SEBIO Announces Cerene Biomedics, Inc. as the Winner of the $100,000.00 Grand Prize in the Second Annual BIO/Plan Competition

ATLANTA--(Business Wire)--
Southeast BIO (SEBIO), a regional nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering
the growth of the Southeast’s life sciences industry, has announced the winner
of its second annual BIO/Plan Competition, a year long business creation
competition. The winner is Cerene Biomedics, Inc. (Durham, NC). Cerene Biomedics
will take home the $100,000.00 (non-dilutive) BIO/Plan 1st prize.

The BIO/Plan Competition is a year-long program developed to promote the
creation of new, fundable life science companies based in the Southeast. Working
closely with technology transfer offices and entrepreneurs throughout the
region, the competition brings forward opportunities from leading Southeastern
research universities and research centers. The BIO/Plan competition received
more than seventy total applications earlier this year. The applicant pool
included applications from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The winner was selected from four finalists that each presented to a panel of
celebrity judges at the Tenth Anniversary SEBIO Investor Forum on December 5th
in Palm Beach, FL. The four finalists were selected from a group of 10
semifinalists announced in May. Each of the 10 semifinalists, selected from a
group of more than 70 applicants, completed a rigorous mentoring process to
develop an executable business strategy and associated written plan. The
mentoring teams included three or four experienced professionals from active
venture funds or angel groups, biotech entrepreneurs and managers, and service
providers with relevant start-up expertise. Each mentoring team worked together
for six months. The resulting business plans were judged by a panel of experts
who selected the four finalists.

Cerene Biomedics is developing an implantable medical device that will aim to
prevent focal epileptic seizures by delivering targeted thermoelectric cooling
to the surface of the brain on a micro-scale. Brain cooling has been proven to
eliminate seizure onsets; however, to date an implantable therapy has been
technologically unfeasible. Cerene’s device is expected to overcome these
hurdles, providing first line therapy for the target population of the
approximately 230,000 U.S. epileptic patients with a seizure focus on the
neocortex. The members of the Cerene Biomedics management team are Duke
University graduate students in both the sciences and business approaching the
completion of their degrees; the team has partnered with the inventor of the
technology to move it forward.

"Cerene Biomedics was fortunate to have participated in the BIO/Plan competition
this year. We received great feedback and advice from our SEBIO mentors, and our
many advisers from Duke and other institutions. We also learned a lot from
watching the presentations at the conference and speaking with many of the
attendees,” said Christina Li, CEO of Cerene Biomedics. “We are very fortunate
to have won and excited to use the momentum generated from the competition to
drive Cerene Biomedics forward. This success takes us one step further toward
helping patients with refractory epilepsy who currently have very limited
options."

“When we have students with a passion for entrepreneurship, like the members of
this fantastic team, Duke really strives to connect them to mentoring resources
and opportunities,” noted Rose Ritts, Director, Office of Licensing and
Ventures, Duke University. “It's great that they were able to participate in the
BIO/Plan mentoring and win the competition."

The winning Cerene Biomedics mentoring team included Tony Natale, Prism
Ventureworks;Brad Walters, RTI Health Solutions; and Anthony Williams, Wyrick
Robbins Yates & Ponton. The Wine Gallery and Merchant (Atlanta, GA) provided a
Mentor's Prize of a selection of highly awarded, 100-point wines from vineyards
representing the most prominent wine growing regions throughout the world.

“We are thrilled with the continued success of the BIO/Plan competition and the
significant value it has brought to the entrepreneurial, academic and investment
communities,” noted Michael Wasserman, H.I.G. Ventures and BIO/Plan Co-Chair.
“We look forward to the continued success of this program and anticipate an even
broader range of high quality applicants from our research institutions and
centers here in the Southeast as we start the process again early next year,”
said Frank Hunt, SE bioStrategies, Inc. and BIO/Plan Co-Chair.

To learn more about the SEBIO BIO/Plan Competition, please visit
http://www.sebio.org/bioplan/.

About Southeast BIO

Southeast BIO (SEBIO) is a regional nonprofit organization that fosters the
growth of the life sciences industry in the Southeastern U.S. through efforts
that promote entrepreneurship and bring together companies, investors,
universities and support organizations active in the development of the
industry. Today, the Southeast is recognized as one of the fastest growing life
sciences regions in the U.S. and home to hundreds of life sciences companies. A
public/private partnership formed in 1999, SEBIO is committed to conducting
activities that create regional leverage and facilitate the common interests and
goals of constituents in the life sciences industry. The geographic footprint of
SEBIO presently includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. For more information on SEBIO, go to
www.sebio.org.

Southeast BIO
Stephanie D. Adams, Ph.D.
Executive Director
404-424-1640
sadams@sebio.org

Copyright Business Wire 2008