* Cyberkinetics technology could allow paralysis victims to use their brains to control devices such as keyboards.
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Cyberkinetics Inc., a biotechnology company spun out of Brown University, has closed a $4.3-million round of venture capital financing.
Although the news is good for the young company, bringing its total financing to $9.3 million, it comes on the heels of Cyberkinetics’ decision to move from Providence to Foxboro, Mass.
Cyberkinetics, which was formed around technology developed by researchers at Brown, is creating a computerized system that measures electrical brain impulses. The technology could allow paralysis victims to use their brains to control devices such as keyboards.
The company raised $5 million last year, making this week’s investment the final installment in its first round of venture capital financing. The money came from Oxford BioScience Partners, Global Life Science Ventures and NeuroVenture Capital.
Although overall national venture capital spending continues to drop, last quarter 53 deals were made, raising $675 million for biotechnology companies, according to VentureWire, a national venture capital industry publication in New York.
Cyberkinetics says it plans to use the investment to start clinical testing of its technology on humans, said Tim Surgenor, president and chief executive officer of Cyberkinetics. The system is currently being tested on monkeys.
Cyberkinetics moved to Massachusetts last month, despite having close ties to Rhode Island from its inception. The company got investment capital in 2001 from Rhode Island’s Samuel Slater Center for Biomedical Technology.
But Surgenor is quick to point out that the company still employs a number of Rhode Island residents. He said the company is also looking for an office near Brown.
“When we have a [large] manufacturing facility I would very much like to have it in Rhode Island,” said Surgenor.
Cyberkinetics’ decision to leave Providence was based on the number of business issues, including having its clinical and regulatory consultants based in Massachusetts, said Surgenor.
The company chose Foxboro for its proximity to biotechnology work forces in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Plus, with 21 of its 29 employees in Salt Lake City, Utah, the company wanted to be closer to Logan Airport in Boston, said Surgenor. T.F. Green Airport in Warwick doesn’t offer direct flights to Utah, he said.
At the end of last year, Cyberkinetics merged with Bionic Technologies LLC of Salt Lake City. Bionic, launched in 1995, is a manufacturer of electrodes and equipment for recording and stimulating brain functions. Research and development for the combined company is done in New England, with small-scale manufacturing and production being done in Utah.
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VENTURING FORTH: John Donoghue is president of Cyberkinetics, a small company that has been financed by the state’s Slater Center.
JOURNAL PHOTO / JOHN FREIDAH
