CU-Boulder Technology of the Month:

Sequential Click Reactions for Synthesizing and Patterning Hydrogels

UC Denver Technology of the Month:

Diagnostic Screen to Distinguish Between Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

TTO MTA Assistant Kelsi Krier
Kelsi Krier joined the TTO team in October, and is responsible for handling Material Transfer Agreements, paperwork that allows researchers to use each other's work. Kelsi will graduate from the University of Colorado in May 2011 with a degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. Kelsi intents to work in the biotechnology industry doing research before pursuing a masters in an undecided field of biological science. 

ValveXchange Licenses CU Tech for Personalized 3D Heart Modeling
Aurora-based ValveXchange Inc. recently executed a license agreement with the University of Colorado for a process to transform cardiac imaging data into high-quality three-dimensional models used for heart valve product development, clinician training, and pre-procedure planning. The CU technology converts data from routine medical imaging of soft tissues (ultrasounds and CT and MRI scans) into 3D models, which are then transformed into physical models using 3D printers. ValveXchange will use the technology in conjunction with its implantable heart valve program. (Clink the link above to read the full release).

TTO Releases 2009 Annual Report
TTO is happy to announce that its 2009 Annual Report, covering TTO activities from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009, is now available. Download it now in PDF format by following the link above.

Colorado Report on Higher Education and Entrepreneurship Released
In early November, CU's Silicon Flatirons Center and the Governor's Innovation Council released Higher Education and Entrepreneurship in Colorado (PDF), a report that examines entrepreneurship education at Colorado's institutions of higher learning, and suggests ways to further promote it and the economic growth it brings. One key finding is that Colorado's universities and federal laboratories train the next generation of entrepreneurs and incubate their spinoff ventures, contributing to the Front Range's status as a "mega-region" - one of a dozen locales that together yield two thirds of global economic activity and 90% of innovation.

GlobeImmune Reports Encouraging Hepatitis C Trial Results
GlobeImmune, Inc. announced data from a Phase 2b trial of Tarmogen GI-5005 in the treatment of patients with hepatitis C. In the trial, 74% of interferon-naïve patients receiving GI-5005 in combination with standard of care (pegylated interferon plus ribavirin) showed end of treatment response (at 48 weeks) compared with 59% receiving standard of care alone.

ARCA Plans Trials for Heart Drug
CU licensee ARCA biopharma will submit clinical trial plans for its heart drug Gencaro to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of the year. Gencaro (bucindolol hydrochloride) is a beta-blocker and mild vasodilator being developed for heart failure.

NIH Awards $577,000 to ImmuRx for Tuberculosis Treatment
CU licensee ImmuRx  has been awarded a $577,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)  award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the potential of the ImmuRx platform to treat tuberculosis (TB). ImmuRx is developing a platform of drug products that stimulate the immune system for the treatment of cancer and chronic infectious diseases such as TB.

Funding from Institute Allows Innovation Center to Help Commercialize Tech
It's good to see organizations such as the Boulder Innovation Center (BIC) working closely with the University of Colorado to foster innovation and the commercialization of technologies. In the latest example of collaboration, the BIC has received funding from the Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology (CIMB) at CU to expand the BIC's bioscience program.

CU-NREL Energy Institute to Research Toyota Hybrid Electric Vehicles in Boulder
Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. announced in October that it will place 10 Prius plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with Xcel Energy's SmartGridCity project in Boulder. The vehicles will be the focus of an interdisciplinary research project coordinated by the University of Colorado at Boulder's Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI). RASEI faculty director Carl Koval added, "This is a perfect illustration of how collaborative research from universities and federal laboratories combined with industry leadership can address the energy and technology challenges of the future."

New CU-Boulder and NREL Institute on Renewable Energy Announces Plans
The Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute today announced its inaugural group of RASEI Fellow appointments and plans for future faculty hires to form one of the world's leading university and federal laboratory partnerships in the development and commercialization of renewable energy technologies.

Colorado BioScience Association Recognizes the Best of Colorado's Bioscience Industry
The Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) has released the winners of its 2009 Awards Program, which showcases and honors those individuals and companies making a significant difference to Colorado's vibrant bioscience industry this year. Winners included CU researchers Tom Cech and Leslie Leinwand (both receiving Lifetime Achievement awards) and CU optionee miRagen Therapeutics.

CU-NIST Atomic Physicist Deborah Jin to Receive Sigma Xi's Highest Honor
Deborah Jin, an adjoint professor of physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and a fellow of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, will receive the William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement from the international honor society Sigma Xi. Jin is a fellow of JILA, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and NIST. Her research has been described as the crucial first step in developing superconductors that work at room temperature, which could lead to faster computers and other advances.

UC Denver Researcher Seeks Better Treatments For Leukemia
A two-year, $1.4M American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant will kickstart dynamic research in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. Christopher Porter, assistant professor of Pediatrics at the UC Denver School of Medicine and pediatric oncologist at The Children's Hospital, will use the funds to employ high-tech  screening tools to look for genes in AML that, when they are turned off, make it easier for conventional therapies to kill cancerous cells.

Boulder/Denver New Technology Meetup Group
December 1, CU- Boulder
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.

Entrepreneurs Unplugged: Tim Enwall, President/COO of Tendril

December 7, CU-Boulder

Entrepreneurs Unplugged is a meeting place where faculty, students and community members with technical backgrounds learn about and get involved in entrepreneurship.

CBSA 2009 Medical Device Symposium

December 10, The Westin, Westminster

Join the Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) for its Third Annual Medical Device Symposium, featuring a keynote from Thomas C. Novelli (Director of Federal Affairs, Medical Device Manufacturers Association) and a Technology Transfer poster session highlighting emerging device technologies from Colorado companies and research institutions.

Colorado Green Tech Meetup

December 10, CU-Boulder

An ongoing event to support eco-entrepreneurs and others people involved and/or interested in green tech: energy generation, transportation, construction, and efficiency technologies. Businesses and researchers present new technologies, and attendees may announce business news, job openings, fundings, etc.

TTO Annual Awards Banquet

January 20, Tivoli Turnhalle, Denver

The 8^th annual TTO awards dinner will be held on January 20, 2010 at the historic Tivoli Turnhalle in Denver. This event celebrates people and companies that exemplify the outstanding year experienced by technology transfer at CU. For information about purchasing a table, please contact Lynn Pae at lynn.pae@cu.edu or 303-735-0550.

U.S. Supreme Courts Hears Patent Case on Protecting the Abstract
Supreme Court justices took up a case in mid-November that could reshape the realm of what can be patented, and expressed skepticism about giving protection to abstract business innovations. The case has drawn intense interest, and nearly 70 amicus briefs by interested parties, including Microsoft, Google, Bank of America and the ACLU.

BIO Releases New Study Showing Industry/University Partnerships Critical to U.S. Economy
A study released in October by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) provides first-of-its-kind data on the importance of university/industry research and development partnerships to the U.S. economy. It assessed the economic impact of university licensing solely based on royalty data, and does not attempt to value other significant economic contributions of university-based research, and thus the estimates are considered to be significantly conservative. View The Economic Impact of Licensed Commercialized Inventions Originating in University Research, 1996-2007.

eSpace Calls for Next Round of Space Entrepreneurs
eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship, a non-profit business incubator and workforce development organization for aerospace companies, announced in late October that it is seeking a second round of aerospace entrepreneurs to participate in the eSpace incubator.

Can Innovation Save the Economy?
For all the discussions of "green shoots" in housing or consumer spending over the past few months, too little attention has been paid to a classic American economic advantage: innovation. If cash flow is the blood of the global economy and spending and investment are its main arteries, then innovation is the heart that does the pumping.

Roundup: University, Community, State, National and International Initiatives

Texas Tech Fund Seeding a New Crop of Startups
The Texas Emerging Technology Fund invests state money in promising startups in cutting-edge fields such as biotechnology, robotics and clean energy.

U.K. Universities Raise Stakes in Startups After Market Decline
U.K. Universities are bulking up venture capital units and boosting their stakes in research projects. The dearth of funding for startups during the financial crisis has made investments cheaper, said Susan Searle, the London-based chief executive officer of Imperial Innovations, which is 52 percent owned by Imperial College.

Michigan Legislature Authorizes $30M for Centers of Energy Excellence
To attract additional federal funds and boost job creation, Michigan legislators passed a bill authorizing the state to spend another $30 million on a program to create alternative energy clusters and support technology commercialization.

Solving San Diego's Venture Capital Crisis is Mission for New Task Force of Tech Leaders
The evaporation of much of San Diego's hometown venture capital base has prompted the city's technology community to organize a business task force to find new ways of getting startup capital to early stage companies.

CU's Energy Initiative Becomes the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute
The Renewable and Sustainable Energy Initiative (EI) was launched on the CU-Boulder campus in early 2006 to become an international force in solving the energy challenge through research, education and technology commercialization. Based on extensive faculty input, CU-Boulder determined that a successful initiative must be highly interdisciplinary, integrating the University's extensive research in renewable and sustainable energy with its strengths in climate and environmental science, behavioral studies, policy analysis, and entrepreneurship. The EI reflected this integration with a three-pronged approach that emphasized discovery, transformation, and entrepreneurship.

In June 2009 the University of Colorado Board of Regents formally approved the creation of a new campus institute (the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, RASEI) and an agreement was signed with longtime partner the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to make RASEI a joint institute. RASEI will operate much like CU-Boulder's other independent research institutes, including JILA, which collaborates with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), which collaborates with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

 "RASEI significantly strengthens the structural platform enabling CU-Boulder and NREL researchers to take full advantage of the complementary strengths resident within each institution." said Robert McGrath, NREL deputy laboratory director for science and technology, and one of RASEI's chief architects.

A Tale of Three Cities: How Boston, Boulder, and Seattle Measure Up as Tech Innovation Hubs
Brad Feld of TechStars and Foundry Group gave a brief history of the startup scene in Boulder.

Judge Refuses to Block Lawsuit over Patenting Genetic Tests
In May, the ACLU announced that it was suing to invalidate a patent that covers testing for genetic variants associated with breast cancer. The suit targeted Myriad Genetics, which licenses the patent, and the University of Utah officials that licensed it to them, but also targets the USPTO. Each of the three defendants filed motions to have the case against them thrown out, but in early November the judge overseeing the case dismissed these motions, allowing the case to go forward.

Drug Firm Sues to End Off-label Marketing Ban
One pharmaceutical company is turning to the courts in an effort to force a major change in the way the Food and Drug Administration regulates the marketing of off-label drug uses to physicians. While some doctors say the case challenging the government's ban on such advertising could jeopardize drug safety if it proves successful, other legal and industry experts suggest that it could facilitate a better flow of information and enhance patient care.