Nanotechnology will profoundly affect multiple facets of drug discovery, drug safety assessment and the diagnosis and treatment of disease. The most important near-term contribution of nanotechnology to biomedicine will be in the form of extremely sensitive biosensors. Nanowires comprised of ‘1-dimensional’ semi-conducting materials have the greatest potential as biosensors because they can easily be incorporated into electronic circuits that allow continuous readout. Nanowires can be ‘functionalized’ to detect virtually any form of bi-molecular interaction that involves proteins (including antibodies and enzymes) or nucleic acids. Without the use of chemical or isotopic labels, functionalized nanowires can monitor on a continuous and dynamic basis, antibody-antigen interactions, enzyme substrate interactions and gene expression. They can also detect and discriminate between single nucleotide polymorphisms, all at sensitivity levels 2-4 logs greater than most available technologies. No other technology available today holds the promise of continuous monitoring of biomarkers. Vista Therapeutics Inc. (Vista) will seek opportunities to exploit the vast potential of nanowire technology applied to biomedicine.

Measurement of serum and urinary biomarkers is becoming a routine part of animal research, drug development and safety evaluation, as well as patient diagnosis and monitoring. The current biomarker market is approximately $5.6 billion and is growing by 18% per year. Vista Therapeutics, Inc. is commercializing nanowire-based biosensors that will allow for real-time, continuous, label-free monitoring of multiple biomarkers, simultaneously at femtomolar concentrations. Vista’s NanoBioSensor™ technology allows measurement of distinct types of biomarkers – including gene transcripts, proteins and SNP’s - in the same reaction, simultaneously. Markets for Vista’s NanoBioSensor™ technology include biomedical research, pre-clinical and clinical drug safety and efficacy, and point-of-care patient monitoring. Vista Founders are Charles Lieber, Spencer Farr and Harvard University. Vista’s Founders and Principals include highly experienced business people, engineers, scientists, clinicians and informatics specialists who boast world-class achievements in each of these areas.

Through license agreements with Nanosys, Inc. and Harvard University, Vista has obtained world-wide exclusive rights via multiple issued patents for most of the important biomedical applications of nanowires. Vista will develop and market nanowire-based biosensors that quantify levels of key biomarkers, and sell them and accompanying bench-top and field readers to the pharmaceutical industry, to biomedical research community, and to critical care and other point-of-care clinical markets. Vista is currently developing such prototypes (see Products).

The mission of Vista is to provide nanotechnology-based tools that will facilitate inexpensive, accurate, and continuous
assessment of impending or ongoing organ injury … in the lab, in the field, at the point-of-care, or in the home.