Tech connection: Suros Surgical Systems hits the market quickly, with the help of Rose-Hulman Ventures.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Tissue-acquisition company expands

To get a high-tech business art the ground, it takes plenty of know-how and a good bit of money. That's why it's a good idea for tech entrepreneurs to make connections at a place like Rose-Hulman Ventures.

Part technical-assistance program, part business incubator, part venture-capital firm, Rose-Hulman Ventures is a creative solution to Indiana's need to catch up in technology-business development. It has been a key component in the early success of a number of Indiana startups, including medical-device manufacturer Suros Surgical Systems of Indianapolis.

"Suros Surgical Systems is a tissue-acquisition company," says its president, Jim Pearson. "We remove tissue out of the body in the most compassionate way possible." Its first product to market is a breast-biopsy device that has transformed what was an uncomfortable 10-minute procedure into a speedy 45-second exercise. The Suros product--known as ATEC, for automated tissue excision and collection--not only speeds the procedure but also simplifies it.

Physicians appreciate having a lightweight and easy-to-maneuver product and patients are thankful for the smaller needle. The ATEC device, activated by a foot pedal, collects a core of tissue every 3.5 seconds into a completely enclosed collection system. It's the only totally closed biopsy system on the market, and that makes the procedure safer, as does the fact that the preassembled hand-set, tubing and needle are disposable and designed for one-time use. That, along with the speed of the procedure, allows medical facilities to turn rooms around more quickly and thus schedule more procedures.

Suros has been impressive out of the starting gates. The company was incorporated in June 2001 and launched its technology about a year ago, Pearson says. It started 2002 with four employees and today has close to 40. It had no sales to speak of a year or so ago and expects to have 2003 revenues of $7 million or more. The company hopes to break even this year. "Our ability to produce products ,is in line with our ability to sell them," Pearson says.

The opportunities are only just beginning to unfold. Pearson notes that there are some 1.4 million breast biopsies performed each year in this country. Physicians perform them when they've become aware of an unknown growth-typically through some sort of imaging-and need to remove a little tissue to find out exactly what the growth is. Suros technology is in use in as many as 100 sites already, including...