Quanterix has married fiber optics with components of Elisa to provide greater detection of tumor-related proteins for the detection of prostate cancer recurrence. Also, Cambridge-based BioScale has developed a molecular detection system that its says can outperform Elisa. Yet Berniac says his firm’s technology doesn’t require labs to invest in additional equipment or training because its materials can be readily integrated into standard Elisa, Western blot, and flow cytometry.
Akrivis’s core carrier polymer can also be equipped with cancer drugs and targeting agents such as antibodies or ligands. This capability might enable the technology to be used for targeted cancer therapies, in which the aim is to steer drugs to tumor sites and away from healthy tissues where they can cause side effects. Internally, Akrivis wants to pursue the clinical diagnostics market before it steps into the therapeutics arena—which typically requires more capital than diagnostics because of the high cost of clinical trials for experimental drugs.
Berniac, a medicinal chemist by training, is a first-time CEO but has been around the biotech and drug development industries for more than a decade. He came to the U.S. from France to get his doctorate in organic chemistry at Notre Dame in 1994 and completed the degree in 1999. Then he went to work as a research scientist at Bayer Pharmaceuticals in 1999, and he spent two years working on discovering drugs for diseases of the central nervous system, metabolic disorders, and other ailments. He broke into the startup field in 2001 with Paratek Pharmaceuticals, a small Boston-based developer of antibiotics for drug-resistant infections.
While working for Paratek as a senior scientist, Berniac earned his MBA at Northeastern from 2003 to 2005. He met Khaw during the years since he finished his degree at Northeastern.The two decided early last year to form Akrivis to commercialize Khaw’s invention that the firm now calls its “Zeptacsys” technology platform. Khaw, who has authored more than 140 publications in his field, has held appointments at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Northeastern, where he’s been a faculty member since 1991.
Berniac is now in the midst of raising another round of financing from angels to fund the startup for the next six months to a year. He’s clearly passionate, and says he’s got the chops to make the company a success. “I’m just a driven person,” the CEO said. “You can imagine that getting an MBA while working full time and with three kids at home is on the challenging side of things.”
