The University of Maryland, Baltimore has given a Baltimore-based biotech company worldwide, exclusive licensing rights to the university’s patents and technology to develop a faster, cheaper way to identify dangerous pathogens, University of Maryland Ventures said Wednesday.
Biotech firm Pataigin LLC, founded by university researchers, has created a library of pathogens with chemical barcodes that can be used to identify types of infection. Infectious diseases are responsible for more than 18 million deaths a year, but the technology to detect potential infectious agents is slow, expensive and labor intensive.