A Madison stem cell start-up company will get a $1 million boost from the state, Gov. Jim Doyle announced this morning.
Top University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Gabriela Cezar co-founded Stemina Biomarker Discovery Inc. in November with Beth Donley, the former executive director of WiCell, the stem cell subsidiary of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
With the aid of two WARF stem cell patents, the company is developing ways to help drug manufacturers screen drugs for toxicity. The aim is to save millions of dollars in drug development costs by developing a library of biomarkers that discover toxins in the early stages of pharmaceutical development.