Author: Marie Powers

The United States and its higher education systems are on the verge of a “new paradigm” that may redefine the roles of colleges and universities in promoting state and regional economic development, according to a report by the Rockefeller Institute of Government of the State University of New York. The old paradigm rests largely on the traditional mix of business attraction and retention incentives, such as tax breaks or infrastructure, say authors David Shaffer, senior fellow at the Rockefeller Institute, and David Wright, the Institute’s director of urban and metropolitan studies. “Research, technology transfer, management assistance, and/or worker training are often thrown in among the incentives — but sometimes as a kind of afterthought,” they write. “Perhaps there is now an opportunity to flip the old model around — adopting a new, ‘knowledge first’ paradigm in which higher education systems explicitly take a leading role.”

The researchers surveyed national trends by examining activities that link higher education and economic development in every state. The pattern of higher education-inspired economic development that has emerged over the past decade is broader than simply the support of research and technology transfer — although those functions remain pivotal, they argue. Shaffer and Wright suggest that current dynamics could transform the influence of higher education on the economies of states and of the nation as a whole. The emerging paradigm should be seen as four related efforts that, when viewed as part of an overall economic development strategy, may encourage more strategic planning about the economic role of higher education.

The four areas are:

1. Innovation, which reflects the traditional role of universities in developing new technologies, processes, products, and ideas. This role “sees university faculty and leaders thinking creatively about how to leverage their strengths in knowledge creation to yield tangible economic benefits,” according to the authors.
2. Helping employers, which includes worker training, management counseling, assistance with start-ups, and other initiatives.
3. Community development, which includes college and university property development and management for housing, business endeavors, culture, and recreation.
4. Education, which continues its traditional role in creating an educated population. The new economy makes the traditional academic mission increasingly important, according to the report.

Source: Inside Higher Ed

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Writing on the American Express OPEN Forum, John L. Mariotti, president and CEO of The Enterprise Group and a former executive at Huffy Bicycles and Rubbermaid Office Products Group, talks about the importance of innovation. Everybody seems to agree that innovation is a good idea, Mariotti points out, but inhibitors to innovation can dampen enthusiasm and chill the spirits of the most creative people in any organization. He cites three of the biggest and most common enemies of innovation as:

1. Negativism. Literally thousands, perhaps millions, of ideas were tried before the technology to make them work was sufficiently developed, Mariotti maintains. For example, smart phones were imagined decades ago when the TV series “Star Trek” used flip-open communicators similar to today’s “flip” cell phones. However, the technology to make this concept work didn’t exist until battery technology and cell towers could process the signals. The lesson: Technology advances rapidly, making innovations possible that couldn’t be realized in the past. Change is the only constant, and the rate of change is accelerating. Those who fear change may be daunted, but those who embrace change can recognize enormous opportunities.
2. Giving up. Many have heard the story of Thomas Edison’s failures before inventing the incandescent light bulb. A young reporter once asked Edison if he felt like a failure and whether he should just give up. Edison replied, “Young man, why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp.” Soon afterwards, approaching 10,000 attempts, Edison invented the incandescent light bulb. The lesson: Relentless persistence is at the heart of innovation. The innovator must believe in and be committed to his ultimate innovation.
3. Drowning in complexity. At first, complexity seems harmless enough: a few more product variations, a few more customers to serve, a few more markets to manage.  Soon, these combinations grow into a tangled web of work that strangles an organization. Suddenly everyone is busier than ever, doing more work, but achieving less. When people are preoccupied with an explosion of transactions, products, variations, customers, and markets, little or no time is left for innovation. However, complexity can be exposed, measured, and removed, Mariotti maintains. “Like pruning vines that invade a garden, it can be cut away and discarded,” he writes. When people are refocused — to work on new and better products and to serve the best customers and markets — sales rise and innovation grows. The lesson: Find complexity and manage it. Once complexity is revealed and managed, innovation can flourish again. When complexity is conquered, the organization will become rejuvenated and develop ideas built upon its best people, partners, products, and ideas.

Source:  OPEN Forum

Engineers at the University of Utah have developed a computer-controlled, motorized hand and arm support that allows doctors, artists, and others to precisely control scalpels, brushes, and tools over a wide area, with less fatigue. The Active Handrest is designed to aid people in performing tasks such as surgery, painting, and electronics repair that require precise control of the fingertips, explains William Provancher, PhD, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. A patent on the device is pending, and Provancher may form a spinoff company to commercialize it or license the technology to companies that produce touch-feedback devices, make robotic surgery equipment, produce art, or refurbish electronics.

To use the handrest, an individual places his or her wrist on a support that can slide horizontally in any direction, with his or her elbow resting on a support attached to the device. The Active Handrest allows the person to maintain a steady hand while the device senses the position of a hand-grasped tool or the force exerted by the hand — or both. Then, its computer software moves the handrest so it “constantly re-centers the fingertips in the center of their dexterous workspace,” which Provancher describes as “the range over which you can move your fingers and be very precise.” For example, if you place your arm on a desk to write, your hand is able to move the pen about four inches in any direction, but precise writing is practical only within a one-inch wide “dexterous workspace,” he explains. The prototype of the Active Handrest allows users to move their hand precisely within a workspace of about 10 by 10 inches, re-centering their hand as the arm moves to reach a larger area. Future devices could allow for three-dimensional motion and even larger work areas with the same precision, Provancher says.

Source: PhysOrg.com

Harvard University and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have inked an exclusive therapeutic license with Boston-based Acetylon Pharmaceuticals for a platform technology and chemical methodology to conduct high-throughput screening and lead optimization for histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor compounds and a portfolio of small-molecule selective HDAC enzyme inhibitors. The licensed technology includes the first-ever selective inhibitor of HDAC6, a Class IIB enzyme that has emerged as an important target in inflammatory disease, neurologic disease, and cancer. Acetylon is developing potential drug candidates based on Class II-selective HDAC inhibitors. The company believes that its selective HDAC inhibitor compounds may enhance clinical utility by reducing or eliminating the side effects associated with existing non-selective HDAC inhibitors. The platform and methodology were discovered by two of Acetylon’s scientific founders, James E. Bradner, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Ralph Mazitschek, PhD, instructor in chemical biology at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues. They described the technology in Nature Chemical Biology.

Acetylon’s lead HDAC6 inhibitor program is focused on enhancing drug potency and reducing or eliminating side effects common to HDAC inhibition through selective targeting of the HDAC6 enzyme. Inhibition of HDAC6 versus other isoforms preserves normal gene expression in cells, thereby minimizing patient toxicity. At the same time, HDAC6 inhibition severely disrupts the ability of diseased cells to produce normal proteins and to dispose of damaged, misfolded proteins. Since metabolically active cancer and autoimmune cells produce large amounts of misfolded proteins, inhibition of HDAC6 results in further increased generation and accumulation of protein “trash,” triggering self-destruction of diseased cells via programmed cell death and leading to regression of disease. The Harvard/Dana-Farber drug discovery and development tools “open new doors to expand our Class II-selective HDAC inhibitors program,” says Walter Ogier, CEO of Acetylon.

Source: Earth Times

Columbia University and New York City-based FairChoice Systems, Inc., have signed a multi-year commercialization agreement that will bring to market an online student health information system (IS) developed and implemented by Columbia’s Student Health Services. Colleges and universities in 37 states require Meningococcal Conjugate vaccination (or, alternatively, Meningococcal education) as a requirement for college attendance, and 20 states require Hepatitis B vaccination. To meet these requirements, many U.S. universities collate, verify, and report vaccination compliance information manually, at the start of each school year, for returning students and at the beginning of each registration period for new students. The web-based FairChoice solution is designed to replace this time-intensive process.

“Low compliance rates increase the risk of a disease outbreak, while the inaccessibility of paper records can hinder the ability of officials to react in the event of an outbreak,” explains Kathryn Clark, who previously managed Student Health Services operations at Columbia’s medical center campus and now serves as vice president of health solutions at FairChoice. Under the terms of the agreement, FairChoice will extend the capabilities of the original system to include automation of other reporting requirements, including MMR vaccination tracking and student insurance enrollment. “FairChoice can clearly benefit other colleges and universities that are struggling with the cost of compliance while ensuring that public health mandates are met,” says Ryan Armbrust, the licensing officer from Columbia Technology Ventures who brokered the deal.

Source:  News Blaze

Our Distance Learning Division has partnered with a TTO executive who has made it his mission to offset tight money constraints by forging corporate partnerships and utilizing industry funding to further the office’s aims and bolster its budget. Mike Rondelli, Director of Technology Transfer and Commercialization, has successfully led San Diego State University’s TTO to consistent high performance in the ratio of research dollars spent to licensing revenues earned. Find out SDSU’s secrets of success by joining us on April 8th for Stretch Your TTO’s Budget: Tap Into Industry Resources and Partnerships, a 90-minute distance learning event that will offer first-hand advice on how to offset tight budget constraints by forging partnerships, utilizing industry resources, and securing outside funds to supplement your TTO’s operating budget. CLICK HERE for full details or to register.

PLUS, don’t miss this critical session coming March 30th: The Bilski Decision: Expert Strategies to Manage Its Impact on University IP

Warwick University and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) have licensed a system they say is the first to measure patients accurately for hip replacements. KingMark, developed by orthopaedic surgeon Richard King, MBBS, FRCS, in collaboration with Damian Griffin, MPhil, FRCS, professor of trauma and orthopaedic surgery at the university’s medical school, is a non-intrusive, reliable method to calculate radiographic hip magnification. More than 55,000 hip replacement operations are performed each year in the U.K. alone, and current estimates suggest replacement hip size is correct in only 30% of cases.

The invention includes a simple kit for measurement. A pad with an incorporated measurement system is placed face down. The patient lies with his or her hips on the pad, and a string of five linked precision balls is placed on the patient’s abdomen.  The anterior and posterior ball measurements from the radiograph are entered and calculated, generating an accurate value for magnification. “Our radiographers find [the system] easy to use, and I can be confident that the measurements I make on scaled radiographs are correct,” Griffin says. KingMark is less intrusive for patients than current methods of measurement, he adds. The invention may have potential for spinal work and trauma implants as well as other joint replacement operations and surgeries with magnification issues. A specialty orthopaedics company, Columbia, MD-based Voyant Health, inked the license to manufacture and distribute KingMark.

Source: Science Business

Three-dimensional animated graphics can be merged into live video in real time to create a fusion of real and computer-generated visuals using software created in the department of engineering science at the U.K.’s University of Oxford. The software, called Parallel Tracking and Mapping (PTAM), has been licensed to augmented reality company QderoPateo LLC by Isis Innovation, Oxford’s TTO. QderoPateo will integrate the software into mobile phone applications to provide advertising and other services.

PTAM is a camera-tracking system that maps an environment visible through the camera. The software can locate surfaces such as a tabletop in a room or the ground outside, which become the platforms on which a virtual object’s movements are played out. The system performs in real time without pre-stored maps or tagged environments by building a detailed 3-D map containing thousands of features that can be tracked at frame-rate with accuracy and robustness that rival model-based systems. The software also can recognize objects and scenes through the appearance of clusters of features that form a digital signature of the location. As the map is built, the camera viewpoint and angle are calculated, enabling the projection of 3-D graphics into the video stream so they appear to belong in the same scene.

“The blending of real and virtual worlds is common enough in films and television, but is usually achieved by extensive processing of the recorded images or by filming in studios with known objects at fixed locations,” says David Murray, professor in Oxford’s Active Vision Group. “The PTAM software allows developers to augment a camera’s video stream in real time and in everyday locations. It allows developers to build augmented reality applications for consumer markets and education, both quickly and economically.” Implemented on smartphones, PTAM can supplement sensors like GPS and digital compasses to improve the accuracy of the positioning and to maintain the position when out of range of satellite, 3G, and WiFi signals. QderoPateo plans to integrate the Oxford software into its smartphone platform, Ouidoo, to allow third-party software developers to create a more intuitive and immersive end-user experience, according to Steve Chao, the company’s cofounder. Isis Innovation also is looking for commercial partners who will develop the software for other applications.

Source:  The Business Magazine

The NeuroTranslational Program at Johns Hopkins University’s (JHU) Brain Science Institute (BSI) has entered into a licensing agreement with Woodcliff Lake, NJ-based pharmaceutical company Eisai, Inc., to discover and develop small molecule glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCPII) inhibitors. The NeuroTranslational Program was launched in 2009 to enable drug-discovery scientists to work side by side with JHU faculty to translate basic science discoveries into small molecule therapeutics. Under terms of the agreement, Eisai has granted BSI non-exclusive U.S. rights to use its GCPII technology to generate inhibitor molecules for diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system, including peripheral neuropathy and neurodegeneration, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and ALS, as well as non-central nervous system diseases.

BSI will be responsible for the GCPII research, drug discovery, and preclinical activities. Eisai will have an exclusive option to develop and commercialize any drug molecules generated from the collaboration, which will be led by a joint steering committee of representatives from both entities. “It is a great accomplishment for this team to announce a licensing agreement of this kind within its first year of operation,” says Jeffery Rothstein, MD, professor of neurology at JHU and co-director of the NeuroTranslational Program.

Source: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

The biotechnology firm BrainStorm has inked an agreement with Hadasit, the TTO of Israel’s Hadassah Medical Organization’s, to conduct joint clinical trials on treatments for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. As part of the deal, Hadassah will put its top experts in neurology and stem cell science at the disposal of BrainStorm, which is controlled by businessman Chaim Lebovits. BrainStorm, in turn, will pick up NIS $5 million of the cost of the clinical trials, which follow satisfactory animal testing of a patented process through which stem cells from a patient’s own bone marrow are treated and turned into nerve cells in the laboratory, then injected back into the ALS patient. The developers of the process hope to show that they can delay and even halt the progress of the disease. Success in developing a treatment for ALS could open the door to a $1 billion market.

Source: Haaretz

Chemical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have built a sensor array that can detect single molecules of hydrogen peroxide emanating from a single living cell. Hydrogen peroxide has long been known to damage cells and their DNA, but scientists have recently uncovered evidence that points to a more beneficial role: it appears to act as a signaling molecule in a critical cell pathway that stimulates growth, among other functions. When that pathway goes awry, cells can become cancerous, so understanding hydrogen peroxide’s role could lead to new targets for potential cancer drugs, says Michael Strano, PhD, MIT’s Charles and Hilda Roddey associate professor of chemical engineering, who led the research team. Strano and colleagues describe the sensor array, which is made of carbon nanotubes, in Nature Nanotechnology.

The researchers used the array to study the flux of hydrogen peroxide that occurs when a common growth factor called EGF activates its target, a receptor known as EGFR, located on cell surfaces. The team showed that hydrogen peroxide levels more than double when EGFR is activated. EGF and other growth factors induce cells to grow or divide through a complex cascade of reactions inside the cell. It’s still unclear exactly how hydrogen peroxide affects this process, but Strano speculates that it may somehow amplify the EGFR signal, reinforcing the message to the cell. Because hydrogen peroxide is a small molecule that doesn’t diffuse far (about 200 nanometers), the signal would be limited to the cell where it was produced. The team also found that in skin cancer cells, believed to have overactive EGFR activity, the hydrogen peroxide flux was 10 times greater than in normal cells. Because of that dramatic difference, Strano believes this technology could be useful in building diagnostic devices for some types of cancer. “You could envision a small handheld device, for example, which your doctor could point at some tissue in a minimally invasive manner and tell if this pathway is corrupted,” he says.

Researchers in Strano’s lab plan to study different forms of the EGF receptor to better characterize the hydrogen peroxide flux and its role in cell signaling. Strano’s team also is working on carbon nanotube sensors for other molecules. The team already has successfully tested sensors for nitric oxide and ATP — the molecule that carries energy within a cell. “The list of biomolecules that we can now detect very specifically and selectively is growing rapidly,” says Strano, who adds that the ability to detect and count single molecules sets carbon nanotubes apart from many other nanosensor platforms.

Across the pond, scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC) of the U.K.’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have succeeded in growing empty particles derived from a plant virus and in prompting them to carry useful chemicals. The containers are particles of the Cowpea mosaic virus, which is ideally suited for designing biomaterial at the nanoscale. The external surface of these nano containers could be decorated with molecules that guide them to where they are needed in the body before the chemical load is discharged to exert its effect on diseased cells. “This is a shot in the arm for all Cowpea mosaic virus technology,” says George Lomonossoff, PhD, professor of biological chemistry at the JIC and co-author of a paper describing the technology in Small.

Scientists have tried to empty virus particles of their genetic material using irradiation or chemical treatment. Though successful in rendering the particles non-infectious, these methods have not fully emptied the particles. The JIC scientists discovered they could assemble empty particles from precursors in plants and then extract them to insert chemicals of interest. Previously, scientists at JIC and elsewhere had managed to decorate the surface of virus particles with useful molecules, “but now we can load them, too, creating fancy chemical containers” — an innovation that opens up new areas of research, says lead author Dave Evans, PhD, in the department of biological chemistry.

One application could be in cancer treatment. Integrins are molecules that appear on cancer cells. The virus particles could be coated externally with peptides that bind to integrins. This would mean the particles seek out cancer cells to the exclusion of healthy cells. Once bound to the cancer cell, the virus particle would release an anti-cancer agent that has been carried as an internal cargo. “The potential for developing Cowpea mosaic virus as a targeted delivery agent of therapeutics is now a reality,” Evans says. Patents have been filed on the empty viral particles, their use, and the processes by which they are made. The IP management company Plant Bioscience Limited, which handles most of the JIC’s tech transfer activity, is managing the technology’s commercialization.

Source: Science Daily and EurekAlert!

Start-ups are still the best way to commercialize university IP, according to David Lerner, a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and director of the Venture Lab at Columbia University Tech Ventures. However, university TTOs should imitate the start-up culture in their deal-making. In a post on peHUB, the public forum for private equity, Lerner recounts two business paradigms outlined by Chris Dixon, an early-stage investor and founder of the web site Hunch. The first, Dixon explains on his blog, is a transactional/legalistic approach to business that exchanges labor for money in the form of a contractual relationship. The second approach to business is based on trust, verbal agreements, reputation, and “enforcement” by the community rather than the legal system. Start-ups, Dixon says, are overwhelmingly governed by the latter approach.

Lerner juxtaposes these paradigms against the composition of U.S. university TTOs — most of which are steeped in the transactional/legalistic business culture, he asserts. “Most university administrators place great importance and faith in the opinions and judgment of their Office of General Counsel, and with good reason,” he observes. “Universities are often at the economic, cultural, and educational nexus of entire cities and must protect their interests and reputation, not to mention their endowments.” Since university tech transfer was only born in 1980 as a result of the Bayh-Dole Act, commercialization activity has been layered over an existing culture in most schools.

Nevertheless, TTOs should understand the distinction between licensing IP to large, existing companies and licensing IP to a fledgling entity that is being formed for the express purpose of commercializing that IP, Lerner maintains. “A small start-up comprised sometimes by nothing more than a courageous entrepreneur, a laptop, and some meager seed money can hardly wait six months to ink a deal with a university,” he writes. “Nor is it reasonable to expect such a person to pay large up-front licensing fees, immediately reimburse patent expenses incurred long before he/she entered the picture, or submit to massive and arcane paperwork.” Instead, TTOs should take their cues from the investment and entrepreneurial community, using these foundational steps:

• Assign a seasoned entrepreneur and investor as the dedicated point person for the TTO’s entrepreneurial/venture activities. This individual must come from and have the confidence and respect of the early stage entrepreneurial community.
• Shed as much of the “transactional/legal” paradigm as possible from the venture operation and adopt the business paradigm based on trust/reputation and community. The entrepreneurial and investment community will immediately recognize this as major progress.
• As an equity partner, treat start-ups in the TTO’s portfolio as partners, not simply licensees. Work with partners to facilitate success and delay compensation and upside revenues to the back end as much as possible.
• Streamline license and stock purchase agreement templates to speed up and facilitate deals.
• Keep deal terms fair and simple. Commercialization “is not about what you can ‘get’ from the entrepreneur along the way,” Lerner writes. “Rather, it’s about enabling them to win in what is an exceptionally difficult endeavor. An eventual sale or IPO of the company should be the shared goal — nothing else.”

Source: peHUB

Leaders of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee have released details of compromise legislation aimed at reforming U.S. patent laws. The bill ostensibly makes significant steps toward resolving longstanding differences in legislative efforts to modernize U.S. patent law and make it more compatible with international laws. Referred to as the managers’ amendment to S.515, the bill must go to the full Senate for a vote and must be passed in the House of Representatives. According to background materials circulated by members of the Judiciary Committee, the managers’ amendment includes nearly all of the improvements to U.S. patent laws that were part of the reported version of the Patent Reform Act of 2009, as well as changes designed to strike a better balance among users of the patent system. In particular, the legislation preserves:

• changes to improve patent quality, including allowance for third parties to comment on pending patent applications;
• a first-window post-grant review proceeding to weed out patents that should not have issued;
• the gatekeeper compromise on damages;
• the compromise on venue;
• fee-setting authority for the USPTO to address its backlog problem;
• amendments to best mode;
• the new district court pilot program; and
• increased incentives for government labs to commercialize inventions.

The proposed reform would largely eliminate the first-to-invent priority system in the U.S. The bigger deal is that the proposal would eliminate the one-year grace period unless the inventor was the “first-discloser.” A “derivation” proceeding would replace interferences. The proposed reform also would eliminate the right of “any person” to file a false marking claim. Rather, those claims would be limited to individuals who have “suffered a competitive injury.” This change would apply to eliminate standing of already-filed cases.

The damages revision is less significant than previous iterations. Under the proposed revision, a court would be required to “identify the methodologies and factors that are relevant to the determination of damages, and the court or jury shall consider only those methodologies and factors relevant to making such determination.” The parties also would be required to “state, in writing and with particularity, the methodologies and factors the parties propose for instruction to the jury in determining damages … specifying the relevant underlying legal and factual bases for their assertions.” The provision generally creates a better situation for accused infringers but does not necessarily limit damage awards. The managers’ amendment provides these additional changes:

• Shortens the first-window post-grant review from 12 to nine months and raises the threshold for instituting a proceeding to a showing that it is “more likely than not” that at least one claim is unpatentable.
• Slightly raises the threshold for instituting an inter partes review (IPR) to a “reasonable likelihood” that the challenger would prevail in invalidating a claim of the patent, creates additional safeguards to prevent a challenger from using the administrative process to harass patent owners, and inserts “reasonably could have raised” estoppel to prevent a challenger from raising in court an argument that could have been raised during an IPR instituted by the challenger.
• Codifies recent case law that requires willfulness to be demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence that the infringer acted with objective recklessness and adds substantive and procedural safeguards for alleged infringers.
• Removes the provision that would have required the federal circuit to accept interlocutory appeals of claim construction determinations.
• Requires that the USPTO reduce fees by 50% for small entities and by 75% for the new classification of “micro-entities” created by the bill.
• Permits a patent holder to provide additional, potentially material prior art regarding the patent to the USPTO. If the USPTO considers the information and determines it has no effect on patentability, that information cannot later serve as the basis for an inequitable conduct claim in court.

Sources: Intellectual Property Watch and Patently-O

TTO budgets are notoriously skimpy — and economic conditions haven’t helped, to say the least. Many offices are struggling to operate effectively with fewer resources, and cost-cutting has gotten its fair share of attention by most. But there is another way to stretch your TTO budget that takes the opposite approach: adding resources and dollars from industry collaborators. The fact is that, even without specific IP, many well-heeled companies want to be on your speed dial and develop relationships with the university, hoping to be first in line for critical new technologies and anxious to get a glimpse at what’s going on behind the laboratory doors. For cash-strapped TTOs, these companies can be a wellspring of needed resources and funds beyond the typical licensee or sponsored research relationship. What’s more, these relationships often lead directly to future licensing deals, bringing even more benefit to your tech transfer program.

To help you tap into these industry resources and funds, Technology Transfer Tactics’ Distance Learning Division has partnered with a TTO executive who has made it his mission to offset tight money constraints by forging corporate partnerships and utilizing industry funding to further the office’s aims and bolster its budget. Mike Rondelli, Director of Technology Transfer and Commercialization, has successfully led San Diego State University’s TTO to consistent high performance in the ratio of research dollars spent to licensing revenues earned. Find out how SDSU’s secrets of success by joining us on April 8th for Stretch Your TTO’s Budget: Tap Into Industry Resources and Partnerships, a 90-minute distance learning event that will offer first-hand advice on how to offset tight budget constraints by forging partnerships, utilizing industry resources, and more. CLICK HERE for full details or to register.

PLUS, coming March 30th: The Bilski Decision: Expert Strategies to Manage Its Impact on University IP

Minneapolis-based Upwind Medical Partners is launching a $6 million to $8 million early-stage fund that will focus on commercializing IP from health care and research institutions such as the University of Minnesota (UMN), Wisconsin Alumni Research Fund (WARF), Allina Hospitals & Clinics, and Johns Hopkins Hospital. Founded by Jim O’Reilly, a former health care executive, software entrepreneur, and VC exec, Upwind hopes to create up to three companies a year and exit them in no more than four years. The goal is to create enough returns in a condensed time frame by focusing on IP with a clear path to market, and pouring some of the exit dollars back into the fund while also keeping investors happy, according to O’Reilly.

Minnesota, traditionally a land of scarce early-stage capital, has seen a burst of recent activity. Affinity Capital Management in Minneapolis is partnering with Triathlon Medical Ventures in Cincinnati to create a $10 million seed/early-stage fund. Coordinate Capital LLC, backed by veteran biotech investor Steven Burrill, is trying to raise $25 million partly to finance start-ups that will incubate at the planned Elk Run BioBusiness Center outside Pine Island, and UMN is collaborating with private real estate developers to launch a $20 million fund to back new companies housed at a planned accelerator adjacent to the school’s Biomedical Discovery District. In addition, Twin Cities Angels recently raised an estimated $50 million for its second fund, and the Minnesota legislature is close to passing a $40 million, four-year angel investment tax credit.

The activity couldn’t come at a better time. A weak economy and tougher regulatory requirements have scared away investors, leaving some of Minnesota’s most promising medical start-ups to cut back or wither away. Since December, Transoma Medical, Leptos Biomedical, and Disc Dynamics have shut down. Plymouth-based Lumen Biomedical, Inc., sold one of its two clot-removing devices to boost its balance sheet, and VitalMedix, Inc., a drug company spun out of UMN, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The dearth of early stage money is especially acute at academic research institutions that have great IP but lack financial resources to commercialize the technology. “Every tech transfer office has gotten more aggressive,” O’Reilly says. “They haven’t had the success they had in the past.”

Upwind plans to create companies based on near market-ready IP that can deliver liquidity in a relatively short period of time through a sale or licensing. While VC firms typically fund one or two potential blockbusters over several years, Upwind will generate modest returns from developing many less ambitious companies in a lot less time. “We’re looking for lots of singles and doubles, not necessarily home runs,” O’Reilly says. Upwind’s limited partners will own 70% of the fund and also will receive a pro-rated percentage of each company in the portfolio. For example, a $1 million investment in a $7 million Upwind fund earns an investor a 10% equity stake in the fund and 10% in each of the two or three start-ups it launches every year.

Source: MedCity News

Successful negotiation of start-up funding leaves most new entrepreneurs flush with excitement. But investors will almost always slip an option pool into the equation, which means the share value to the founding group can sink in a flash. It can be a throttling experience for the uninitiated. Depending on the number and caliber of upper-echelon hires a new company must make, it’s critical to provide an option pool, which is an equity set-aside that can be issued at a later date to entice attractive new hires. These stock options are also used for board members, consultants and even vendors. Most high-quality start-ups give these kinds of key players a stake in order to remain competitive.

But the option pool is always a key point of negotiation for start-ups during initial funding rounds with venture capitalists. It’s a push-pull scenario because funders want the company to keep this pool fluid while the initial stock holders don’t want their investments diluted. The pool “is usually in the 10% to 20% range. A lot of times the investors want to see that because it’s a way to attract highly qualified employees and be

competitive. What usually happens during valuation is that the entrepreneurs think they have a lot of shares. But once you account for 10% to 20% after it’s financed, they see their ownership percentage declines,” says Tom Taulli, author of seven financing books including The Complete M&A Handbook, and an advisor to technology companies. It’s important for technology transfer professionals to orient new entrepreneurs to the concept

and process of option pools as a part of valuation so that the company founders clearly understand the value of their stakes, Taulli stresses. A detailed article on navigating option pool provisions appears in the February 2010 issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. To view the entire article and begin a subscription, plus gain access to the entire 3-year archive of how-to articles and best practices, CLICK HERE.

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has opened its New Venture Incubator (NVI) — a facility with laboratory, office, and meeting spaces — to support technology start-ups in greater San Antonio. Housed on UTSA’s main campus, the NVI is designed to support companies that are commercializing UTSA IP or sponsoring research in the school’s labs. The incubator also is designed to fit into San Antonio’s broader technology commercialization environment as a source of new ventures. UTSA has established a Commercialization Council, which includes an influential group of top executives, to guide the NVI’s relationship to San Antonio’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. “The goal of the Commercialization Council is to develop the linkages between organizations that can play a key role in the region’s technology-based entrepreneurship,” says Cory Hallam, director of the UTSA Center for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship. “Ultimately, we want tech entrepreneurs to look at San Antonio the same way they look at Austin or Silicon Valley.”

Currently, the Council includes representatives from UTSA, Southwest Research Institute, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative, Biomed SA, South Texas Technology Management, The Small Business Development Center, and AT&T. “UTSA recognizes the potential of establishing a campus-based technology incubator for San Antonio entrepreneurs that have direct ties to the university,” Hallam explains. “By working with promising new companies that are aligned with the university’s research strengths, we create a win-win partnership that benefits the university through increased research funding and IP licenses while providing start-ups with connections to the support they need to become successful freestanding enterprises.”

Biopharmaceutical firm ViroXis Corp. will be the first start-up to occupy space in the NVI. The company aims to identify and patent botanically derived compounds for use in infectious disease and cancer therapies. Over the next two to three years, ViroXis will work to develop a rapid, cost-effective, and proven botanical prescription drug targeting human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes skin and genital wart infections and is the leading cause of cervical cancer.

Source: Earth Times

Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) have taken a significant step forward in developing a vaccine approach to reverse the neurological damage seen with Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s results from the loss of neurons that produce dopamine, a nerve-signaling chemical that controls movement and balance. Neurodegeneration occurs when a normal protein called alpha synuclein becomes  clumped, changes shape, and accumulates in the brain. The body subsequently attacks the protein through inflammation and causes destruction of dopamine-producing nerve cells. Degeneration and loss of these dopamine-producing neurons typically occur after age 60, and it is estimated that one person in 20 over the age of 80 has Parkinson’s.

UNMC researchers reversed the neurodegenerative effects of alpha synuclein by changing immune responses to it. The vaccine strategy trains the immune system to elicit neuroprotective responses in damaged brain regions. In mice with an experimental form of Parkinson’s, injection of the vaccine produced cells that were able to reverse the disease. After receiving the treatment, these mice were found to have a similar number of dopamine-producing nerve cells and fibers as mice without Parkinson’s. The findings appear in the Journal of Immunology. “We believe this could be a revolutionary means for Parkinson’s disease therapeutics,” says Howard Gendelman, MD, professor and chair of UNMC’s department of pharmacology and experimental neuroscience (PEN).

Gendelman and R. Lee Mosley, PhD, associate professor in the PEN department, led the research team, which found that the vaccine enabled T-cells in the treated mice to migrate to the damaged area of the brain and triggered a neuroprotective response that reduced disease-linked reactions in the brain. “The identical immune deficits seen in mice are being looked at in humans with Parkinson’s disease,” Mosley says. “Early results are encouraging. This should pave the way for researchers to begin follow-up studies on the Parkinson’s treatments and open up new opportunities to realize an immunization approach for other neurodegenerative disorders.” Human studies are being conducted at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and UNMC to determine if the immune deficits seen in mice also are present in humans with Parkinson’s. UNeMed, UNMC’s TTO, has filed a patent application on the vaccine and will soon commence discussions with commercial partners on bringing the vaccine to the clinical setting.

Source: Medical News Today

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