Founded just last year, Ann Arbor-based Compendia Bioscience, Inc., has landed an $250,000 investment from Ann Arbor SPARK, the business incubator and economic development engine, and a $2.4 million small business innovation and research grant from the National Cancer Institute.
Dedicated to gathering the world’s high-throughput biology data to assist in drug development and clinical research, the life sciences company was founded by Arul Chinnaiyan and Dan Rhodes in 2006 to commercialize Oncomine™, a web-based analysis tool for the cancer gene expression databases.
Compendia licensed Oncomine and related technologies from the University of Michigan in February of 2006, and signed contracts with its first customers in March of 2006. It currently has 10 customers, including 8 of the top 20 oncology drug companies.
The company currently employs a dozen people but plans to add 10 to 15 over the next two years.