UofL startup PGXL Laboratories acquires significant funding

Imagine a doctor being able to tailor a patient's blood thinner prescription so precisely that the risk of hemorrhage is nearly eliminated.

Four years ago, a similar vision -- one where routine pharmacogenetic testing enables physicians to minimize the risk of adverse drug reactions -- led to the creation of the University of Louisville Pharmacogenetics Diagnostic Laboratories, or PGXL.

Now, a $500,000 investment in year-one funding by Nanogen, a San Diego-based national laboratory corporation, has helped focus this vision more clearly, supporting a commitment to make the Louisville Medical Center a significant life science commercialization center.

PGXL promises long-term economic benefits as well as enhanced quality of care, explained Roland Valdes Jr., Ph.D., the lab's president and senior vice chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UofL.

Valdez noted that in Kentucky, Medicaid participants use twice the national average of prescription drugs.

PGXL testing that enables physicians to customize patients' medications to match their drug metabolisms might save Kentucky millions of Medicaid dollars annually by reducing the number of prescriptions needed and minimizing adverse drug reactions.

Nanogen's investment was secured with the help of MetaCyte Business Lab, a for-profit technology incubator formed by the Louisville Medical Center Development Corporation.

Since its inception, MetaCyte has created eight life science companies based on technology discovered and invented in Kentucky, including PGXL. MetaCyte has committed to creating 1,000 jobs in the health science industry over the next decade, with average salaries of more than $70,000.

PGXL will use its new funding to finance additional space, equipment and staff at its state-of-the-art laboratory in downtown Louisville's Medical Center 3 development.