IntelligentMDx
Company: IntelligentMDx, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.
Company Description: Based in Cambridge, MA, IntelligentMDx is an innovative company that designs, develops and manufactures molecular diagnostic tests. Founded in 2000 by Dr. Alice Jacobs, IMDx develops clinically impactful and competitively differentiated molecular solutions for a range of disease areas for current and next generation systems, including targets in infectious diseases, oncology and genetics.
Nomination Category: Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Entrepreneur – Non-Services Businesses – up to 100 Employees
Nomination Title: Dr. Alice Jacobs, CEO
Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated entrepreneur during the eligibility period (up to 500 words):
Dr. Alice Jacobs has always had a passion for finding innovative solutions to healthcare and diagnosis of health care-associated infections. Dr. Jacobs founded IMDx with a goal of harnessing technologies developed in the bioinformatics and medical technology industries to improve efficiency in healthcare delivery, increase the confidence of clinicians, and reduce the cost of care worldwide. Under her leadership, IMDx has developed a proprietary bioinformatics platform that allows for rapid assay development with faster commercialization time.
Dr. Jacobs is solely responsible for fundraising and generating collaborator and investor interest in IMDx. In November 2010, IMDx was awarded a series of 5 nontaxable grants totaling approximately $1M as part of the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Program, a program targeted to therapeutic discovery projects showing promise in detecting and treating chronic or acute diseases and those with unmet needs.
In January 2011, Dr. Jacobs facilitated a distribution agreement between IMDx and Abbott Molecular whereby IMDx will design, develop, and manufacture assays for the Abbott FDA cleared m2000 instrument. Shortly thereafter, in March 2011, IMDx reached a supply agreement with Biosearch Technologies whereby Biosearch will manufacture cGMP oligonucleotides for IMDx for use in human in vitro diagnostics.
In May 2011, Dr. Jacobs published the Featured Article in the American Society for Clinical Pathology’s Lab Medicine journal. The article stresses the need for earlier and more accurate detection of carriers of health care-associated infections. Since May, IMDx has doubled in size. Expertise at IMDx spans evolutionary biology, bioinformatics, microbiology, chemistry and molecular biology. Dr. Jacobs personally interviews each candidate, choosing the top employees in the legal, bioinformatics, research & development, project management, and manufacturing fields.
In June 2011, IMDx launched its first CE-marked automated diagnostic assay for the Abbott m2000. The kit detects toxigenic C. difficile genes and is currently in clinical trials for FDA certification. In August 2011 a second kit, for the detection of vancomycin-resistant enterococci, received CE-marking and is scheduled to launch in September. Also in August 2011, IMDx was issued a patent directed to personalized medicine for methods for determination of the susceptibility of an individual to the cause of one or more medical symptoms.
The IMDx pipeline includes assays for detection of Herpes Simplex Virus 1 and 2, Influenza A, B and Respiratory Syncytial Virus, and Group B Streptococci. Dr. Jacobs is currently striving to expand the bioinformatics platform to allow for design of diagnostics covering human genetic disease areas such as oncology, pharmacogenomics/personalized medicine, osteoporosis, obesity, and diabetes.
List the URLs (web addresses) of any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that you would like the judges to see that support your entry. IMPORTANT: List each URL on a separate line, begin each URL with http://, and enclose each URL in square brackets. For example, [http://www.yourcompany.com/pressrelease.html]:
http://www.intelligentmdx.com/62483a6a-9440-4fa7-8fe5-85882085128a/news-press-release-detail.htm
http://www.biospace.com/news_story.aspx?NewsEntityId=208287
http://www.intelligentmdx.com/cb8e60b1-8ff9-42ab-9789-b1886f732a8e/news-press-release-detail.htm
Article at: http://labmed.ascpjournals.org/content/42/5/267.short
http://www.biospace.com/news_story.aspx?NewsEntityId=228754
http://www.biospace.com/News/intelligent-medical-devices-announces-issuance-of/231133
http://www.abbottmolecular.com/products/infectious-diseases/realtime-pcr/imdx-c-difficile.html
Provide a brief biography of the nominated entrepreneur (up to 100 words):
Dr. Alice Jacobs founded IntelligentMDx after losing a patient to a healthcare- associated infection during her medical training. Dr. Jacobs holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences with Honors in Developmental Neurobiology as well as a B.A. in Art History from Stanford University. In 2004, Scientific American named Dr. Jacobs as one of the top 50 innovators in science and technology. The World Economic Forum selected her as a member of the Forum of Young Global Leaders.