Editor’s note: On Tuesday, economic development group NC IDEA picked six recipients to share among $300,000 in its latest round of non-dilutive grants for startups. Here’s a profile of Rheomics as reported by ExitEvent Editor Laura Baverman.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – It’s not super clear to the average person what happens in a lab entitled “Computer Integrated Systems for Microscopy and Manipulation.”

But a pair of physicists and a computer scientist who met in the UNC-Chapel Hill department have found one way to translate it. They’re building a startup called Rheomics that uses intellectual property from the lab for a powerful diagnostic test for blood that they hope will prove 10 times more effective in identifying disease and infection than traditional methods. 

They’ve received almost $3 million in federal grants to perform the technical work over the last five years. But NC IDEA, though just ~$50,000, offers a different kind of validation.

NC IDEA funds businesses, not science. Winners must state how funds will move the needle in some way for their business. That’s what makes these funds so exciting for co-founder and CEO Ricky Spero. They show faith from local investors that the technology isn’t just a science experiment. It has compelling applications in the medical, pharmaceutical and research worlds.

“I was really happy with how engaged the community was in the fact that we’re trying to build a high-tech manufacturing company,” Spero says. “That enthusiasm has become vanishingly rare in the investor community.”

Read the full story at:

http://exitevent.com/article/nc-idea-winner-rheomics-151215