DeSimone, his colleagues, UNC and others have formed a new company, Liquidia Technologies Inc., with $2.5 million in angel funding and venture capital to further develop and commercialize the unique new technology. It is the second company for which DeSimone has been largely responsible.
The first was MiCell Technologies, which developed his research showing that it was possible to use carbon dioxide as a solvent in place of organic solvents, which polluted the environment.
"We are most excited about the commercial implications of Professor DeSimone's breakthrough with PRINT," said Dr. Lowry Caudill, chairman of Liquidia. "We believe that the PRINT process is an extremely versatile method that offers unparalleled uniformity and precision for making organic nanoparticles that will have profound implications in medicine and many other industries, including display technologies."Prior to this, no one else has fused the highly uniform and precise methods for fabricating transistors with the organic nanoparticle world," said Bruce Boucher, president of Liquidia. "It is truly a revolutionary discovery."