SunFire Biotechnologies LLC, founded in 2019, has eight employees
Here's an interview with Deborah Bidanset, COO.
What is the most important thing your company accomplished in 2022?
SunFire was awarded a Phase 2 SBIR for development of an assay to help other companies develop a vaccine against Shigella. In addition, we were awarded supplemental funds to accelerate this development from the state (Innovate Alabama).
What is a short-term and long-term goal for the company in 2023?
A short term goal for SunFire is to complete the internal qualifications and validations of our current assays so that we can perform them on clinical trial samples for any pharmaceutical company. A long-term goal would be to become a one-stop shop for supporting development of multiple bacterial vaccines including those against streptococcus and Shigella.
What can Alabama do to better support startups?
As a life science startup company, finding laboratory space with the appropriate infrastructure as we grow has been difficult. The Innovation Depot has been a tremendous help and we will have enough laboratory space for the next one or two years but the next expansion may be a struggle. We have been able to develop relationships with the BBA and Development Solutions that may help but Alabama needs to help define pathways for life science companies as they grow or they may go elsewhere.
