Receptor Logic will bring 40 high paying jobs to Big Country
September 25, 2007
Abilene is now home to its first biotechnology company. Flanked by state and local leaders, Receptor Logic's scientists and business executives announced September 20, 2007 they are moving their laboratory from Amarillo to Abilene.
The company, formed in 2003, researches and develops antibodies that search out and kill cancerous cells while ignoring normal cells.
For the next year, Receptor Logic will lease about 3,000 square feet of lab space in the new Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy building in north Abilene. The company's founder and chief scientist, Jon Weidanz, is also an associate professor with the Texas Tech pharmacy school, which is based in Amarillo.
Weidanz said the idea behind his technology isn't new -- using "markers," or traits, on the surface of cancerous cells to identify and destroy them. But Weidanz said the antibodies he is working to develop search for a new class of markers that haven't been used before.
Weidanz said of the three stages of a product's life -- research, development and release on the market -- Receptor Logic's technology is in the development stage. He said it is already being sold to large biotech companies who are using it for research.
Receptor Logic is one of 13 subsidiaries under the umbrella company Emergent Technologies, Inc. (ETI), an Austin-based firm that organizes and funds startup companies. Receptor Logic will conduct research in Abilene, but it will be managed by ETI in Austin.
Along with $2 million to $3 million in private funds raised by ETI, the Development Corporation of Abilene has pledged up to $2 million to assist the company. Richard Burdine, chief executive officer of the DCOA, said the funding largely will cover the cost of new lab equipment. The DCOA eventually will provide a space for the Receptor Logic to occupy permanently.
"We have reached another milestone in our community in expanding the diversity of businesses," Burdine said. "...This project allows world-class bioscience to be produced in Abilene."
By 2013, Receptor Logic plans to employ 40 scientists and technicians with an average salary of $50,000 to $60,000. Over five years, its payroll would increase from $300,000 to $2.8 million.
