Kereos Inc.

When Samuel Wickline, MD, and Gregory M. Lanza, MD, PhD, both cardiologists on the faculty of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, approached Evan Dick, PhD, in late 1999 with an idea for a start-up company, Dick was impressed—and ready for a change. After years of working as an independent consultant, he was eager to get in on the ground floor of a new venture. The cardiologists had designed a technology Dick thought to be powerful: stable, targeted nanoparticles that could deliver both imaging agents and drugs to specific sites in the body. Because of the technology's flexibility and sensitivity, it had the potential to be a broad platform for biomolecular imaging and image-controlled, targeted drug delivery. The doctors formed Kereos Inc. , to capitalize on their discovery, appointing Dick as CEO.

Dick describes the Kereos nanoparticles as medical guided missiles because they have a targeting system and deliver a payload. In...