Cellumen Inc. of Pittsburgh has signed a contract with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to profile a list of potential toxins over the next several years.
“Our involvement in the Toxcast program with the Environmental Protection Agency is a great opportunity for Cellumen to become a significant player in the rapidly growing market of toxicity testing for the pharmaceutical industry, the chemical industry, and the federal government,” explains Dr. D. Lansing Taylor, president and CEO of Cellumen. “ Hopefully the region will be a major participant in the rapidly emerging market of toxicity testing.”
Cellumen is the third start-up for Taylor, a leading life sciences entrepreneur and Pittsburgh biotech guru. Co-founder of Biological Detection Systems (BDS) and Cellomics, Inc., Taylor also serves on the board of Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG); Cellumen, located on the Southside for 2 years, plans to move into a larger space in the near future, Taylor said.
The company's goals include prioritizing environmental chemicals presented by the EPA at a reduced cost and reducinig the dependency on animal testing, with the hope of eliminating it completely in the future, Taylor adds.
Cellumen, a systems cell biology company, focuses on the cell as an integrated and interacting network of genes, proteins, and metabolities responsible for normal and abnormal disease function. The company’s products and services have applications in each of the major steps along the pharmaceutical pathway: drug discovery, drug development, and clinical trials.
Writer: Debra Diamond Smit
Source: Dr. D. Lansing Taylor, Cellumen
Image courtesy of Cellumen, Inc.