Innovating cures to cancer since 2012 one individualized test at a time
TGN's mission is to cost-effectively diagnose and treat cancers through creating innovative nanoscale technologies. Conventional cancer drug treatment involves physicians giving patients a number of drugs hoping one will counteract cancer growth. A drug, whether effective or not not, has side side effects and if given in incorrect doses may create drug-resistant tumors. TGN is changing this dynamic by individually assessing each patient's tumor - we create tumors outside the body, test them with drugs and find the correct drug before treating the patient.
TGN's accomplishments include:
• Annual revenue between $100K-$500K
• 5 patents on groundbreaking cancer treatment technology
• Co-founder Shyam Mohapatra's induction into the Florida Inventor's Hall of Fame in 2014
• Nearly $3 million in SBIR funds for R&D support
• Receiving the Tampa Bay Technology Forum's Innovation of the Year Award in 2015
Our FiSS Technology
In the medical realm treating cancer begins with drugs. Our inability to effectively treat and cure cancer lies within the chameleon nature of a few cancer stem cells' (CSCs) capacity to adapt to and resist different drugs. By targeting CSCs we’re focusing on cancer’s core resistance to chemotherapy, radiation therapy and other treatments. Our FiSST technology’s competitive advantages include: CSC expansion for use in novel drug discovery, a simple method for multiplying CSCs from patient biopsies, a higher concentration of the CSC population in testing, easy scaling-up and storage of CSCs.
FiSS4D Cellomics Platform.
We developed our FiSS4D Cellomics Platform in response to the current ineffective generalized one-drug-fits-all treatment model for cancer patients. Our Cellomics approach creates a cellular environment closely mimicking that of a cancerous tumor in the body, while expanding the "seed" cells of drug resistance, the cancer stem cells, >20-fold ; we then track the drugs these tumors respond to via microscopy for tumor shrinkage and special physiologic markers enabling us to test the effectiveness of clinical drugs.
FiSS-Tumoroid (FiSST) Platform and Drug Discovery
We’re currently developing complete multicellular tumoroids in an organic tumor microenvironment showing EMT on day 2 and measuring ~500 micrometer size in 3 weeks. Our FiSST technology’s competitive advantages include its easy to manufacture scaffold, stability in culture and transferability, cultivation of tumor growth and a high-throughput screen compatibility providing an assay for routine toxicological screening of new drugs on a commercial scale. In conjunction with this technology we developed several CSC inhibitors currently undergoing preclinical testing.
FiSS-Tumor-on-Chip (FTOC) Coming Soon...
We recently conceptualized a second-generation FiSS-tumor-on-chip (FTOC) platform and filed a patent on this technology. Our FTOC will track tumor growth and enable markers of clinical efficacy over the culture period eliminating any handling on the part of researchers before and after treatment with drugs.