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PointCare's Night Among the Stars: PointCare Technologies Wins Award as well as Nod from Bill Gates
November 15, 2006
MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Nov 15, 2006 – Executives of PointCare Technologies Inc., along with scores of leading scientists from around the world, replaced their lab coats with dinner jackets and gowns recently as they gathered for a gala dinner at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, Calif., to accept one of the museum’s prestigious Laureate Awards.
PointCare President and CEO Petra Krauledat and Chief Science Officer Dr. Peter Hansen, her husband, were honored along with leaders of 24 other organizations for their technological innovations benefiting humanity. PointCare was honored for developing a portable diagnostic system that is crucial to bringing AIDS therapy to the rural poor in developing countries.
Along with the honor of receiving the award, Krauledat and Hansen had the pleasure of spending some time with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, one of the world’s leading philanthropists, who has shown a keen interest in the area of HIV/AIDS.
“It was the thrill of a lifetime to be honored along with such distinguished scientists and business people ,” said Krauledat. “It was particularly gratifying to have had the opportunity to speak with Bill Gates and discuss our efforts to bring life-saving medical technologies to people in developing countries suffering with HIV/AIDS.”
PointCare’s technology addresses a serious problem in HIV/AIDS patient management by providing an easy-to-use patient system for CD4 positive lymphocyte counting that is especially relevant for the hard-to-reach rural environments where two-thirds of the world’s 50 million HIV patients live.
According to accounts published in the San Jose Mercury News of the Nov. 15 event, Gates spent time with PointCare executives going over details of the company’s AuRICA flow cytometer and that “Gates was all business. He asked Hansen a series of quick questions about how the technology analyzes blood cells, how his instrument compares with a competitor's, its cost -- $20,000 a unit -- and, naturally, the software. Later, Gates said he was impressed with their work. He said he planned to follow up on the blood analyzer, as well as the handful of other projects he learned about during his one-hour morning visit to the Tech.
Hansen said: “He was very well acquainted with the serious need in the developing world for effective, readily available CD4 testing in HIV/AIDS patient management . We look forward to keeping him abreast of our progress as we continue to add installations of this system throughout the world.”
Gates, who received the organization’s 2006 James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award for his philanthropic support of global humanitarian projects, met with several of the Laureates and spoke about their projects in his acceptance speech, including a reference to PointCare’s system.
PointCare’s AuRICA system, a portable, CD4 T-cell enumerating flow cytometer for monitoring AIDS treatment in rural areas of the developing world, was selected from 280 applications from 58 countries by international panels of judges led by Santa Clara University's Center for Science, Technology and Society.
PointCare was named a laureate for the Agilent Technologies Foundation Health Award, along with Ecovec of Brazil, Medical Missions for Children of New Jersey, Riders for Health from the United Kingdom and Sumitomo Chemical Company, Ltd. of Japan. Sumitomo Chemical won the category award for developing technology to protect people from malaria-transmitting mosquitoes.
About PointCare Technologies Inc.
PointCare Technologies is a privately held medical diagnostics company located near Boston that is committed to providing affordable point-of-treatment diagnostics to people living in developing countries. The company’s AuRICA product has broken many barriers to bringing AIDS therapy to the rural poor who comprise two thirds of the world’s 50 million HIV patients. PointCare provides T-Helper cell testing and complete blood cell analysis through a portable system that can be run by anyone on any kind or quality of electrical power. The company has provided instruments to HIV clinics in various regions of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.
About The Tech Museum of Innovation
The Tech Museum of Innovation is an interactive technology and science experience. Located in San Jose, California – the Capital of Silicon Valley – its mission, as a public-benefit corporation, is to inspire the innovator in everyone. Through hands-on exhibits, educational programs, the annual Tech Challenge student team competition, and the internationally recognized Tech Museum Awards, presented by Applied Materials, Inc., The Tech Museum of Innovation honors the past, celebrates the present, and encourages the development of innovative ideas for a more promising future. For more information about The Tech Museum of Innovation, visit www.thetech.org