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Related Party Transactions
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2011
Related Party Transactions

10. Related Party Transactions

 

While employed at USC, Kathleen Danenberg, the Company’s chief executive officer through July 2011 and a member of the Company’s Board of Directors through October 2011, developed and patented (United States Patent 6,248,535; Danenberg, et al., Method For Isolation of RNA From Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded Tissue Specimens) an extraction method that allowed reliable and consistent isolation of RNA from FFPE suitable for RT-PCR. USC retains ownership of this patent but has exclusively licensed this technology to the Company. In consideration for this license, the Company is obligated to pay royalties to USC, as a percentage of net sales of products or services using the technology, and to meet a certain minimum in royalty payments. Pursuant to USC policy, the inventors of technology owned by the University and then licensed for commercialization are paid a portion of royalties received by the University from the licensed technology. USC Therefore, USC is to pay a portion of royalties received from the Company, which royalties amounted to $32,758 and $261,599 for the years ended December 31, 2010 and 2011, respectively, to Ms. Danenberg in recognition of her invention.