Author: Marie Powers

Pennsylvania’s department of community and economic development (DCED) is partnering with the federal government to help commercialize emerging technologies and expand the commonwealth’s research opportunities, according to DCED Secretary George Cornelius. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the Pennsylvania Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority inked the five-year Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) to increase the flow of ARS technologies to Pennsylvania’s small businesses, colleges and universities, and research institutions. The authority is one of nine economic development agencies nationwide chosen to partner with ARS as part of the agricultural technology innovation partnership program network.

The agreement is designed to enhance product development, commercialization, and economic development opportunities for Pennsylvania companies. It also will help Pennsylvania’s companies and researchers access ARS’ national network of research labs, and IP. “Up-and-coming technology companies, entrepreneurs, and researchers are critical to Pennsylvania’s future,” Cornelius says. “This agreement will expand Pennsylvania’s research and intellectual property base.”

Source:  PR Newswire

Two timely distance learning events are on tap next month, addressing two key challenges for licensing, tech transfer, and IP marketing professionals.

On Tuesday, June 8th, join an outstanding panel of experts for Use Social Media to Effectively Market Your Innovations. They’ll reveal how they are successfully utilizing social media to garner attention for their technologies, create an active community surrounding their innovations, and bring more licensees in the door. The webinar will be chock full of best practices, online examples, and dozens of planning techniques and execution strategies that are guaranteed to successfully showcase your IP to a highly targeted audience. CLICK HERE for complete program and faculty details.

The following Tuesday, June 15th, The Perfect Elevator Pitch: Sell Your IP in 3 Minutes or Less! features veteran VC exec Eric Nicolaides, managing partner of Wildcat Venture Management. Nicolaids, who’s given and heard hundreds of elevator pitches, will share his know-how and provide a blueprint for grabbing your prospect’s attention and securing that all-important first meeting. CLICK HERE for full details.

Also coming soon:

• SPECIAL 6-PART SERIES! Start-Up Boot Camp for University TTO Professionals and Inventors — Every Thursday, June 3rd – July 8th
• Prevent Faculty Disputes from Turning Into a Declaration of War — Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The University of Pittsburgh (PA) has signed a global licensing deal with Hawthorn Pharmaceuticals, Inc., of Madison, MS, covering a series of monoclonal antibodies for cancer. The antibody portfolio targets a variety of cancers through the cell surface chondrotin sulfate proteoglycan 4 (CSPG4), which plays an important role in signaling pathways regulating tumor cell survival, growth, and motility. Melanoma, triple negative breast cancer, head and neck cancer, leukemia, bone and joint cancer, and brain cancer are some indications present within the scope of the antibodies.

Research indicates the CSPG4 surface antigen is intensely expressed in multiple cancer types and affects downstream signaling. The antigen also is detected on tumor cells with stem cell-like phenotypes, indicating its role in cancer stem cell immunotherapy activity. Under terms of the agreement, Hawthorn will receive an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize the antibody portfolio. “The CSPG4 surface antigen represents a significantly untapped therapy approach which is intensely expressed in a variety of cancers and affects a whole host of downstream signaling activities,” says Rob Lewis, chief scientific officer at Hawthorn.

Source: News Blaze

A tiny silicon chip that works a bit like a nose may one day detect dangerous airborne chemicals and alert emergency responders through the cell phone network. If embedded in many cell phones, the new type of sensor could map the location and extent of hazards like gas leaks or the deliberate release of a toxin, according to Michael Sailor, PhD, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). “This technology could map a chemical accident as it unfolds,” he says. In collaboration with the San Diego start-up Rhevision, Inc., founded by Yu-Hwa Lo, PhD, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering, Sailor’s research group has completed the first phase of the sensor’s development and begun to work on a prototype that will link to a cell phone.

The sensor, a porous flake of silicon, changes color when it interacts with specific chemicals. By manipulating the shape of the pores, the researchers can tune individual spots on the silicon flake to respond to specific chemical traits. “It works a little like our nose,” Sailor explains. “We have a set of sensory cells that detect specific chemical properties. It’s the pattern of activation across the array of sensors that the brain recognizes as a particular smell. In the same way, the pattern of color changes across the surface of the chip will reveal the identity of the chemical.” The chips already can distinguish between methyl salicylate, a compound used to simulate the chemical warfare agent mustard gas, and toluene, a common additive in gasoline. Potentially, they could discriminate among hundreds of different compounds.

“The beauty of this technology is that the number of sensors contained in one of our arrays is determined by the pixel resolution of the cell phone camera,” Sailor says. “With the megapixel resolution found in cell phone cameras today, we can easily probe a million different spots on our silicon sensor simultaneously, so we don’t need to wire up a million individual sensors. We only need one. This greatly simplifies the manufacturing process because it allows us to piggyback on all the technology development that has gone into making cell phone cameras lighter, smaller, and cheaper.”

Source:  Science Daily

If cleantech is the innovation focus du jour, where should forward-thinking investors — and research labs hoping to tap into a strong current of market pull — look for the next hot market? Think ‘integration,’ specifically IT and cleantech, says Kef Kasdin, general partner with Battelle Ventures and Innovation Valley Partners. “Smart-grid technologies — deploying networking technologies to enable better energy utilization and to obviate the need to build more fossil fuel power plants — offer significantly differentiated, breakthrough technologies,” she says.

Kasdin, an experienced VC exec, focuses on investments in communications and energy technology. She also seeks to identify promising technologies, projects, and synergies with the National Laboratories that Battelle Ventures’ sole limited partner, Battelle Memorial Institute, manages or co-manages for the U.S. Department of Energy. Kasdin takes a broad view of the cleantech sector, and the portfolio at Battelle Ventures includes companies developing solar, energy storage and efficiency, and smart-grid technologies. “We expect that innovative ideas for achievement in smart-grid technology will attract the attention of those who invest in the cleantech sector,” she says.

Those ideas include integration of renewable technologies, such as solar and wind, on the existing electricity grid, which also will require intelligence in the grid network. Advanced energy-cell and battery technology is another area of concentration within the fund. “In order to make electric vehicles practical and affordable, game-changing innovations that address the shortcomings of traditional chemical cells are needed,” Kasdin explains. “We’re seeing new developments with solid-state lithium technology with the potential to enable large-format batteries that are substantially smaller, cheaper, safer, and more powerful than is possible with existing rechargeable chemical battery technology.”

Breakthrough solutions will draw VC interest in new offerings in the cleantech space, she adds. But entrepreneurs must have a buttoned-up business plan and an executive summary that addresses the issues critical to any investor. “Show how the technology will generate returns for the investor, as well as how the solutions will have a game-changing impact on the marketplace,” Kasdin advises.

Source: NASVF

Editor’s Note: Hear more from Kasdin and other experts during our six-week webinar series, “Start-Up Boot Camp for University TTO Professionals and Inventors,” beginning June 3. Click here for more details.

Before you seek angel financing, examine this list of must-have requirements from Susan Preston, author of Angel Financing for Entrepreneurs and an angel herself:

• A solid potential for return. Angels want to know how your company will make money, when it will turn profitable, and when they can expect a return on their investment. Back up those promises of profitability with financial documents that include an income statement, a balance sheet, and cash flow statements.
• A good plan for the cash. Investors want to make sure their money will be spent wisely. If you’ve founded, say, a consumer product company, show how the money will be used to design, develop and distribute your product. And emphasize your thriftiness: angels don’t want to see their money used for big salaries or fancy office space.
• A winning attitude. Get fired up. Angels want to see passion. They want to see you’re committed to your concept and company and you’ll stay the course when obstacles arise.
• A seasoned team. Angels want to see a strong management team that’s capable, experienced in their industry and, more important, open to suggestions and opinions. “If I don’t think that a CEO or founder is coachable, I won’t invest,” Preston says.
• A competitive edge. An angel will want to know that you can capture market share quickly and beat out competitors as you ramp up. If your product or service is fairly unique, an angel will want to see you’ve secured patents, copyrights, or trademarks to protect your IP.
• A well-defined exit strategy. Investors will want to know exactly how you plan to make them money. Just saying “IPO” or “acquisition” might not be enough. Learn how other companies in your industry have returned profits to investors and identify potential suitors for your business.

Source:  The Wall Street Journal

Though it may take many years to develop an exciting new technology, successfully attracting a licensee or investor often comes down to a matter of a few critical minutes, if not seconds. And for most tech transfer professionals and faculty inventors, compressing a complex technical achievement into a quick, compelling, and effective “elevator pitch” is an unfamiliar skill and a difficult challenge. That’s why we’ve asked a veteran technology investor — who’s given and heard hundreds of these pitches — to share his know-how and provide a blueprint for grabbing your prospect’s attention and securing that all-important first meeting. Join Eric Nicolaides, founder and Managing Partner of Wildcat Venture Management, on Tuesday, June 15th for this how-to distance learning workshop: The Perfect Elevator Pitch: Sell Your IP in 3 Minutes or Less! Nicolaides will provide inside insights and step-by-step guidance for polishing your presentation and ensuring it hits the right hot buttons. Here’s what you’ll learn in this unique session:

• Elements of the perfect elevator pitch
• The 3 key questions you MUST answer about your IP in your pitch
• Supplemental information: what’s too much, what’s too little
• How to grab the investor’s attention in the first 40 seconds
• Examples of good pitches, great pitches, and poor pitches
• Inventor vs TTO staff: Choosing the right “pitcher”
• List of do’s and don’ts to consider while crafting your pitch
• How to “close” and secure a firm follow-up meeting

CLICK HERE to register and for complete program details.

ALSO COMING SOON:

• Working Effectively with University Counsel to Speed the Licensing Process — THIS THURSDAY, April 29
• Become Industry Friendly: Transform Your TTO Into a Licensee Magnet — Wednesday, May 12
• University Researchers: Tap Into Your Inner CEO — Thursday, May 20, 2010
• SPECIAL 6-PART SERIES: Start-Up Boot Camp for University TTO Professionals and Inventors — Every Thursday, June 3rd – July 8th
• TTOs: Use Social Media Effectively to Market Your Innovations — Tuesday, June 8
• Prevent Faculty Disputes from Turning Into a Declaration of War — Tuesday, July 13

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review an IP case that MIT says could have an adverse impact on the nation’s well-established success under the Bayh-Dole Act. MIT’s Office of the General Counsel filed an amicus curiae, or “friend of the court,” brief with the nation’s top court in Stanford University v. Roche Molecular Systems, Inc., et al. (For additional background on the case, see this previous eNews post.) MIT argues that the case could jeopardize the important relationship between the federal government and research universities. Senior administrators say MIT, which is not a party to the case, is taking the unusual step of getting involved because issues raised in the case go to the heart of the Institute’s culture of innovation and the success. “MIT is an undisputed leader when it comes to transferring research breakthroughs into products and services that benefit the world, and it is therefore fitting that the Institute add its voice in this important case,” says Lita Nelsen, director of MIT’s Technology License Office.

Stanford sued Roche in 2005 for patent infringement. A federal district court denied Roche’s claim that it owned the IP in question, but the appeals court disagreed, saying that Stanford lacked complete ownership of the patents due to the ambiguous wording of an agreement that Stanford required all of its researchers to sign. The MIT brief argues that the success of the Bayh-Dole Act is threatened by the federal appellate court’s ruling. MIT says the appellate court, in its formalistic reading of the Stanford agreement, failed to consider the “clear sequence of ownership rights” defined by Bayh-Dole. “Had the court considered the import of the Bayh-Dole Act to the federal question of patent assignments, the court would have found that the chain of title led to Stanford and stopped there,” the brief states. MIT also says that if the appeals court ruling stands, it could divert the ownership of patents away from universities and the federal government. The brief asks the Supreme Court to review the case. At a minimum, the brief says, the Supreme Court should ask the federal government to weigh in on the matter.

Source:  MIT news

On the heels of a South African law regulating IP from that country’s publicly funded research (see this article), the newly enacted Philippine Technology Transfer Act of 2009 also is expected to hasten the process of technology commercialization and broaden the scope of protection for IP rights in the island nation’s government R&D institutions (RDIs) when it takes effect later this year. “We are optimistic that this new law, a landmark policy on technology transfer, will revolutionize the commercialization of technologies generated by research funded by taxpayers’ money,” says the Philippine government’s Science Secretary Estrella Alabastro.

According to a document released by the Philippines Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the initiative was needed because the existing tech transfer system is characterized by a lack of well-defined and unifying policy, insufficient investment, weak private-public collaboration in R&D and commercialization, and insufficient IP support in RDIs. Such conditions have resulted in a low rate of patent application in the Philippines. Despite the enactment of the country’s IP Code in 1998, RDIs have lacked well-defined IP policies and support systems to protect and utilize their IP. According to DOST, of 2,972 patent applications filed in 2005, only 210 were by local researchers. Of these, only 15 local patents were granted and only one patent was granted for an RDI. These trends were repeated in 2006 and 2007.

The new law is designed to help take technologies to market, to prevent the “brain drain” of science and technology professionals out of the Philippines, and to encourage students to pursue R&D studies. A key provision in the law offers incentives to researchers by providing them with a share in royalties from their inventions and allowing them to launch their own start-ups. The law also provides a national framework to promote efficient and coordinated tech transfer — similar to the Bayh-Dole Act in the U.S. DOST and the Philippines Intellectual Property Office are preparing for the bill’s implementation.

Source: Business Mirror

The University System of Ohio and Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble have inked an agreement that simplifies the legal process they use to negotiate research projects. “For the first time, with just one agreement we are unleashing the collective power of Ohio’s universities to help turn ideas into products and products into jobs,” says Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, who proposed the deal in his 2010 State of the State address. The project also increases industry-financed research spending — a key goal of Ohio’s 10-year Strategic Plan for Higher Education. The Chancellor’s Office and Attorney General’s Office negotiated the agreement in coordination with Ohio’s public universities and P&G.

When considering a specific project, the parties will start with the contract framework and will only negotiate unique terms, such as scope of work and financial issues. The process is designed to enable faster collaboration — 12 to 18 months ahead of similarly positioned universities in other states. “We will continue to do everything possible to streamline the legal process in the service of innovation,” says Attorney General Richard Cordray. “Getting things right matters, but simplicity and speed are just as important.”

Modeled after a structure that the University of Cincinnati and P&G pioneered in 2005, the agreement governs terms and conditions that are standard in research projects between industry sponsors like P&G and Ohio’s public universities, such as the treatment of IP and confidential information. The agreement helps to promote co-ops, internships, and postdoctoral fellowships through new research projects and creates opportunities for similar agreements between the University System of Ohio and other companies. All 14 universities within the state systems will participate in the deal with P&G.

Source:  Gov Monitor

The Fraunhofer Center for Molecular Biotechnology (CMB) in Newark, DE, the Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation (CMI) in Boston, the Boston University College of Engineering, and the biopharmaceutical company iBio, Inc., in Newark have developed a fully automated, scalable “factory” that uses natural (non-genetically modified) green plants to efficiently produce large quantities of vaccines and therapeutics in just weeks. The first-of-a-kind, plant-based vaccine factory takes advantage of plant viral vector technology developed by Fraunhofer CMB for iBio. The technology has the capability to produce specific proteins within the leaves of rapidly growing plant biomass. The factory’s robotically tended machines, designed by Fraunhofer CMI, plant seeds, nurture the growing plants, introduce a viral vector that directs the plant to produce a target protein, and harvest the biomass once the target has accumulated in the plant tissue. “Traditional methods of vaccine production can take many months. Our plant-based technology provides the means for rapid, large-scale production of vaccine material in a cost-effective manner,” says Vidadi Yusibov, PhD, executive director of CMB.

The factory has the capacity to grow tens of thousands of plants in one batch. The plants are grown in multi-plant trays that are used to handle and transport the plants to different processing stations. To automate the process, robots glide up and down a track, tending the plants — delivering trays from the lighted, irrigated growth modules to each processing station at the appropriate time. “In order to quickly produce large quantities of vaccine material or other protein-based medicines such as antibodies in compliance with [current Good Manufacturing Practices], it was necessary to develop a consistent, repeatable process. We have taken a biological process and turned it into an industrial process,” says Andre Sharon, PhD, professor of mechanical engineering at Boston University and director of CMI. “Even though the process of making vaccines from plants includes many aspects of traditional horticulture, we have developed a way to automate those functions to quickly, safely, and cost-effectively scale up from a few milligrams in a laboratory setting to the many kilograms that would be required in case of a pandemic.”

In a separate collaboration, Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, and Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp) of Burlington, NC, have formed a joint venture to commercialize new biomarkers in a similar factory-like approach. The entity is designed to speed the translation of newly discovered biomarkers into clinical tools that can measure individual therapeutic responses, predict disease progression, and evaluate any number of biologic or disease-causing processes. Dubbed the Biomarker Factory, the joint venture combines Duke’s expertise in biomarker discovery and validation with LabCorp’s experience in the development and commercialization of diagnostic and laboratory tools. “The Biomarker Factory is at the intersection of translational medicine and personalized medicine,” says Victor J. Dzau, MD, chancellor for health affairs at Duke University and CEO of Duke University Health System.

Biomarkers are being used to develop treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and breast and lung cancer. Research by Duke scientists John McHutchison, MD, associate director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, and David B. Goldstein, PhD, professor of molecular genetics and microbiology and director of Duke’s Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, demonstrates how biomarkers can give critical information about the likelihood that a patient will benefit from treatment for hepatitis C. “A particularly exciting aspect of this partnership is that we will be developing deep knowledge about appropriate use of biomarkers in clinical practice and how to provide this information so that patients and doctors can make better decisions,” says Andrew Conrad, PhD, executive vice president and chief scientific officer of LabCorp.

The Biomarker Factory will benefit from hundreds of thousands of biological samples contributed by Duke as well as the infrastructure in place in the Duke-led, large-scale epidemiology study known as MURDOCK, which is currently recruiting 50,000 people into a registry. The Biomarker Factory also will capitalize on LabCorp’s biorepository being developed to discover and validate biomarkers in human disease. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Sources: EurekAlert! and MarketWatch

In a nice example of how universities can effectively support their start-ups, Chromatin, Inc., a biotechnology company that has occupied space in the University of Illinois Research Park since 2005 through the EnterpriseWorks incubator, is expanding operations and graduating to a 5,000-sq. ft. facility. The expansion marks the company’s continued progress in commercializing its technology, which includes mini-chromosomes that were originally developed at the University of Chicago by company co-founder and CEO Daphne Preuss, PhD. With the larger laboratory and office space, the company will continue to expand its R&D activities — which enable the development of new seed products and the delivery of multiple genetic traits in plants through gene-stacking — while widening its focus to pursue new applications, such as improved feedstocks that target the bioenergy sector.

Chromatin isn’t just graduating from UIUC’s EnterpriseWorks incubator, where the Research Park provided laboratories, equipment, and greenhouse space. IllinoisVentures, the university-affiliated VC firm, was an early Chromatin investor, and the university provided early funding for student employees to work as researchers for Chromatin and MBA students to provide commercialization consulting, according to Avijit Ghosh, vice president of technology and business development for the university. U of I also provided entrepreneurship support services. “Our current expansion is a direct result of our success in commercializing Chromatin’s technology and successfully attracting financing, both of which were greatly facilitated by the university’s resources, facilities, and significant talent pool,” Preuss acknowledges.

Since Chromatin was founded in 2000, the company has licensed its technology through commercial agreements with leading agbiotech companies, including Syngenta, Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences, and Bayer CropScience. The company now employs more than 30 people, including 11 in Champaign, and plans to hire additional staff this year.

Source: Grainnet

The University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Technology Transfer (CTT) has introduced UPSTART, a program aimed at developing UPenn IP by helping faculty form companies based on their inventions and technological innovations. The program, a suite of services designed to connect entrepreneurs, investors, and funding organizations with Penn researchers, combines the business-creation strengths of CTT and Penn’s New Ventures Team with the entrepreneurial interests of faculty founders and regional investors.

UPSTART representatives partner directly with university faculty and staff to complete the steps required to legally form a company, raise funds, and recruit employees. The program provides access to business planning, advisory, and support resources through its network of collaborative relationships with entities such as the University Science Center, the Wharton Small Business Development Center, and Penn’s Commercialization Acceleration Program. These and other resources help emerging UPSTART businesses analyze the size of potential markets, address competitive landscapes, develop product strategies, and define their infrastructure needs.

Once a marketing and business plan is established, UPSTART develops strategies and timelines to pursue external funding, including outreach to angel investors, economic development funds, seed stage VC funds, and government grant programs. UPSTART representatives also take the lead in introducing company founders to local entrepreneurs who have the capabilities to build a management team and company infrastructure. “We developed the program with substantial input from faculty members and key stakeholders at Penn, so it truly reflects a partnership between the university and faculty founders that facilitates the process of new venture creation,” says John Swartley, deputy executive director of CTT.

Source: Penn Communications

While most technology transfer offices may still be in the throes of validating the merit of expending resources on Twitter, a blog, or LinkedIn, some have already leapt into the fray, convinced these trends are not passing fads. Betsy Merrick, associate director of marketing/public relations in the Office of Technology Commercialization at the University of Texas-Austin, says her organization made the decision to dive in with a full-scale multi-media strategy, hoping to improve client interactions through OTC’s presence on RSS feed, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

What pushed her to launch the multimedia initiative? “I read something from Nielsen that said, across the globe in 2008, activity in ‘member communities’ accounted for one in every 11 minutes,” Merrick says. “We needed to get in on it. Our business is part of a global network. We’ve got a global ecosystem. Social media can simultaneously reach more people than traditional offline tools,” she explains. It’s understandable, she adds, that “TTOs and other similar business might have a little hesitancy. There are a number of fears of social media . . . such as a fear of the time commitment. We have a limited staff. Another thing is the fear of the unknown. It’s a new communications channel.” But the social media train has left the station, Merrick stresses, and those fears must be overcome. “It’s time for TTOs to get in on this.” A detailed article on UT-Austin’s social media marketing strategy, including 10 key steps for success, appears in the April issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. To start a subscription and access the article, along with three years of archived case studies and best practices, CLICK HERE.

Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., the TTO for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has signed a nonexclusive worldwide licensing agreement with Adobe Systems to develop and commercialize a technology that improves digital image processing. The announcement comes on the heels of an agreement between Columbia University and Adobe for computer graphics technology that can simulate the natural movement and flexibility of strands as fine as a single human hair. (Read the post in the IP Marketing Blog.)

The Yissum technology, called Edge Avoiding Wavelets, enables better and faster detail enhancement and preserves edges when sharpening digital images. Image processing applications invest considerable computing power in attempts to enhance details in digital images and to enable users to accurately demarcate a specific object within the image. Existing technologies for enabling such functions suffer from various limitations. The Edge Avoiding Wavelets technology, invented by Raanan Fattal, PhD, from the School of Computer Science and Engineering at Hebrew-U, uses explicit computations to obtain results traditionally obtained by implicit formulations that require sophisticated linear solvers. The technology avoids pixels from both sides of an edge, achieving a sharper, halo-free image. Its performance accelerates various computational photography applications by a factor of more than one order of magnitude, according to Yissum.

“Image processing has become a household technology, and faster, user-friendly applications are continuously sought. The new image processing technology invented by Dr. Fattal is exactly such an application, and we believe that it can be extremely valuable also for other image processing software packages,” says Yaacov Michlin, CEO of Yissum. The Hebrew-U technology has been applied to Adobe’s Photoshop CS5, according to Kevin Connor, the company’s vice president of product management for professional digital imaging.

Source: Imaging Reporter

Using a nanotechnology-based vaccine, researchers at the University of Calgary in Alberta were able to “cure” mice with type 1 diabetes and slow the onset of the disease in mice at risk for the disease. Their study, co-funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), provides new insights into understanding how to stop the immune system attack that causes type 1 diabetes and could have implications for other autoimmune diseases. The study was published in Immunity.

Pere Santamaria, MD, PhD, professor in U-Calgary’s department of microbiology and infectious diseases and director of the Julia McFarlane Diabetes Researchers Center, and colleagues sought to stop the autoimmune response that causes type 1 diabetes without damaging the immune cells that provide protection against infections — a process called antigen-specific immunotherapy. Type 1 diabetes is caused when certain white blood cells — called T-cells — mistakenly attack and destroy the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. “Essentially there is an internal tug-of-war between aggressive T-cells that want to cause the disease and weaker T-cells that want to stop it from occurring,” explains Santamaria, who is a JDRF Scholar.

The researchers developed a vaccine comprised of nanoparticles coated with protein fragments — peptides — specific to type 1 diabetes, which are bound to molecules that play a key role in presenting peptides to T-cells. The nanoparticle vaccine worked by expanding the number of peptide-specific regulatory T-cells, suppressing the immune attack that destroys beta cells. The expanded peptide-specific regulatory cells shut down the autoimmune attack by preventing aggressive autoimmune cells from being stimulated by either the peptide contained in the vaccine or by any other type 1 diabetes auto-antigen presented simultaneously on the same antigen presenting cell.

The research also provided insight into the ability to translate the findings in mice into therapeutics for people with diabetes: nanoparticles that contained human diabetes-related molecules were able to restore normal blood sugar levels in a humanized mouse model of diabetes. According to Teodora Staeva, PhD, JDRF program director of immune therapies, a key finding from the study is that only the immune cells specifically focused on aggressively destroying beta cells — or, alternatively, regulating these cells — responded to the antigen-specific nanoparticle vaccine. The treatment did not compromise the rest of the immune system. “Dr. Santamaria’s research has provided both insight into pathways for developing new immunotherapies and proof-of-concept of a specific therapy that exploits these pathways for preventing and reversing type 1 diabetes,” Staeva says.

If the paradigm on which the nanovaccine is based holds true in other chronic autoimmune diseases, nanovaccines might find general applicability in autoimmunity, Santamaria says. The nanoparticle vaccine technology has been licensed by Parvus Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company spun out from University Technology International LP, the tech transfer and commercialization center for the University of Calgary.

Source: Nano Patents and Innovations

In his blog on start-ups, VCs, angels, and university entrepreneurs, serial investor David Lerner warns investors about “hair on the deal” — namely, distasteful features that immediately signal the kiss of death for a company’s investment prospects. According to Lerner, investors should avoid companies and/or founders that exhibit the following 10 characteristics lest they find themselves with a hairball:

1. Legacy shareholders. It’s normal for a start-up to have legacy shareholders, provided they’re not a) disgruntled, because they’ll try to interfere with the deal; b) missing, because they may come back to haunt the company in the future; or c) overabundant, because “rounding them up will be like herding cats,” Lerner says.

2. Unrealistic (inflated) valuation. If an angel-backed company touts a $15M pre-money valuation but doesn’t yet have customers or revenue, “how receptive do you think they [will be] to a conversation in which you tell them their pre-money is $2M?” Lerner asks.

3. Irrelevant founders who think they’re still relevant. Sometimes a founding team needs to make way for the next phase, according to Lerner. If the founders can’t come to grips with this, the company will fall flat — a situation that is very common, he says.

4. Founders who suffer from delusions of grandeur. When a founder is singularly focused on his or her destiny as a magnificent and fabulously wealthy hero, unchecked egomania will color every important decision the start-up will have to make. This treacherous reef has sunk thousands of start-ups, Lerner maintains.

5. Unscrupulous broker-dealers. First-time entrepreneurs may be sucked into the shadowy world of the “broker-dealer,” the “investment banker,” or the “middle-man,” who then latches onto the start-up’s coattails by “helping” to raise capital for a fee, taking a percentage of the money raised and, perhaps, charging a retainer and warrants to boot. Lerner writes more on this problem in Eyes Wide Shut: Welcome to the Masked Ball.

6. Encumbrances (lawsuits, disputes, debts). If there are lawsuits afoot — such as disputes among the founders and previous investors — large debts, or any other type of serious encumbrance, “there is an overgrowth of thick hair on the deal through which no machete will be able to cut,” Lerner warns.

7. A@#holes. This type of person of course comes in all shapes and sizes. The appellation can, for example, refer to founders who want to use investors’ money to pay for a job for their spouse and, perhaps, a corporate apartment. The term also can refer to founders who, although successful in their business, treat their employees like dirt. In a nutshell, the term “refers to a mercenary, not a missionary,” Lerner writes.

8. Sloppy governance. Due diligence sometimes reveals poor recordkeeping, lack of accurate accounting, and incomplete documentation. These red flags often signal a deeper mess that may require an archaeological dig to clean up.

9. Lack of transparency. Obfuscation also can manifest itself in various kinds of questionable behavior. A founder may seem defensive. Stories may change over the course of several conversations. You can never quite get a handle on the financials, the technology, or some other vital aspect of the company. Lerner writes more on this problem in different types of white lies often told to investors.

10. Lack of respect. If a founder/CEO is critical of others, dismissive of the competition, and/or generally rude, he or she most likely will not succeed at the venture, and working together will be a miserable experience.

Source: David B. Lerner

2Market Information’s Distance Learning Division has lined up an array of practical, how-to audioconferences and webinars over the next several months, focusing on many of key challenges in research commercialization. From working effectively with in-house counsel and transforming your operations to become more industry-friendly to faculty outreach/education and IP marketing, these sessions offer an outstanding way to access high-quality training without the cost of travel. All sessions offer unlimited attendance, and recording of the sessions are also available for ongoing staff and faculty education. Also just scheduled is a 6-session series, “Start-Up Boot Camp for University TTO Professionals and Inventors,” featuring an all-star faculty of start-up experts. Here’s the schedule — for details, click on any of the individual titles:

• Working Effectively with University Counsel to Speed the Licensing Process — Thursday, April 29
• Become Industry Friendly: Transform Your TTO Into a Licensee Magnet — Wednesday, May 12
• University Researchers: Tap Into Your Inner CEO — Thursday, May 20, 2010
• SPECIAL 6-PART SERIES: Start-Up Boot Camp for University TTO Professionals and Inventors — Every Thursday, June 3rd – July 8th
• TTOs: Use Social Media Effectively to Market Your Innovations — Tuesday, June 8
• The Perfect Elevator Pitch: Sell Your IP in 3 Minutes or Less! — Tuesday, June 15
• Prevent Faculty Disputes from Turning Into a Declaration of War — Tuesday, July 13

ApaTech, a spinout from Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL) that was established in 2001 to manufacture and market synthetic bone substitutes, has been acquired by Deerfield, IL-based Baxter International, Inc., in an agreement valued at up to $330 million. ApaTech was launched at QMUL’s Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biomedical Materials nine years ago with an initial investment of £3 million. QMUL’s equity interest in the spinout means the college is set to receive a significant sum from the sale. ApaTech generated sales of approximately $60 million during 2009. Its lead product, Actifuse, is being used in Europe, the United States, and other markets around the world. The acquisition follows a number of successful VC investment rounds that fueled significant expansion of the business, including new manufacturing capacity, and enabled the company to continue the development of its lead products.

“ApaTech is the perfect university spinout success story,” says Caroline Quest, managing director of Queen Mary Innovation (QMI), which serves as the TTO for QMUL and manages the equity interests in its spinout portfolio. “This sale demonstrates just how much can be achieved in a relatively short time frame when innovative scientists join together with top-class commercial leadership.”

In another win for QMUL, Activiomics, Ltd. — the first spinout created from the Institute of Cancer at Barts and The London Medical School — has signed a commercial agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) through its Respiratory Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery (CEDD) in a collaborative effort to investigate inflammatory signaling mechanisms. Scientists from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry at QMUL developed a novel method based on mass spectrometry to analyze and interpret cell signaling pathways. The technology enables the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry to identify biomarkers and better select new drugs for diseases such as cancer, autoimmunity, and diabetes.

The targeted in-depth quantification of cell signaling (TIQUAS) platform has several advantages over existing methods: it is quantitative, antibody-free, label-free, and applicable to any cell or tissue sample. These features offer significant value in reducing drug development cycle by aiding clinical trial candidate selection and biomarker discovery. Activiomics Ltd received early-stage financing from IP Group plc — the IP commercialization company that works closely with QMI to identify and develop new business opportunities from QMUL research. Sources: Queen Mary University of London and PRLog

The Mayo Clinic has signed an exclusive license and commercialization agreement with Gamma Medica-Ideas, Inc., (GMI) of Northridge, CA. The company, a developer of digital molecular imaging systems, plans to further develop and commercialize a suite of technologies invented by a team of Mayo physicians and scientists headed by Michael O’Connor, PhD, a nuclear physicist in the department of radiology. The license also includes methods and devices developed at Mayo for combining next generation x-ray tomosynthesis techniques with molecular imaging of the breast. In initial clinical studies, the Mayo algorithms licensed to GMI yield better images at lower dose. The company aims to utilize the licensed technology in conjunction with its Lumagem molecular breast imaging (MBI) system to improve the diagnosis of cancers in the estimated 30% of women who have dense breast tissue, which can impede the diagnosis of abnormalities using existing mammography and other screening techniques. Mammography works well in fatty breast tissue, but in dense breast tissue “mammography is like looking through a frosted-glass pane,” O’Connor says. Mayo research shows MBI to be three times more effective than mammography at finding tumors in dense breast tissue.

While mammography uses low-energy X-rays, MBI relies on high-energy gamma radiation and the behavior of cancer molecules. Although similar gamma-camera approaches have been pursued, Mayo’s breakthrough is lowering the radiation dose needed for MBI to detect small tumors. From a patient’s perspective, MBI is similar to a mammogram. The breast is compressed, although with two-thirds less pressure than a mammogram, and two images are taken of each breast. However, in MBI, a radioisotope (Tc-99m) is injected in the patient’s arm beforehand. Breast-tumor cells absorb this tracer like a sponge and appear as bright spots on MBI films. O’Connor’s innovation was to build a dual-headed system with cameras positioned on either side of the breast, so that each camera would need to image only half the breast. “We found we could increase our ability to detect tumors by about 10 or 15%,” he says. MBI also can improve treatment once women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Because MBI can detect changes in tumor size, “you could rapidly reassess your drug regimen,” says Deborah Rhodes, MD, a preventive medicine specialist at Mayo who helped develop the technology. MBI also addresses the issue of breast cancer recurrence. Among Mayo study participants who had breast cancer, MBI detected a second tumor in a patient’s breast in about 10% of cases.

Sources: Silicon Valley Nano News and Mayo Clinic