CU-Boulder Technology of the Month:
CU1923B– Protein-resistant Polymers for use in Membrane Bio-reactors
UCDHSC Technology of the Month:
CU1862H – Self-assembling RNA nanotubes
CU Company of the Month:
GlobeImmune, Inc. is a private Colorado-based company developing active immunotherapies called Tarmogens® for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. The Tarmogen technology is a proprietary platform for generating therapeutic vaccines that overcome the shortcomings of previous immunotherapeutic approaches. Tarmogens are recombinant yeast, engineered to express disease-specific antigens. Tarmogens naturally couple a patient’s innate immune response against the yeast, with an antigen specific T cell response against disease specific targets, resulting in the targeted elimination of diseased cells throughout the body. Tarmogens can be given repeatedly, boosting the immune response with each subsequent dose. As a fermentation process, Tarmogen manufacturing is simple and scaleable, potentially allowing for small molecule-like economics.
GlobeImmune has two products in Phase 2 clinical trials. GI-5005 is being evaluated in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection, as both a front-line therapy in combination with standard of care and as a monotherapy for 2nd line salvage or interferon intolerant patients. GI-4000 is being evaluated in patients with pancreas, lung, colorectal and ovarian cancers caused by mutations in the Ras oncogene product. To date, Tarmogens have been generally well-tolerated, generating antigen-specific immune responses and improved clinical outcomes in patients.
Upcoming Events
MIT E-Forum: An Evening with MIT's Ken Morse
December 18, Faegre & Benson LLP, Boulder
The MIT Enterprise Forum in Colorado, in coordination with Ascend International and the Boulder Innovation Center (BIC) is presenting a pre-holiday startup delight: "Critical Success Factors In Entrepreneurship: An Evening with MIT's Ken Morse". Ken Morse is the Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center at Sloan School and was one of the founders of 3COM and Aspen Technology.
Boulder/Denver New Technology Meetup Group
January 8, CU-Boulder Wolf Law Building
This ongoing event provides a forum for technologists and entrepreneurs to showcase the new (especially web-based) technology developing in Boulder/Denver tech community. Five companies have five minutes each to demonstrate their new technology, followed by five minutes for Q&A from the audience.
SBIR/STTR Proposal Workshop
January 9, Copper Mountain Resort
SBIR/STTR funding is government R&D funding that requires no repayment, no equity dilution and no "external control." This full-day workshop, hosted by UCCS and CITTI in conjunction with the IEEE workshop, is intended to help you compete for a share of the $1.6B available for 2008.
Technology Transfer Sixth Annual Awards Event
January 14, Tivoli Brewery, Denver
The sixth annual CU Technology Transfer Awards event. The keynote address by Governor Bill Ritter (invited) will begin at 5:30pm, and will be followed by refreshments and networking, dinner, and presentation of awards to inventors, companies, and others who demonstrate best practices in technology transfer. Seating is very limited and reservations are required; for more information or to request an invitation, please contact Lindsay Polak (303-735-5518).
CBSA Presents Bio SoCo
January 22, University Center, Colorado Springs
An inside look at three Colorado Springs bio companies, hosted by the Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA).
Leeds Graduate Business Plan Competition
January 24, CU-Boulder
The top four teams of students from Leeds’s Deming Center for Entrepreneurship will present their business plans for the judges. Presenting teams were selected during the preliminary round December 6.
TiE-Rockies: MentorFest 2008
January 24, PPA Event Center, Denver
A chance for anyone who is working on a business concept to get their plan in front of a highly experienced group of serial entrepreneurs for review and assistance with, planning, funding, starting, operating, developing, and selling their business.
New Faculty Breakfast: Resources Available Through the CU Technology Transfer Office
January 25, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora
This free breakfast seminar for newly-hired (past 3 years) CU faculty will give an overview of the resources available to faculty through the TTO. For more info or to RSVP, please contact Lindsay Polak.
TTO Seminar: Engaging with Big Pharma – Sponsored Research, Clinical Trials, and IP
January 30, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora
The TTO presents this free lunch-hour seminar, which will feature industry, faculty, and legal representatives on how to engage with pharmaceutical companies in the contexts of sponsored research agreements, clinical trials, and other common types of interactions. Free and open to CU faculty from all campuses. Lunch will be provided; please RSVP by email.
Cleantech Challenge - Sustainable Opportunities Summit
February 27, Sheraton Four Points, Denver
The Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at CU-Boulder’s Leeds School of Business welcomes you to the Cleantech Challenge (CC). The CC is designed to be the premier student competition showcasing emerging opportunities in the cleantech sector.
To have your event featured here, please send an email to TTOnews@cu.edu.
CU Resources
CU Stem Cell Research Pot Sweetened
The Gates Family Fund plans to give Children's Hospital and the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine $5M to help continue translating laboratory stem-cell science into help for sick kids. The money is an addition to a $6M award announced by the Gates Fund 15 months ago to start UC Denver's Charles C. Gates Program in Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology.
CU Approves 2030 Blueprint
A monumental plan that could reform everything from the traditional school year to the way students live and learn at the state's flagship campus was unanimously approved by the University of Colorado's regents November 29. The Boulder campus's "Flagship 2030" blueprint is a mix of short- and long-term plans, and the culmination of a project that CU President Hank Brown charged campus leaders to take up. (CU-Boulder press release here.)
CU-Boulder Students Win International Business Competition In Germany With Innovative Solar Energy Plan
A team of University of Colorado at Boulder MBA students beat 80 other teams to win an international competition that required participants to develop a business plan to distribute solar energy technology in Africa. The winning team included CU-Boulder Leeds School of Business graduate students Kristin Apple, David Crater and Tetyana Hinkson.
Founding Dean Named for New Public Health School
Richard Hamman of the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine has been named founding dean of the new Colorado School of Public Health. The planned CSPH is a collaboration of three Colorado public universities, and enable more students to receive public health training, speed research development and provide access to training and research funds available to accredited schools. (UC Denver press release here.)
Innovation in the News
Army Hospital Reborn as Bioscience Park
The Colorado Science+Technology Park at Fitzsimons is a poster child for how communities can transform decommissioned military installations into profit-making enterprises.
Colorado: Making Med-tech and Providing the Services to Do it Well
Can the region that has made its biggest splash by claiming a large number of 14,000 foot-plus mountains do even more multi-tasking, like producing great biotech and med-tech? Yes, it can, is the response of a growing number of life science and device firms giving Colorado critical mass in these areas.
Colorado Coalition Works to Keep Federal Labs in State
A coalition of local economic development groups, businesses, universities and politicians are looking to raise $150,000 to increase awareness of Colorado's federal scientific labs. The formation of CO-LABS Inc., which includes the Boulder Economic Council and CU, is a formal effort to keep the federal labs and their economic benefits in the state after several recent setbacks.
Duke, FDA Join Forces to Overhaul Clinical Trials
Drug developers typically plunk down about $500 million for a clinical outcomes trial, says Robert Calif, vice chancellor for clinical research at Duke, and much of that money is simply wasted. So Duke and the FDA are collaborating on a sweeping review of the whole trial process, looking for ways to eliminate waste and increase efficiency.
DOE to Invest Over $7M in Cleantech Commercialization
On November 29 the U.S. Department of Energy announced a new Technology Commercialization Development Fund of up to $7.2M for three of DOE’s National Laboratories, including up to $4M for Colorado’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), to support commercialization of clean energy technologies.
Google Creates Renewable R&D Group
Internet giant Google said November 27 it expects to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in renewable energy over the next few years, and that it's setting up a research and development initiative called Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal, or RE<C. The new R&D division will be run in partnership with Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, which will handle the investments.
Research Institutes Pool Inventions to Create More Value
The concept of IP bundling is catching on as a way to enhance the value of marginal technologies by creating a package of related inventions. And if you can’t create attractive enough bundles within your own institution, partnering with other organizations may provide the answer. One group of tech transfer managers has done just that.
Roundup: University, Community, State, National and International Initiatives
- Alberta Launches $100M “Ingenuity Accelerators” Program
In a new, highly targeted $100M program, Alberta's provincial research-funding arm, Alberta Ingenuity, says it is setting out on a path that will significantly change the entire funding landscape across Canada, based on providing significant levels of financial support to attract outstanding researchers to work in areas important to Alberta's economic future.
- U of Michigan Announces $100M Tech Entrepreneurship Initiative
The Michigan Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative announced November 15 will be an effort of at least $100M to draw on the state's public universities, philanthropic foundations and private enterprise to strengthen ties between academia and industry, speed the commercialization of university research and promote a culture of entrepreneurial risk-taking.
- Unique Deal Brings U of Florida Research to the Fore
In a deal designed to move more University of Florida research into the marketplace and stimulate job creation in Gainesville, a California-based company has agreed to put money behind promising faculty inventions and build two new buildings on campus.
- U of Texas System Starts Commercialization Fund
The University of Texas System Board of Regents established a $2M fund dedicated to the commercialization of products created at UT System institutions. The fund, called the Texas Ignition Program, is designed to accelerate the commercialization of products developed at UT System's 15 institutions.
External Resources
