Beacon Sciences: Commercialisation from biothreat detection to beauty enhancement

Abstract

Beacon Sciences is an excellent example of how technology from an American university can be developed and commercialised resulting in applications across multiple industries and a spin-out company utilising the technology in totally new directions for the global marketplace. The pioneering work of renowned scientist, Dr Eric V. Anslyn, has led to new discoveries in the field of chemiluminescence. Financing from a life sciences venture firm, Emergent Technologies, Inc. (ETI), in an agreement with the University of Texas at Austin where the intellectual property was developed, led to the launch of Beacon Sciences and the commercialisation of the company's proprietary ‘glow chemistry’ technology and dye synthesis. The technology has wide-ranging applications, including medical diagnostics, biowarfare detection, molecular tools, environmental monitoring, food and beverage testing, chronic disease monitoring and pre-clinical drug safety testing. Funding and strong technology commercialisation management expertise provided by ETI has already led to Beacon Sciences spawning a spin-out company, Reveal Sciences, which is capitalising on Beacon Sciences technology in innovative applications for the cosmetics and personal care products industries.