Read the full story online at go.uab.edu/G207.
$2 MILLION INVESTMENT BOOSTS UAB BIOMEDICAL SPINOFF
A $2 million investment is the latest step forward for the biomedical startup CNine Biosolutions LLC, which is headed by
former UAB postdoctoral fellow Theresa Schein, PhD, and retired UAB microbiology professor Scott Barnum, PhD. The
funding comes from a Denver-based angel investor group.
A second-generation virus, called M032, has been developed by Dr. Markert and collaborators Yancey Gillespie, PhD,
professor of neurosurgery, and Richard Whitley, MD, distinguished professor of pediatric infectious disease, and is in
clinical trials at UAB in adults with glioblastoma, the most deadly of primary brain tumors.
The two entrepreneurs are using technology they developed at UAB to create a rapid and simple test to distinguish
bacterial meningitis from meningitis caused by viral infections. The technology is licensed from the patent holder, UAB.
The existing gold standard to detect bacterial meningitis gives 10-30% false negatives, and its laboratory tests – along
with a one- or two-day hospitalization for the patient – are expensive, Schein and Barnum say.
The company was formed on paper in 2013 and in 2015 received $250,000 in seed funding from the Children’s of
Alabama Impact Fund, a special donor fund supported by the community for leading-edge initiatives. At Children’s, Schein
and Barnum worked with James Johnston Jr., MD, an associate professor in the UAB Department of Neurosurgery’s
Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery. Dr. Johnston treats patients at Children’s of Alabama and consults with CNine as chief
medical officer.
Read the full story online at go.uab.edu/startup.
BRAIN TUMORS: STILL DEVASTATING, BUT TREATMENT
HAS COME A LONG WAY
A brain tumor was the furthest thing from Kathy English’s
mind when she walked into a neurologist’s office in 2003.
She’d had some uncontrolled sinus issues, so her doctors
ordered a variety of tests, including an MRI. When she
arrived to get the MRI results, the neurologist hadn’t yet
looked at the results.
“He said we’d look at them together,” English recalls. “As he
looked over the scan, he pointed out a small abnormality,
a tumor which he described as a meningioma. Then he
saw another one. And another. By this time, I was getting
pretty worried. Ultimately, he found 12, and now I was really
worried.”
The neurologist immediately referred English to
neurosurgeon James Markert, MD, MPH, an internationally
renowned brain tumor expert who chairs the UAB
Department of Neurosurgery. Dr. Markert says meningiomas
are relatively rare but certainly not unheard of. He followed
English for several years, and when one of the tumors began
to grow, he surgically removed it, along with eight others
that were easily accessible. Two more were later eliminated
through a gamma knife radiation procedure. Markert
continues to monitor the others. Through it all, English never
had any symptoms, other than a bucket-full of anxiety.
Read the full story online at go.uab.edu/treatment.
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