Pete Kissinger comments on Inproteo: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Ten years ago, if anyone had asked what I might be doing now, there’s one thing I surely never would have thought of – and that’s leading a successful joint venture called Inproteo among IU, Purdue and Eli Lilly and Company.

Why? There are many reasons. For one thing, it was rare occasion that our major institutions talked with each other about current research, never mind collaborated with each other.

I believe we’re in a better position now than we were a decade ago, even a few years ago, to support business growth. Efforts such as BioCrossroads and the activity at Purdue’s Discovery Park and IU’s Emerging Technologies Center, for example, are making Indiana a haven for innovation – by supporting the strong research programs at our universities, encouraging commercialization of intellectual property and paving the way for new life sciences companies to succeed.

We’ve got a burgeoning small business cluster in the life sciences with successful companies like Bioanalytical Systems (of which I’m also CEO), Endocyte, SSCI, GAT and QuadraSpec (to name just a few at the Purdue Research Park). The commitment to build and support more small companies like these in Indiana is critical to our future.

Inproteo was built on the analytical chemistry strengths at IU and Purdue (which feature two of the top four analytical chemistry programs in the nation), combined with the pharmaceutical expertise found at Lilly. Inproteo brought researchers at these three institutions together to explore and commercialize new technologies in proteomics.

When I came on board as Inproteo CEO in August, its success had already been well-documented. We’ve raised $16 million in three years and spawned two start-up companies.

These collaborative efforts are critical to all three founding institutions of Inproteo. Lilly, for example, has spawned new start-ups like Maaguzi and Indigo just in the past few months. IU, Purdue and Lilly have worked with BioCrossroads to form the Indiana Centers for Applied Protein Sciences (INCAPS).

Companies such as INCAPS and the Inproteo spin-outs are an invaluable resource for our existing institutions that depend on this kind of specialized research but lack the requisite physical and staff infrastructure to perform internally. And having this new level of scientific research and innovation located in close proximity to one another is beneficial. A growing community of life sciences firms means more potential partnerships and a broader base of talent. All of these factors reinforce Lilly’s commitment to complete $880 million worth of life sciences construction in Indianapolis in the next five years and are a dramatic demonstration of the company’s dedication to Indiana. It makes perfect business sense.

Inproteo is a great example of the collaborations that BioCrossroads is fostering for economic growth in Indiana. BioCrossroads was designed to support Indiana’s existing life sciences industry and leverage this industry to create new businesses and jobs in Indiana.

So what should Inproteo do next? We are broadening our franchise beyond proteomics to include life science measurement technologies broadly conceived. We’d like to take our success in Bloomington and West Lafayette on to the School of Medicine, and there are possibilities at other universities as well as at other companies. We’d like to explore relationships around the state, fitting technology sources to technology homes.

It’s an exciting time to be involved in life sciences in Indiana, and I am proud to be a part of it now – and in the future.