Skip to content
i2E
  • Programs
    • E3
    • ACT Tulsa
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio
  • Services
    • Access to Funding
    • Venture Advisory Services
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Contact
  • Media
Menu
  • Programs
    • E3
    • ACT Tulsa
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio
  • Services
    • Access to Funding
    • Venture Advisory Services
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Contact
  • Media
Search

For Norman’s IMMY, simple does it for fungal disease diagnostics

Get in Touch

By Jim Stafford
Copyright ©2017, The Oklahoma Publishing Co.

There is a recurring theme in Sean Bauman’s descriptions of the high-tech diagnostic tests developed at Norman’s IMMY for potentially fatal fungal diseases around the world — keep it simple.

Bauman, Ph.D., is president and CEO of IMMY, which is an acronym for Immuno-Mycologics Inc.

IMMY develops and makes diagnostic kits that are sold to hospitals and clinics across the globe. IMMY’s simple kits diagnose certain types of fungal infections that are serious, life-threatening illnesses. These fungal diseases can impact patients from the world’s wealthiest to the poorest of countries.

IMMY headquarters in Norman

“We’re able to reach the Third World or the third shift here in the U.S. with the same test. It all operates on the same principle — keep it simple,” Bauman said. “That’s actually how we got our start, developing diagnostic tests that are simple and could address the problem in the resource-limited countries.”

In emerging nations without infrastructure and with a large population with compromised immune systems — like the many HIV-positive citizens of sub-Saharan Africa — fungal diseases can be deadly.

“It’s not that these infections are not common in the United States,” Bauman said. “In the U.S., we’ve got laboratory infrastructures already in place to handle those types of illnesses.”

The main advantage of labs utilizing IMMY’s rapid tests is that accurate treatment can begin sooner in the disease life cycle, in some cases even before it becomes fungal meningitis.

A really cool story

IMMY operates out of a 45,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that opened in 2016 in north Norman near the Max Westheimer Airport. It employs 70 people.

Stan Bauman, Ph.D., Bauman’s father and an OU graduate, founded IMMY in a barn in Goldsby in 1979. Sean Bauman and his brother, Scott, the company’s chief operating officer, bought the business from their father in 2004.

“IMMY has a really cool story,” Sean Bauman said. “My brother and I grew up in it and literally ran the halls of this company from as young as we can remember. It was literally started in a metal barn out in the middle of nowhere.”

In 2008, IMMY released its breakthrough diagnostic test, CrAg LFA, for the detection of Cryptococcosis, an infection of the lining of the spinal cord and brain.

“We developed this little test to detect fungal meningitis,” Sean Bauman said. “It’s built on the same technology that a pregnancy test is built on. Our vision is that we go out and dominate fungal infection.

“We’re going to do that by saving lives one diagnostic at a time.”

Today, IMMY’s simple diagnostics reach patients in more than 60 countries across the world. Wealthy nations and nonprofit organizations often pay for the diagnostics that are distributed to Third World countries.

“In the poor countries, this type of product is paid for by the benevolence of First World countries,” Bauman said. “The U.S. is a prime giver in the fight against HIV and AIDS.”

New products on the way

Now, IMMY is preparing to launch a menu of new products that target three different diseases. IMMY’s R&D staff developed simple diagnostics that can detect infections known as Valley Fever, Histoplasmosis and Aspergillosis.

“Valley Fever is a big problem in the southwestern United States,” Bauman said. “We built a simple test that takes 30 minutes to perform and can be run out of any basic laboratory. The current diagnosis takes about 90 days for you to be accurately diagnosed, and it’s a referral lab test. We bent the curve down from 90 days to 30 minutes.”

Histoplasmosis plagues South American populations where it accounts for 40 percent of the deaths of HIV patients in that area. Histoplasmosis is also endemic in the Ohio River Valley and Mississippi River Valley.

“We’re talking big numbers,” Bauman said. “And the reason it is unrecognized is because it is undiagnosed.”

Aspergillosis is a fungal disease that plagues people who already have underlying illnesses such as cancer, tuberculosis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“You breathe in spores from Aspergillosis nearly every breath,” Bauman said. “The problem is transplant patients or cancer patients have their immune system blown up, so to speak, so they can receive a transplant or chemotherapy for their cancer. Well, that leaves them vulnerable to organisms like Aspergillosis that infect you via the airways.”

Each of IMMY’s new diagnostic tests is tied together by a common thread.

“I tell you, the lesson we learned in Africa,” Bauman said. “Keep it simple. We’re trying to bring that to every test that we do.”

Jim Stafford writes about Oklahoma innovation and research and development topics on behalf of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology (OCAST).

Author

  • Sarah Graves Sarah Graves

More News

Loading...
woman in lab conducting a study
Blog, i2E
12.13.22

Bayesic Technologies Improves Effectiveness and Efficiency of Data Analysis in Healthcare

Read more
Bison grazing fields
Blog
11.30.22

Bison Underground Merges Nature, Science, and Technology to Tackle Climate Change

Read more
African American family sitting on couch reading and chatting
Blog, E3, i2E
11.22.22

Fokes Connects Families, Caregivers and Care Agencies for Smoother Communications and Care 

Read more
i2e blog post graphic
Blog, News
11.03.22

Introducing: Stories of Oklahoma Innovation

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.28.22

Oklahoma Grown! i2E Invests in BIO startups

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Moleculera Labs BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Oklahoma State University BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

ECHO Investment Capital BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

AscendBioVentures BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Dean McGee Eye Institute BIO

Read more
i2E

Oklahoma City Office

840 Research Parkway, Suite 250
OKC, OK 73104
+1 (405) 235.2305

Tulsa Office

100 S. Cincinnati Ave – Suite 514
Tulsa, OK 74103
+1 (918) 582.5592

  • Client Portfolio
  • About Us
  • Media
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Resources

© 2022 i2E Privacy Policy

Follow us:

Facebook Twitter Linkedin

Programs

  • E3
  • ACT Tulsa
  • Love's Entrepreneur's Cup
  • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio

Services

  • Access to Funding
  • Venture Advisory Services
  • Contact
  • About
  • Our Values
  • Our Team
  • Board of Directors
  • Corporate Partners
  • Media
i2E