University of Washington biotech startup, Seredigm wins financing from Accelerator

Accelerator has made its initial fund’s sixth and final bet in a new company, based on discoveries by UW hematologist John Harlan, far left, and biophysicist Robert Winn. Carl Weissman, president of Accelerator, is in the center.

The Accelerator has placed bets for three years on raw biotech ideas with potential — concepts that need a couple years of seasoning before they are ready for big-time venture capital, if ever.

Now the Seattle-based incubator with ties to biotech pioneer Leroy Hood has made its initial fund’s sixth and final bet in a new company, a University of Washington spinoff called Seredigm.

The latest company is built on discoveries by UW hematologist John Harlan and biophysicist Robert Winn. They are testing a family of protein drugs they hope will protect the heart and other tissues from the damage caused when blood flow and oxygen are cut off because of a heart attack, stroke, trauma or some other reaction.

By Luke Timmerman

Seattle Times business reporter

Full Story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003157669_accelerator28.html

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Venture Capital: Major VCs stoked on startup’s new drug

By JOHN COOK
P-I REPORTER

SEREDIGM CORP., the latest biotechnology startup to hatch at Accelerator Corp., takes its name from the words serendipity and paradigm.

It is an appropriate name given that University of Washington professors John Harlan and Robert Winn say it was a bit of good fortune that led them to discover a protein that could help solve one of the toughest challenges in health care.

Seredigm, under the scientific direction of Harlan and Winn, is in the early stages of developing drugs that could protect organs when blood flow is restored following heart attacks, strokes or other conditions.

Full Story: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/279207_vc28.html