PLYMOUTH – Nalini Motwani’s professional career has certainly taken her on unexpected journeys. She graduated from the University of Bombay with a degree in microbiology at age 19, earned her doctorate at Wayne State University and received a National Institutes of Health fellowship to do postdoctoral research at Oakland University.
She has also been a visiting scientist at the prestigious Karolinska Instutite in Sweden. In the 1980s, she was among the first wave of scientists researching monoclonal antibodies as a new and better way to fight cancer.
?Monoclonal antibody research produces much more discriminating cancer fighters, attacking only cancer cells, leaving other cells alone,? said Motwani.
As she returned from Sweden, Peter Stroh, President of the Stroh Brewing Company in Detroit, started a biotechnology subsidiary called StrohTech Inc. and hired Motwani as the first biotech scientist.
?I had the opportunity to set up a biotech laboratory, assemble key scientific advisors for the project and these advisors are now members of the ApoLife advisory board,? said Motwani. ?Mr. Stroh not only gave me the opportunity to develop a method for making proteins using what is essentially baker?s yeast, the same yeast that goes into beer, bread and wine; he allowed me to spin off a new company.?
In 1994, when StrohTech merged with another company and left Michigan, Motwani founded ApoLife Inc. with a fully equipped laboratory at Stroh?s Riverfront Place.
?From the time I started the company until 2001, ApoLife only did contract research,? says Motwani, also ApoLife President. ?It was then I changed direction to developing a yeast platform technology focused on recombinant antibodies which have significant advantages over conventional antibodies.?
A pivotal point for the future of ApoLife came in 2001 when the company received major grants from NIH and Michigan?s Life Sciences Corridor program to purchase equipment and set up a small production site to make recombinant proteins and antibodies.
?It was those awards that allowed us to continue our research on monoclonal antibodies and expand the company,? said Motwani.
The drugs developed to fight cancer come with a high cost. Current production processes of animal cell production are expensive and technically challenging. The annual cost of treatment per patient ranges between $15,000 and $100,000. Monoclonal antibodies, however, have significantly improved the survival rate of cancer patients. ApoLife provides a patented technology solution for the development of therapeutic antibodies.
?Our proprietary system lowers the development time by one-third, which in turn lowers the final production cycle and cost by up to 50 percent, making more affordable cancer drugs,? said Motwani. ?In addition, our system uses baker?s yeast, which has been used for manufacturing several FDA approved therapeutic products thereby giving us a regulatory advantage over companies using other yeast systems.?
According to the company?s director of research, Savita Nikam PhD, ApoLife makes the proteins and antibodies that may have diagnostic value to other pharmaceutical scientists.
?With the integration of a technology developed by a French company we are partnering with, ApoLife now has the ability to produce more human-like antibodies and the result is a lower cost, more effective, potent therapeutic drug,? said Nikam.
According to Motwani: ?The government as well as big pharma is keenly interested in reducing the cost of discovery and manufacture of therapeutic antibodies and we recently received a federal SBIR grant to develop therapeutic drugs for cancer. We fully expect to receive the follow-on phase 2 funding that will allow us to manufacture these antibodies for preclinical studies.?
Motwani has taken full advantage of public services and resources available to entrepreneurs as she has grown her business. ApoLife has been a tenant of Detroit?s Tech Town, an incubator for small technology businesses, launched by Wayne State University to help local entrepreneurs craft business plans and secure funding. Dr. Motwani insists it is the help she received at Tech Town that got the company to the level it is today.
?I am so impressed with that organization?s Smart Start business growth program,? said Motwani. ?It is a 24 month rigorous business development process that includes hands-on workshops and coaching under the guidance of entrepreneurial champion, Vita Merlotti, which resulted in the formulation of ApoLife?s business plan and strategic direction.?
Motwani believes it was the assistance received in her tenure at Tech Town that resulted in the company becoming a semifinalist in the annual ACE entrepreneurial competition in December 2010. ApoLife credits other supporters for the growth and success the company has achieved to date. ApoLife also appreciates and uses the coaching advice received from GLEQ coach, Kirt Reigger, himself an investor and entrepreneur.
?Sandra Cochrane, a tech counselor at the Michigan Small Business Technology Development Center has been an advisor as well as a friend since the inception of ApoLife. BioTechnology Business Consultants? SBIR grant assistance was invaluable. And without Jan Gensheimer?s mentoring, ApoLife would not have been named winner of the 2010 MichBio Expo Emerging BioScience Showcase,? said Motwani.
ApoLife?s laboratory is located at the Michigan Life Science and Innovation Center in Plymouth and currently has three full-time employees as well as several consultants with whom they contract. The company is well positioned for growth and following the completion of preclinical animal studies, intends to eventually license its unique patented technologies to several pharmaceutical companies
.
a>>
