TEDCO Honors Akonni Biosystems CEO Charles Daitch with Inaugural ICE Award for Entrepreneurs

Frederick, MD — May 13, 2011 — The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) hosted yesterday the organization’s first ICE Awards, an event that recognizes three of the most outstanding businesses and individuals from TEDCO’s diverse portfolio of more than 300 seed and early-stage companies. Winners were selected from among 14 finalists in the areas of Innovation, Corporate Excellence and Entrepreneur (ICE). For outstanding leadership by a company founder, Charles Daitch, Akonni Biosystems CEO, was announced winner of the ICE award for Entrepreneurs.

Akonni Biosystems started with 3 employees at the Frederick Innovation Technology Center’s Hood College location and has now grown to over 30 employees. They are currently renting 20,000 square feet of office space in downtown Frederick and have received investments totaling over $27 million. Presently, Akonni Biosystems has over 20 patents issued, with over 30 patent applications pending around the world. Akonni researches, manufactures and serves several markets such as healthcare, population screening and industrial quality control.

TEDCO’s mission is to facilitate the transfer and commercialization of technology from Maryland’s research universities and federal labs into the marketplace and to assist in the creation and growth of technology-based businesses in all regions of the state.

The TEDCO ICE Awards celebrate the breadth of Maryland’s 240+ portfolio companies and recognizes the most outstanding innovations, companies and entrepreneurs. The entrepreneur award looks at the company’s roots, its growth and business successes through hallmark leadership. Other winners include Integrated Biotherapeutics for outstanding corporate growth and Oculis Labs, Inc. for its innovative product, Private Eye and Chameleon Security Software.

For more information on TEDCO, please visit www.marylandtedco.org. To see the full press release on the TEDCO ICE Awards, click here.

For more information on Akonni, please visit www.akonni.com.

About Akonni Biosystems

Akonni Biosystems was founded in 2003 and has over 20 patents issued with 13 others pending. The company’s core technology is based on work developed at Argonne National Laboratory and the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology and utilizes gel-drop array technologies optimized for medical applications. Supported by a series of government grants and contracts from NIH, CDC, DOE, DOD, NIJ, and NSF, the company has significantly advanced the original technology by improving the system’s capabilities from sample preparation to final result. Commercial products and products in its near-term pipeline include rapid sample preparation methodologies for nucleic acid extraction (TruTip) and multiplex panel assays for detecting multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), upper respiratory infections, viral encephalitis, and hospital-acquired infections (MRSA).