KALAMAZOO – For decades, researchers and scientists could either grow cell cultures in a Petri dish or use animal subjects to generate relevant data. In vitro – or Petri dish grown cells – don’t develop the same as tissue in the human body. Tissue grown in animal subjects, called in vivo, has added costs and is not representative of the human body. RealBio Technology has changed that.

Paul Neeb, President and CEO of RealBio, said his company has developed a transformative system for growing cells and tissues in a setting that closely mirrors the in vivo environment.

?Basically, our technology allows cells grown in a laboratory setting to develop as they would in a normal human body,? Neeb said. RealBio is now commercializing cell and tissue growth systems and developing a new generation of three dimensional cell culture technologies.

RealBio was formed in 2009 in order to license a technology from another Michigan firm, Aastrom Biosciences (NASDAQ ASTM), based in Ann Arbor. Neeb a former executive in a variety of biotech companies believes the cell culture tool co-invented at Aastrom by Lee Noll, now RealBio?s Technology Director, has the potential to revolutionize medical research.

?More and more researchers and pharmaceutical companies are looking at our device that models tissues in three dimensions as an alternative to traditional testing methods,? said Neeb. ?The cells grown in this culture system simulate how cells organize in the human body.? Lee Noll explains, ?Using this tool researchers and scientists can observe the function and effects of manipulation on a diseased or normal tissue formation in an in vitro environment that is most representative of in vivo tissue.?

RealBio is partnering with a Grand Rapids medical manufacturing company, Medbio Inc., to manufacture the systems.

?The capital investment required to manufacture the RealBio D4 Culture system internally was enormous so we made a decision early on to partner with an existing manufacturer in order to keep our costs in line and more efficiently get product to market,? said Neeb. That decision appears to be a good one. In a short period of time, RealBio had attracted the interest of large pharmaceutical customers and several academic partners such as Case Western Reserve University and the Mayo Clinic. ?We are confident that within the next several months we will have gained a number of new strategic customers.?

RealBio?s cell culture system was initially developed as part of a $4.5 million federal DARPA grant and the technology has been promising enough to continue to attract both state and local funding. Southwest Michigan First, the Kalamazoo area?s business development organization, and the Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center (BRCC) of Western Michigan University recognize the near and long-term potential of RealBio?s technology and have provided early-stage financial support as have several Michigan angel investment groups.

?We look forward to watching the future growth of RealBio and its impact on the Kalamazoo region,? says Southwest Michigan First CEO Ron Kitchens.

?We have been extremely fortunate to tap into a variety of resources that foster and support entrepreneurship.?

Neeb acknowledges that assistance obtained from the Michigan Small Business Technology Development Center (SBTDC) has been invaluable in refining the company?s development plan.

?The SBTDC has been more than useful in a number of areas: helping us crystallize our message, optimize our investor pitch and presentations, seek funding opportunities, and give thoughtful, solid advice that will help us succeed,? says Neeb. ?It is great to be in an environment that understands and supports emerging technologies.?

Prior to RealBio?s technology, no one had successfully recreated a complete tumor in vivo. RealBio?s technology can do this and the company is moving forward replicating how tumors grow in humans. RealBio?s tissue models include human bone marrow and the company is working to develop new protocols that would enable the system to be used in the culture of many additional types of primary tissue.

?If we are successful, RealBio will become the premier provider of tools that enable clinically relevant human equivalent tissue to be used by scientists and pharmaceutical companies within the next five years,? said Neeb.

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