Small ... and growing

While it probably doesn’t rank very high on any infant’s list of favorite hospital experiences, the familiar “heel stick” blood-draw, routinely performed 48 to 96 hours after birth, has saved countless lives by screening newborns for a host of metabolic disorders.

And now, thanks to the work of a team of scientists in the laboratory of a University of Notre Dame biochemist, that test promises to become much more precise and yield significantly more accurate results using state-of-the art technology.

It is one of an ever-growing list of applications for the technology developed by Anthony S. Serianni, Notre Dame professor of chemistry and biochemistry and founder of Omicron Biochemicals Inc.

According to its website, the company develops new and improved methods to introduce stable isotopes into biologically important compounds.

Or, to put it more simply: “We build sugar molecules,” Serianni says. “We introduce different types of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen atoms into these molecules at specific locations as we construct them. Essentially, we build sugar molecules one atom at time.”

Lucky 13

Scientifically, the term “sugar” loosely refers to a carbohydrate (also called a saccharide) with a molecular structure consisting of some combination of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen atoms.

Omicron’s work focuses mainly on the carbon portion of carbohydrate structure — specifically, on the role of a specific form of carbon: carbon-13.

“For example, we can insert carbon-13 atoms at one or more specific sites in a target sugar such as glucose,” says Serianni. “Modern analysis methods can then exploit the presence of these labels to perform such functions as monitoring biological reactions inside the human body and developing new clinical tests to detect human disease.”

A worldwide presence

The company was founded in 1982 when Serianni was a postdoctoral research associate in the section of biochemistry, cell and molecular biology at Cornell University. Through the course of his doctoral studies in the department of biochemistry at Michigan State University from 1975 to 1979, his interest in analytical techniques — specifically nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy — led to an improved method for inserting carbon-13 and other isotopes site-specifically into simple sugars such as glucose.

As a result of that groundbreaking work, many different types of sugar molecules could now be labeled than had previously been possible.

Originally incorporated in 1982 in New York, the company was reincorporated in Indiana several years later when Serianni joined the Notre Dame faculty. Since then, Omicron has continued to grow as scientists in the United States and around the world seek its products and expertise.

Today Omicron Biochemicals employs eight research scientists and offers a product line of nearly 500 compounds manufactured in-house, with additional capabilities to design and prepare novel sugars requested by its international roster of clients and fulfillment realized through utilizing several global product distributors.

The company occupies a two-story custom-engineered laboratory facility, built in 2006 and located on a quiet street near downtown South Bend. This modern research facility was designed specifically for the efficient synthesis and purification of labeled sugars and molecules containing sugars for use in scientific research and pharmaceutial applications. It contains expanded research, production and analytical space, as well as shipping and order-processing areas.

Continued growth

Serianni says he’s surprised at the extent to which Omicron has flourished.

“I had planned on an academic career upon completion of my doctoral and postdoctoral studies and wasn’t aiming to become a businessman and entrepreneur,” he says. “I expected that eventually the interest in our products would decline, but the opposite occurred. People kept making inquiries and asking for new products. Over time, the interest level has grown considerably, as has the list of the products we prepare and their potential applications. There’s every indication that demand for our technology will continue and expand into the foreseeable future, and we are in a great position, with our new laboratory facility and expanding expertise, to meet whatever the market desires.”