Exagen Diagnostics Inc. is using a cutting-edge computational platform developed for the auto parts industry to identify biomarkers and proprietary technologies to converting these markers to familiar fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) formats. The two-year-old company is developing these into clinical molecular diagnostics.

David Melvin, MD, a cardiovascular surgeon turned biomedical engineer has created a large patent portfolio of cardiac devices and components covering novel solutions to sticky problems. CardioEnergetics was founded to commercialize his current and future inventions. The company's lead product is a ventricular assist device that lies outside the blood path to avoid clotting and stroke.

These days, one can almost be convinced of the reality of a truly efficient market, one that brings together buyers and sellers, matching excess capacity with need. The Internet promises to make this possible, by acting as the ultimate go-between. It is not only the purveyors of products that have realized the potential of the Internet's connectivity. Recently, several sites have gone up to facilitate the buying and selling of certain fungible but less tangible assets of R&D based companies. Yet2.com, Pharmalicensing.com,and PL-X.com all have web sites that seek to match buyers and sellers in technology transfer. PharmaUniverse.com hopes to create an efficient market for other pharmaceuticals assets like short-dated inventory or manufacturing capacity.

Genyx Medical Inc.'s initial product, Uryx, is a permanent urethral bulking agent for, for example, coughing or laughing.