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News and Events > News Release
Contact: Lindsay Polak
Technology Transfer Office
University of Colorado
(303) 735-5518
lindsay.polak@cu.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office Announces Winners of Proof-of-Concept Awards for Fall 2006.
Boulder, CO (January 2007). The University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office completed its Fall 2006 Proof of Concept grant solicitation for both bioscience and non-bioscience projects; overall, 19 projects were selected for funding. The POCg program provides grants that enable advanced development and validation of promising CU technologies that are, or will become, suitable for commercialization.
The State of Colorado Bioscience Discovery Grant Program, created by HB1360, provides matching funds for POC projects related to bioscience. In November, the TTO selected 13 projects using a competitive internal application process combined with presentation to a panel of venture capitalists. Winning proposals totaled $2,129,000, and were reviewed and accepted by the state in January 2007. Bioscience winning proposals were:
Stephen Hunsucker, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, UCDHSC. “Protein Biomarkers to Differentially Diagnose Follicular Thyroid Carcinoma and Follicular Thyroid Adenoma.”
Leland Shapiro, School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, UCDHSC. “Infusion of Alpha-1-Antitrypsin (AAT) to Suppress Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV) Replication in Patients.”
Steven Anderson, School of Medicine, Department of Pathology, UCDHSC. “Suppression of Irradiation-Induced Salivary Gland Dysfunction by IGF-1.”
Jeffrey Holt, School of Medicine, Department of Pathology, UCDHSC. “Biomarker Enabled Development of PARP Inhibitors for Cancer Therapy.”
Gary Brodsky, School of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, UCDHSC. “In-vivo Analysis of a Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Stem Cell Activator.”
Edward Dempsey, School of Medicine, Cardiovascular Pulmonary Research Laboratory, UCDHSC. “Moving Bryostatin-1 from the Lab to the Clinic for the Treatment of Pulmonary Hypertension.”
Robert Hodges, School of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, UCDHSC. “Applicability of SARS Coronavirus Antibody Technology to Influenza Virus.”
Karen Stevens, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, UCDHSC. “A New Treatment for Ineffectively Treated Schizophrenia Patients: Pre-clinical Validation for Centrally Administered Clozapine.”
Douglas Graham, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, UCDHSC. “A Novel Biologically Targeted Agent for the Treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.”
David Ross, School of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UCDHSC. “Hydroquinone Ansamycin Pro-drugs as Novel Anticancer Hsp90 Inhibitors.”
Tad Koch, Chemistry and Biochemistry, CU-Boulder. “New Targeted Drug for the Treatment of Lung Cancer.”
Christopher Bowman, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, CU-Boulder. “Redox-Initiated Radical Chain Polymerization for the Detection and Amplification of Biological Recognition Events.”
Michael Larson, Mechanical Engineering, UCCS. “A Device for Laser Fusion of Septal Tissue.”
In the bioscience field, 41 proposals were submitted for consideration; 25 of these were advanced to the second round for presentation to an panel of local venture capitalists. The figures below illustrate the wide variety of proposals received.
The TTO also provided $101,850 for the funding of 6 non-bioscience POC proposals, with some additional funding conditional on completion of project milestones. Winners outside of bioscience were:
Hans-Dieter Seelig, Aerospace Engineering, CU-Boulder. “Sensor systems and methods for the evaluation of water deficit stress in plants.”
Josef Michl, Chemistry and Biochemistry, CU-Boulder. “Catalyzed Radical Polymerization.”
Rishi Raj, Mechanical Engineering, CU-Boulder. “Ultra-efficient Catalyst for Hydrogen Generation.”
Rafael Piestun, Electrical and Computer Engineering, CU-Boulder. “Super-resolution, Compact, Passive Three-Dimensional Imaging System.”
Ronggui Yang, Mechanical Engineering, CU-Boulder. “Photonic Crystal Fiber Based Micro Capillary Pumped Loops for Site-Specific Cooling of Electronics.”
Terrance E. Boult, Computer Science, UCCS. “Privacy Enhanced Surveillance Camera.”
Additionally, two start-up companies emerging from CU research have been awarded $100,000 Proof of Concept investments after the Fall 2006 round. The Proof of Concept investment (POCi) program provides early stage "seed" investments to enable the further development and validation of promising CU technologies that create the platform for a start-up company. The POCi recipients were selected by a panel of venture capitalists after oral presentations by the finalists.
Mentor Machines, Inc. of Boulder is developing an educational and entertaining software program for teaching children to read. This interactive “edutainment” program is based on the highly acclaimed Foundations to LiteracyTM (FtL) learning tools developed at CU’s Center for Spoken Language Research. These tools combine scientifically proven literacy teaching methods, leading speech recognition technology, and a lifelike 3-D animated tutor that provides individualized instruction according to the abilities of each learner. The efficacy of the FtL approach has been shown in pilot testing in the classroom, but those tools have not been available in a product designed for the home market. Mentor Machines will use the POCi funds to implement the FtL tools in a prototype product that will engage young and struggling readers by using a video game platform.
Jovion Corporation of Boulder aims to develop and commercialize a device for extracting energy from the reservoir of “zero point energy” that has been shown to fill all of space. The Jovion device would employ numerous Casimir cavities, consisting of closely spaced metal plates within which a range of electromagnetic modes are excluded due to quantization of the electromagnetic field. The harvested energy would be in the form of electromagnetic radiation and could in principle be converted directly into electrical power through the incorporation of solar cells. The POCi funding covers the design, construction and testing of a practical and scalable energy harvesting system. The funding is contingent on the satisfactory achievement of certain scientific proof of principle milestones relating to a prototype Casimir cavity device as described in a current research grant to Dr. Garret Moddel, Professor in CU-Boulder’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and an inventor of the technology.
About Technology Transfer Office
The CU Technology Transfer Office pursues, protects, packages, and licenses to business the intellectual property generated from research at CU. The TTO provides assistance to faculty, staff, and students, as well as to businesses looking to license or invest in CU technology. For more information about technology transfer at CU, visit www.cu.edu/techtransfer.
About University of Colorado
The University of Colorado is a three-campus system with campuses in Boulder and Colorado Springs, and a Denver and Health Sciences Center campus located in downtown Denver and at the former Fitzsimons Army Base in Aurora. CU is a premier teaching and research university, ranked sixth among public institutions in federal research expenditures by the National Science Foundation. Academic prestige is marked by CU’s four Nobel laureates, seven Mac Arthur “genius” Fellows, 17 astronauts, 19 Rhodes Scholars and CU-Boulder’s ranking of 11th best public university in the world in The Economist. For further information, please visit www.cu.edu.
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