Boca firm gain Enterprise Florida award

By John Johnston
Managing Editor

Enterprise Florida has given the Boca Raton based technology firm Microspherix one of three recently granted Phase 0 awards.  The awards are granted to give companies a boost in the effort to develop successful federal and small business grant proposals.

"The competition for federal grants is extremely difficult, and for this reason it's vital for companies to fully understand the grant requirements before submitting an application," said John Adams Jr., president & CEO of Enterprise Florida.  "Higher quality proposals result in a higher award rate." 
 
Microspherix was joined by St. Petersburg based Guided Particle, and Innovative
Automation Technologies from Gainesville as the latest Phase 0 award recipients.
Adams said that Microspherix can now use the subsidy of up to $3,000 toward grant preparation needs (market research, proposal/grant writing, legal aid for patent filing, site visits to federal labs, etc.) when competing for grants.  These grants include: Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR and STTR) Phase I grants.  In turn, the grants are provided by federal agencies including the departments of Agriculture, Defense (DoD), Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Transportation, and NASA, National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation.

Microspherix said it would apply for a grant with the National Cancer Institute – part of NIH – needed for further development of an innovative cancer treatment. 

“Our patented bioplastic image-guided anticancer 'seeds' hold promise as a unique means of delivering high doses of timed-release chemotherapy to tumors while sparing patients the usual side effects," said Ed Kaplan of Microspherix.  "The company has coined the term 'entotherapy' for this new minimally-invasive field of medicine." 

For information on "Phase 0," small businesses can contact Bill Kean,
Enterprise Florida's Senior Director of Quality, at (407) 956-5606 or
bkean@eflorida.com.