC, a startup company founded by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee associate professor Valerica Raicu and Thomas Mozer, has reached license and equity agreements for technology developed at UWM through the university’s research foundation. The company also has raised $400,000 from Milwaukee-area angel investors.
The new company plans to develop new tools for imaging proteins in living cells and bring new products to market that will better allow researchers to use tools while using microscopes. Raicu has developed tools to view proteins as they work with each other to control the body’s processes needed for good health.
Approximately 60 percent of the drugs on the market target proteins, and being able to view and understand what is happening to proteins is important in new drug development, as well as understanding what is happening in sick patients.
“We’ve looked closely at the other tools available in the marketplace,” said Mozer, who has been named the company’s chief executive officer. “We believe this technology offers unique capabilities that translate into significant market potential in academic research laboratories as well as in the much broader market of pharmaceutical research.”
Lead investor is Jeff Rusinow, founder of Silicon Pastures, a group of angel investors in the Milwaukee area. Rusinow, whose past investments have included BuySeasons and Prodesse, has also been named chairman of Aurora Spectral Technologies’ board of directors.
“This is the classic collaboration between a university able and willing to license the research being conducted by one of their professors, the professor who is willing to let a business guy help take the science out of the lab and try to commercialize it, and the local angel investors who are willing to take a lot of financial risk with the potential for great reward,” Rusinow said.
