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Washington State University
The Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering

Improving chemotherapy treatments to reduce side effects

Afshin Khan and Kevin Gray working at the computer

Two WSU doctoral graduates partner to become entrepreneurs

When someone close to you is diagnosed with cancer, it can change your life perspective — and sometimes your life projectory. For Kevin Gray, a WSU doctoral graduate, the diagnosis drove him to a new passion and the ultimate creation of a biotechnology company to develop novel cancer treatments.

“I was in my second year in undergraduate school when my dad was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive kind of cancer,” says Kevin, co-founder and principal inventor of Chimeric Designs Inc. “It kind of flipped my world upside down and freaked me out.”

Kevin did what most do in this situation: he turned to the internet to research cancer treatment. A year later, he was in a class on cancer biology and technology where guest speakers visited from large universities across the nation. “It was like listening to a rock star every week,” Kevin recalled. It was then he decided to pursue a career researching cancer technology.

Kevin and his business partner, Afshin Kahn (left above), started Chimeric Designs Inc. as a spin-off of Kevin’s co-curricular research internship. The company is committed to researching more effective techniques in chemotherapy treatment to reduce post-treatment impacts on patients. Chimeric Designs, incorporated in May 2017, was recently awarded a Commercialization Gap Fund from the WSU Office of Commercialization to support the advancement of its products to the marketplace…

Read the entire story at the Washington State University Graduate School website