University of Illinois at Chicago Office of Public Affairs (MC 288)
601 S. Morgan St., Chicago, IL 60607-7113, (312) 996-3456, www.uic.edu/depts/paff

September 11, 2001

Contact: Amanda Mazur (312) 996-7681; amazur@uic.edu

UIC STARTUP MOVES TO BIOTECH INCUBATOR

VasSol, Inc., a company that develops technologies for use in medical imaging, predictive medicine and remote diagnostics, has moved to the biotech incubator in the Illinois Medical District's Chicago Technology Park Research Center.

"We are extremely pleased to center our operations at the Chicago Technology Park," said Anthony Curcio, chief executive officer of VasSol, Inc. "When we first learned about the park, we thought the biotech environment would be conducive to our project's development. We were introduced to the numerous resources and support programs available to startup companies at the park. These programs were a big factor in our location decision and they have proved very rewarding."

"Some of the benefits to having an incubator so closely affiliated with the University of Illinois at Chicago are the availability of shared facilities, the opportunity for scientific collaboration and access to a larger and more highly skilled work force pool." said Fady Charbel, president of VasSol, Inc. and interim head of neurosurgery at UIC.

VasSol is the first startup company to come out of UIC's Office of Technology Management. The university also has an equity stake in the company.

"The Office of Technology Management - particularly Dr. Eric Gislason, Jill Tarzian-Sorenson and David Gulley - were very helpful in navigating this process," said Charbel. "These three individuals demonstrated the courage and commitment to make a university spin-off work."

"We are thrilled that Dr. Charbel was able to utilize the resources available at UIC to help form VasSol," said Eric Gislason, vice chancellor for research at UIC. "Through technology transfer, a university is able to encourage its researchers to bring ideas and inventions to the commercial sector for public benefit."

The company is developing technologies to aid in the treatment of stroke patients. Stroke is the third largest killer of adults in the United States. Each year, over 700,000 Americans suffer from stroke, and the incidence is expected to double by 2050.

VasSol's technology is called Computer-Assisted Neurovascular Analysis and Simulation, or CANVAS. CANVAS is a process that applies information gathered by magnetic resonance imaging to produce a 3-D localized image. It then allows a medical technician to select any artery and measure the blood flow noninvasively.

"A surgeon must answer a number of questions when confronted with vascular disorders including how serious is the problem, what can be done about it and what would be the end result," said Charbel "CANVAS provides the additional information the surgeon needs to make an educated assessment. Patients with chronic disorders can now be monitored and a comparative database established."

VasSol, whose first round of financing was funded through private investors, hopes to bring this technology to market within the next six months.

- UIC -