News and Events > NewsLetters > Monthly Newsletter: October 2006

Today at the TTO

Biotech Company Gilead Buys Myogen For $2.5 Billion in Cash
Gilead Sciences Inc., a leading producer of HIV drugs, said on October 9th that it plans to acquire biotech Myogen Inc. for about $2.5 billion in cash, signaling a surprising expansion into treatments for pulmonary diseases. Gilead agreed to pay Myogen shareholders $52.50 per share, a premium of 50 percent over the stock's closing price Friday October 6th of $35.08 a share. Myogen is a licensee of IP created at CU and was founded by CU research investigators.

Endo Pharmaceuticals Acquires RxKinetix, Inc.
Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc. announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., has acquired all of the outstanding stock of RxKinetix, Inc., a privately held company headquartered in Boulder. RxKinetix, a startup based on technologies from Cu-Boulder and the Health Sciences Center, develops new formulations of approved products for oral mucositis and other supportive care oncology conditions. The company and its 21 employees will now operate as part of a newly created wholly owned subsidiary of Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Esprit Technology Alliance Breakfast Features New CU Technologies
The Esprit Entrepreneur Technology Alliance Breakfast, sponsored by the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, will take place Tuesday, October 17th at the St. Julien Hotel from 8:00 a.m.-9:30 a.m. This year’s event will feature new technology concepts from the University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office.  The presenting companies represent different stages of their product development and the technologies featured include-

• Innovations in telecommunication technology which could significantly improve communications for Metro Area Networks WiMAX and cable distribution.
• Lab on a chip technology which can determine specific genetic subtypes of influenza viruses within 11 hours.
• A technology using sunlight to  produce Syngas from biomass feedstock, a renewable resource.
• A toolkit approach to genetically engineer tolerance in microbes for chemical production from biomass feedstock.
• Several new medical device technologies

The Breakfast will also include updates from one of the technologies presented at last year’s event.  Cost is $15 per person.

Esprit Entrepreneur is a weeklong celebration featuring company tours, innovative technology updates and tales of spirited entrepreneurs who have survived all odds. To view events and register, visit www.boulderchamber.com and click on the Esprit icon.

IP-Induced Sponsored Research Figures for FY2005-06
The University of Colorado at Boulder received $256.5 million in sponsored research awards for the 2006 fiscal year, nearly two-thirds of it from four of the largest federal agencies. About $15.7 million was received from industry, 34% of which was from industrial sponsors that were further developing a CU IP asset through a sponsored research agreement with a CU investigator.  Out of this “IP-Induced” sponsored research, almost half came from startup companies based on CU technology.

CU startup companies are highly successful at obtaining government funding through SBIR/STTR processes: since 1998, 12 startup companies based on CU-Boulder technology have received over $15 million in SBIR Phase I and Phase II awards, a significant amount of which has been channeled back to the campus in the form of industrial sponsored research.

Academic Advising Software Developed at CU Boulder is Licensed to Other Institutions
The Information Technology team at CU Boulder’s College of Arts and Sciences developed their own easy-to-use software that gives academic advisors information and automated procedures to help them do their jobs.  Andrew Keeler is the primary author of the software, which is called Advisor ToolsTM.  Advisor ToolsTM was demonstrated at national meetings, and since then three colleges have purchased licenses and implemented the system. 

This software includes several modules, which can be purchased separately

• The Roster Module contains a list of students by assigned advisor and can report on their majors, minors, and athletics.  It can also improve operations by reporting on students without advisors and mismatched advisors.
• The Academic Status Module has transcripts, a GPA calculator.  It allows students and their advisors to monitor records of academic performance.
• The Contact Log Module allows advisors to document all of their meetings with advisees.
• The Appointment Module contains a calendar that students can use to schedule appointments and cancel appointments, sending an automated notice of cancellation to their advisors.
• The Assessment Module generates post-appointment emails, and allows for input and reporting on assessments.

CU-Colorado Springs Offers Faculty Cash for Invention Disclosures
The College of Engineering and Applied Science at CU-Colorado Springs will offer faculty ledger awards of $300 for each viable invention disclosure that a faculty member submits to the TTO. A ‘viable’ invention is an invention received by the TTO and evaluated as suitable for commercialization efforts. The policy was instituted on a trial basis for FY 07, on the recommendation of EAS faculty members at their annual retreat. For questions about the new award, contact Jeremy Haefner, Dean, College of Engineering and Applied Science (haefner@eas.uccs.edu).

Proposals Still Being Accepted for Non-Bioscience Proof of Concept Grant (POCg)

CU Technology and Licensee Companies in the News

ColorLink Announces New Patent Issued for Enhancing Vision
ColorLink, a leading supplier of polarization and color management optics announced today that its US Patent No. 7,106,509 for a new technology used to enhance vision has been issued. ColorCorrect™ consists of a retarder film based filter that is sandwiched between two polarizers.  One version is a triple bandpass filter that only allows the transmission of the three colors – red, green, and blue – which enhances color and contrast.  ColorCorrect is ideally suited for improving vision in sports eyewear, sunglasses and ski goggles especially in low light and flat light conditions.  The filter can be designed to enhance specific regions of the visible spectrum to improve vision performance for specific sports such as tennis, baseball, golf, etc. 

UCDHSC School of Medicine Physician Gains International Recognition
A cardiovascular researcher at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center’s School of Medicine is part of a team awarded a $6 million research grant from the Fondation Leducq in France. The team of recipients was selected out of an international pool and has earned worldwide attention in the field of cardiovascular research. Michael Bristow, MD, PhD is co-director of the Cardiovascular Institute at UCDHSC and worked on the team of three American and three European researchers that won the $6 million grant. Each researcher represented one of the top six laboratories in the world in the area of heart failure. Their team was one of four selected internationally for the Fondation Leducq’s Transatlantic Networks of Excellence Program.

UCDHSC Doctors Recognized by Champions in Health Care Awards
E. David Crawford, MD, a researcher and professor at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, was recently honored as health care provider of the year by the Denver Business Journal’s Champions in Health Care Awards. Two other UCDHSC faculty members were finalists for the awards, Stuart Kassan, MD, clinical professor of medicine, as Physician of the Year and Spero Manson, PhD, professor of psychiatry and head of the American Indian and Alaska Native Program, as Lifetime Champion. Crawford was awarded for his significant accomplishments in the promotion of early detection of prostate cancer.

TTO's Learning Laboratory: The Student Connection

New Fall Intern at TTO
Nate Brown, TTO’s newest student intern, is a pre-med student in the department of Integrative Physiology and is scheduled to graduate in December. At the CU-Boulder TTO office he will help prepare due diligence information for a variety of inventions and will participate in the preparation of marketing materials and marketing of bio-related technologies. Nate enjoys backcountry activities and plans to compete in the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse cross-county ski race in March.

Spotlight On:

CU HSC Technology of the Month:
CU1661H – Markers to Predict Human Islet Viability for Transplantation

CU Company of the Month:
Allos Therapeutics, Inc.  is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. The company has two product candidates in late-stage clinical development: EFAPROXYN (efaproxiral), a radiation sensitizer, and PDX (pralatrexate), a novel, next generation antifolate that has been granted fast track designation by the FDA. Allos is also evaluating RH1, a targeted chemotherapeutic agent under exclusive license from the University of Colorado, in a Phase 1 trial in patients with advanced solid tumors. The company’s headquarters are in Westminster, CO.

Upcoming Events

CTEK Angels LIVE: Behind Closed Doors
October 17, 2006, University of Denver
Join the CTEK Angels in the inaugural Angels LIVE investors meeting on October 17th - designed to give an insider's perspective into what angel investors look for in a deal, what gets them excited about an opportunity, what they shoot down quickly, and how the process is organized. As a silent observer, you'll hear pitches from 3-4 companies looking for funding, hear the questions posed to the companies, and hear the banter between the angels post presentation when the entrepreneur leaves a room. You'll witness conversations that not even the entrepreneurs get to hear! Gain insight into what really happens behind closed doors. RSVP online.

International Business Forum 2006
October 19, 2006, Faegre & Benson Law Firm, Boulder
International Business Forum 2006 will bring together more than 25 of the Faegre & Benson's experienced international lawyers from China, Europe and the United States. In a compact half-day session, the Forum will present speakers on 20 international business and legal issues faced by American companies doing business around the world. Attend sessions during the afternoon on topics most relevant to your needs -- choose between small group workshops or private consultations for any topic. The Forum will begin with a luncheon and keynote remarks by Darin Narayana, a noted speaker on international economic, political and trade trends. Register online.

Successfully Navigating Through Intellectual Property
October 19, 2006, Dorsey & Whitney Law Firm, Denver
The Colorado Software and Internet Association (CSIA) brings together industry experts, lawyers and others to discuss current issues concerning the ownership and control of intellectual property. Topics include patent, patent litigation, trademark and copyright issues, with discussion of legislation, court decisions and current policies concerning intellectual property.

Boulder Chamber of Commerce Esprit Entrepreneur Awards
October 24, 2006, Omni Interlocken Hotel, Broomfield
Honor the true survivors of Boulder business and help the Boulder Chamber of Commerce celebrate local entrepreneurship. The evening will include a cocktail reception, a video production and the award ceremony recognizing those with the spirit to outwit and outlast in business.

2006 Coleman Institute Conference on Cognitive Disability and Technology
October 24, 2006, Omni Interlocken Hotel, Broomfield
The Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities (University of Colorado System) conference will feature presentations by outstanding scientists and engineers, disability leaders, government officials, and business executives, an overview of cognitive technologies research at CU and other major universities, and a CU system-wide faculty research poster session. The Institute’s mission is to catalyze and integrate advances in science, engineering and technology to promote the quality of life and independent living of people with cognitive disabilities.  View agenda and register online.

STTR/SBIR Proposal Workshop
November 10, 2006, CU-Boulder COE
SBIR/STTR funding is government R&D funding available to researchers who collaborate with or form their own small business. This workshop is intended to help you compete for a share of the more than $2Billion available for 2007 including the more than $200M available for DOD/DHS STTRs and $200M in NIH STTRs which REQUIRE a university partner.  For a small business, SBIR/STTR funding requires no repayment, no equity dilution and no "external control".  This free workshop is sponsored by CU TTO and by the Colorado Institute for Technology Transfer and Implementation (CITTI). The workshop is intended for faculty, graduate students, PRAs and entrepreneurs/small business owners, who are interested in innovative research funding - even if you don't have a technical staff. A SBIR/STTR program offers the potential for partnerships for innovation. The workshop will be presented by Dr. Terrance Boult, the El Pomar Chair of Communication and Computation at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Dr. Boult has nearly 2 decades of successful grant writing experience, raising tens of millions for his research at Columbia University, Lehigh University and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Invention to Venture: Colorado Springs
November 17, 2006, The Lodge at UCCS
Invention to Venture is a nationwide series of conferences and workshops providing an introduction to the process and practice of technology entrepreneurship. Workshops are targeted at tech-oriented undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and alumni. This is the first Invention to Venture workshop hosted by the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Technology Transfer Fifth Annual Awards Event
January 24, 2007, Tivoli Brewery, Denver
The fifth annual TTO awards dinner will be held on January 24, 2007. This event celebrates people and companies that are illustrative of the outstanding year experienced by technology transfer at CU. Save the date – more details to be announced.

CU Resources

The Fitzsimons bioscience park project, in which $2-billion will be spent over 30 years to develop a 160-acre bioscience park at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, continues to move ahead. Forest City will develop the Colorado Bioscience Park Aurora for the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority, with the first structures going up by the end of 2008. The project’s goal is to provide opportunities to take University research discoveries into the stream of commerce at an accelerated rate, through affiliation with the biotech companies located in the research park. For the latest information about the project, see stories below.

$2B Bioscience Park Gets Go-Ahead
Forest City Enterprises and directors of the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority have signed a 200-page agreement detailing the development of a 3.5-million-sf bioscience park on a piece of the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center. FRA executive director Jill Farnham tells GlobeSt.com that the estimated $2-billion development calls for the first structures to be built by the end of 2008 and for the project to be completed over the next 30 years.

Biotech Dream Nearing Takeoff: Plans For the Science Park at Fitzsimons Head For Approval
As hulking hospital buildings rise from the old Fitzsimons Army Medical Center so, too, do hopes for Colorado's burgeoning biotechnology industry.

Forest City Enterprises Envisions a Biopark Built With a 'Life'
The Rocky Mountain News sat down with Forest City Enterprise's Michael Rosen, senior vice president of new business development, to learn how Forest City builds bioparks. The company has been chosen to develop a bioscience park at Fitzsimons.

Innovation in the News

Eroding Research Ties between Industry and Academia
A new National Science Foundation study paints a worrying picture about the state of ties between private industry and America’s leading research universities. Where has the Money Gone? depicts a new but pronounced trend of declining private sector investments in US university-based R&D partnerships. For three decades, the value of these partnerships grew at a steady pace. Between 1972 and 2001, industry support to universities and colleges was the fastest growing source of funds for academic R&D. Since 2001, however, this trend has reversed, with spending dropping 5.1% over a three-year period. Industrial R&D spending continues to grow, but less of it is being invested at universities.

The study also points to a growing concentration of research investments. While this spending has always been concentrated, the top 100 research universities are capturing a growing share (now at 76% of the total) of this industrial investment. Finally, the report highlights two other indicators: a decline in the number of academic articles co-authored by academic and industry researchers, and a decline in the number of academic citations found in US industry patent applications. The Issue Brief does not speculate on the causes of these trends.

To access the September 2006 National Science Foundation Issue Brief, Where has the Money Gone? Declining Industrial Support of Academic R&D, visit http://nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf06328/

At the same time, Chinese R&D spending is climbing at the world’s fastest pace, and Asia is becoming a key player in the international R&D market. These findings come from the annual assessment of global R&D patterns prepared by Battelle and R&D Magazine. The study finds that the US still remains the world’s R&D leader, but China’s growth rate far outpaces that of the US. Thanks to current offshoring trends, Asia is capturing more of the global R&D market. Overall, Asia now accounts for 35.6% of global R&D. Europe holds a 23.3% market share. The study researchers expect these patterns to continue over the next several years.

To access the 2007 Global R&D Report by Battelle and R&D Magazine, visit
http://www.battelle.org/news/06/09-29-06Global%20R&D.stm.

Big Picture for Nanotechnology: Report From CU Lays Out Strategy for State to Boost Industry
Colorado could become a nanotechnology powerhouse by doubling the number of companies and boosting the number of employees involved in the industry in the next three years, according to a new study. The 150-page report, prepared by the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business, aims to increase the number of companies involved in the technology to about 150. It also aims to increase the number of local nanotech-related workers by about 30 percent to 400 by 2009.

NIH Funds Spur U.S. Universities to Share Medical Research
Twelve of the top universities in the U.S. are to begin setting up a network to enable the sharing of medical discoveries with other scientists. The National Institutes of Health created the consortium so the schools will cooperate in research, and a total of 60 academic health centers are expected to participate in the network by 2012, sharing $500 million a year. The first 12 universities will be funded for five years, for a total of about $700 million.

Biotech Discovery Awarded Nobel Prize
The Nobel prize in medicine was awarded on October 2 to biotech researchers who discovered a new kind of gene. RNA interference, the subject of the prize awarded to American researchers Craig Mello and Andrew Fire, has already led to the formation of two new, publicly traded biotech companies. To learn more about the researchers and the industry they spawned with their discovery, see stories below.

Biotech Breakthrough Wins Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded today to two researchers who discovered a new kind of gene, upending dogma about how biology works and leading to a new technology that has been embraced by drug companies and has led to the formation of two publicly traded biotech firms.

Craig Mello and Andrew Fire were both in their late 30s in 1998 when they published a discovery that shook biology.  "It was pretty amazing," says Thomas Cech, head of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and himself a Nobel laureate, "because you read the textbooks and think all the big themes are already discovered." Cech says that "nature was throwing out clues all the time" but that most researchers who saw them went on to other work. Mello and Fire didn't.

Nobel-winning Technology Already an Industry
RNA interference, whose discovery brought Americans Andrew Fire and Craig Mello the Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday, is one of the hottest new areas of biotechnology and has spawned its own mini-industry. The two researchers discovered that little pieces of genetic material called RNA could silence genes -- turning them off and altering a cell's functions. Plants use the mechanism to fight off viruses and the discovery is being exploited by labs and companies around the world to try to find cures for cancer, certain types of blindness, and even bird flu.

“It's a classic example of basic research which has turned out to uncover a biological mechanism which now has tremendous potential for ... really impacting human health," said Dr. Jeremy Berg, head of the U.S. National Institute of General Medical Sciences, which funded Fire and Mello's work. Less than a decade after Mello and Fire made their discovery in 1997, trials using RNA interference, or RNAi, to treat people are already under way.

Wisconsin Stem Cell Line Controversy
The US Patent and Trademark Office plans to re-examine the patents it covering research by University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist James Thomson and his colleagues, who were the first to grow and isolate human embryonic stem cells in 1998. They govern five stem cell lines grown at the school as well as the methods used to grow them. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, holder of the patents, currently charges license fees as high as $400,000 to companies looking to develop products using the cell lines. (Academic entities pay a minimal charge for the cell lines.) The Foundation will, however, offer their cell lines free of charge to companies conducting their research at Wisconsin state nonprofit and academic institutions.  The Patent Office will evaluate whether the Wisconsin patents are impeding research in the field. See stories below.
 
Patent Office To Take New Look at Wisconsin Stem Cell Patents
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will re-examine patents covering embryonic stem cell discoveries made by University of Wisconsin researchers. The decision means the office could revoke, modify or leave intact patents that cover all embryonic stem cell research in the U.S. But any such action could be months to several years away. Critics say the patents are too restrictive and have been impeding the field.

Wisconsin to Offer Access to Embryonic Stem Cell Lines
Access to Wisconsin's bank of embryonic stem cell lines will be offered for free on a nonexclusive license basis to companies that carry out their research at state nonprofit and academic institutions, the governor said. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which holds patents on several stem cell lines approved for federal funding, has a minimal charge for academic research licenses and typically charges companies $75,000 to $400,000 for licenses, with products subsequently developed licensed separately. The WiCell Research Institute also will distribute for free five of the 21 stem cell lines approved for federal research funding.

Denver Among Hottest Tech Job Markets
Despite headline-grabbing layoffs at companies such as Sun Microsystems and Seagate Technology, the Denver area and the mountain states are vibrant when it comes to hiring technology workers. A new survey said the outlook for tech hiring in the Denver area in the fourth quarter is again ahead of the national average - and that the mountain states region is among the hottest tech job markets in the nation.

Online Journals Shake Up Peer-review System
Academia's hold on the lengthy process of publishing scientific research is up for some changes with the advent of Web-based journals that have no peer review prior to publication, instead encouraging comments on the work once the article is posted online. Some suggest that such publication methods will create lots of junk science; others say the model will bring important research to light more quickly. Traditional journals that have some of their publications online also are experimenting with the comment process.

External Resources

“Investing In Outliers”
Not being ready when opportunity strikes could be a VC investor’s greatest risk. With this belief, some savvy venture capital investors have headed to New Mexico, an underserved venture capital market where Forbes this year gave Albuquerque (#1) and Las Cruces (#2) top rankings in their size class as Best Places for Business and Careers. VC activity in New Mexico has increased recently as many investors have seen the potential opportunities that come with annual federal R & D expenditures of more than $5 billion dollars and the rapid rise in the number of subcontractor companies headed by experienced entrepreneurs. Subcontractor companies, “outside the fences” of federal laboratories, are a rich resource of deal ingredients such as capability for innovation, R&D institutional spinouts and successful serial entrepreneurs. With a strategy of investing in outliers (“fishing where everyone else isn’t”), VCs in New Mexico have already begun to turn these ingredients into successful investments. CFI AudioBlog.

"When Do Scientists Become Entrepreneurs? The Social Structural Antecedents of Commercial Activity in the Academic Life Sciences" (PDF)
Toby Stuart of the Harvard Business School and Waverly Ding of Berkeley's Haas School of Business take a randomly selected sample of 5,100 life science Ph.D.s in academia, and examine the link between participation in for-profit entrepreneurial ventures and the presence of an academic social network that supports faculty entrepreneurism. They find that university scientists are more likely to found or join the board of a new firm if other faculty members have already done so, particularly if more prestigious colleagues in their department have created their own start-ups. They also find evidence that more accomplished faculty members are more likely to help commercialize technologies and to lead the way in fostering an entrepreneurial climate within a university department.

Measuring Tech Transfer: Revenues vs. Deal Flow
The Milken Institute has released an interesting report that tracks how various universities perform in terms of biotechnology-related technology transfer and commercialization. The massive study reviews university performance on several key metrics: biotechnology-related research publications, biotechnology-related patenting, and biotechnology-related start-ups and licensing. Overall, the Milken researchers find that for every dollar invested in technology transfer offices, a university reaps roughly $6 million in licensing income.

Meanwhile, a panel at a recent National Academies event on their ‘Gathering Storm’ report took a look at how to “transition from research to product”. Several panelists, including Susan Hockfield, the president of MIT, and Lesa Mitchell of the Kauffman Foundation, cautioned against focusing too heavily on dollars alone. While the analysis of the data done on Mind to Market is excellent and provides a detailed look at the topic of technology transfer office revenue, it does not lend enough weight to a lesser understood metric of university innovation – assuring that technologies make their way into the marketplace. The bottom line? Policymakers and university leaders should focus on the need to encourage deal flow from universities, as well as the revenue generated by it.

The 2006 Milken Institute report, Mind to Market: A Global Analysis of University Biotechnology Transfer and Commercialization, by Ross DeVol and Armen Bedroussian and others, can be accessed at: www.milkeninstitute.org/pdf/mind2mrkt_2006.pdf (PDF)

To listen to the recent Convocation on Rising Above the Gathering Storm, visit the National Academies website: www.nationalacademies.org/morenews/20060928.html. 

Birchbob Innovations Bulletin
News and views on technology commercialization around the world.

Parting Quotes

“An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he's in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.”
        -Charles F. Kettering, inventor of the electric starter