Biotechnology of the Month:

Peptides for Modulating T-Cell Activity, for Treatment of Inflammation and Autoimmune Disease

Physical Sciences Tech of the Month: 

Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals (FLCs) with True Gray Scale for Improved Information Displays

TTO Announces New Business Advisory Board Members 

TTO recently announced that it has added several new members to its Business Advisory Board. The Business Advisory Board plays an important part in assessing TTO performance, advising on new TTO initiatives, providing access to the technology business community and advocating for resources needed to build a world-class technology transfer operation at CU.

Today @ the TTO

SuviCa to Commercialize CU Cancer Treatment Discovery Platform

SuviCa Inc. and the University of Colorado recently completed an exclusive license agreement for a CU drug screening technology to identify novel therapies for cancer. The patented drug discovery tool (developed by Tin Tin Su, a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at CU-Boulder) uses a genetically modified fruit fly (Drosophila) model to screen for compounds effective against various types of cancer, either alone or in combination with existing therapies. This screening technique promises to identify new clinical candidates using a methodology that is both time efficient and cost-effective, and because it uses a whole-animal screening model, it can more easily eliminate drug candidates with undesired toxicity. (Read the full press release.)

TTO Commentary: The America Invents Act

After 6 years of debate, negotiation, arguments and compromises, both houses of the U.S. Congress have passed a bill to reform the United States' patent laws, a reform that is generations in the making and which was signed into law by President Obama in mid-September. Called the America Invents Act (H.R. 1249), the bill reforms Chapter 35 of the United States Code (which governs the rights to patent) in a way that changes the patent laws more fundamentally than at any time in the last 50 years. The two driving forces for this bill's passage were (a) reforming the U.S. patent laws to be more congruent with the laws of the rest of the world, and (b) improving a system that is seen as damaged (if not broken) in a way that will encourage more inventiveness and entrepreneurship to help stimulate the struggling American economy. The America Invents Act makes a number of major changes to patent law, the most fundamental being the conversion from a first-to-invent to a first-inventor-to-file system (FITF), which brings the United States more closely in alignment with the rest of the world - read TTO's commentary on this and other changes contained in the Act.

Technology Commercialization Clinic Pilot Program Now Recruiting 

The CU Technology Commercialization Clinic is an initiative to provide training on intellectual property and research commercialization to CU graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. The goal of this program is to proactively open a new avenue of communication with the Technology Transfer Office, which should enhance the flow of inventions from research labs to the marketplace. TTO is recruiting CU graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to help identify inventions that have potential for commercialization. The CU Technology Commercialization Clinic will train participants in intellectual property identification and protection, while also providing an opportunity for hands-on experience with the technology commercialization process. Participants are welcome from both bioscience and physical science fields. To learn more about the Technology Commercialization Clinic, which will run on a pilot basis in the 2011-12 academic year, please visit the TTO website. 

9News: Conference Brings Together Local Innovative Life-science Companies 

The Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor and Partnering Conference (RMLIPC) brings together companies, investors, strategic partners and senior executives to create partnerships within the industry. The conference is Sept. 21-22 at the Brown Palace Hotel and will host 30 of the region's private and public life science companies. "This is an opportunity for our best and brightest bioscience companies in Colorado and surrounding states to really pitch their technologies to venture capitalists and strategic partners around the country for tracked money," Holli Riebel, president and CEO of the Colorado BioScience Association, said.

Now Available: Performance Overview and Companies Created 

CU TTO has released an updated Companies Created timeline (PDF) providing info (financings, acquisitions and more) on companies created based on CU technology since 1994. TTO has also released its performance metrics for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011. Please follow this link to a short presentation summarizing our performance, and look for our full annual report in October 2011.

CU Scientists Secure Over $790M in Sponsored Research Funding in FY 2010-11 

University of Colorado faculty researchers secured more than $790M in sponsored research funding in fiscal year 2010-11 to advance scientific work in laboratories and in the field. Preliminary numbers indicate the university's sponsored research funding for 2010-11 falls below the $884 million final tally in 2009-10. However, one-time federal stimulus dollars of an estimated $145 million allocated through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA, boosted the total received in the 2009-10 fiscal year. Funding by campus: CU-Boulder, nearly $359M; CU-Colorado Springs, more than $12M; CU Denver and Anschutz Medical Campus, more than $419M.

CU-Boulder Chemical and Biological Engineers Help Fuel Economy with 10 Entrepreneurial Startups 

Chemical and biological engineering students and faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder have launched several innovative technologies that are fueling Colorado's economy by creating jobs and drawing significant funding to the state, including a $155 million investment in Sundrop Fuels in July. Chemical and biological engineering spinoff companies from CU-Boulder have raised nearly $410 million in follow-on funding, including grants, venture capital financing, U.S. Small Business Administration funding, and acquisitions.

RxGen and miRagen Announce SBIR Award for miRNA's for Cardiac Disease 

RxGen, a specialty preclinical contract research organization, and CU licensee miRagen Therapeutics, Inc., a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on improving patients' lives by developing innovative microRNA (miRNA)-based therapeutics for cardiovascular and muscle disease, announced the award of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), of approximately $720,000. These funds will support continued preclinical research on microRNA targeting in cardiovascular disease and help to establish a novel model system of chronic heart failure.

Arch Biopartners Identify Lead Compound for Pancreatic Cancer and Non Small Cell Lung Cancer 

Arch Biopartners announced it has identified a lead compound, named GH501a, for further development as potential treatment for non small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer. The Company's majority owned subsidiary, Colorado Cancer Therapeutics, currently holds an option to enter into an exclusive license with CU to commercialize a new class of anti-cancer compounds that includes GH501a.

OPX Biotechnologies Highlighted by VP Joe Biden 

CU licensee OPX Biotechnologies Inc. was one of five companies showcased by Vice President Joe Biden at a clean energy summit in Las Vegas in late August. Biden pointed to five companies that received between $1.5M and $6M in funding from the Department of Energy in 2009 and 2010 as examples of how the government can support the creation of new green technology. Those companies included OPX Biotechnologies, which was awarded a $6M grant in April 2010.

UCCC Team Sequences Bladder Cancer, Targets Genetic Mutations for Therapy 

A University of Colorado Cancer Center team in partnership with universities in China and Denmark reports the first genetic sequencing of urothelial (transitional) carcinoma, the most prevalent type of bladder cancer. Recognizing the genetic mutations that make bladder cancer cells different than their healthy neighbors may allow early genetic screenings for cancer and new therapies targeting cells with these mutations.

MedShape Solutions Receives SBIR Phase I Grant for Shape Memory Meniscal Repair Device 

CU licensee MedShape Solutions recently announced that it has received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant from the NIH to assist in the research and development of a compliant shape memory polymer device for meniscal repair. Additional funding phases could take the total award amount to over $1.5M upon the achievement of key Phase I development milestones. (See also: MedShape Solutions Announces FDA 510(k) Clearance of Innovative Ankle Fusion Device.)

Turning Blood into Gold: The Wellness Chip 

Fourteen years after conceiving a tool to discover and measure protein biomarkers, CU biology professor Larry Gold and his colleagues at SomaLogic (a CU-based company) are poised to see their first diagnostic reach the marketplace, perhaps before the end of the year. This would be the first of a potentially extensive list of diagnostic assays under development for various cancers, cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders and neglected diseases.

Next-Gen Flexible OLEDs in the Pipeline
ALD NanoSolutions will use a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop flexible hybrid inorganic/polymer multilayer gas diffusion barriers using atomic layer deposition (ALD) and molecular layer deposition (MLD). These multilayer barriers will use a roll-to-roll process for the next generation of flexible organic light emitting diodes (FOLEDs) and thin film photovoltaics.

Crash Course: "Why Lean Startup Practices Work and How to Scale Them." 

September 20, CU-Boulder

Silicon Flatirons is pleased to host Rally Software Chief Technology Officer, Zach Nies, for a Crash Course about some of the surprising science behind building successful startups.

Research Commercialization Introductory Course 

September 20 - October 18, virtual

The Research Commercialization Introductory Course hosted by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2) is a very popular online course designed to help science and engineering researchers better understand how research commercialization works. Generally over 4000 researchers from across the US take the course each time it is offered. Areas covered in the course include intellectual property, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, licensing agreements, employment agreements, consulting agreements, tech transfer, creating and funding companies, and federally funded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs.

Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference 

September 21-23, Denver

See the future of healthcare - and your role in shaping it - at the Rocky Mountain region's second life science investor conference, bringing together leading investors, strategic partners, emerging companies and senior executives to cultivate partnerships within our industry.

Save the Date: Innovation Policy and National Competitiveness 

September 23, CU-Boulder

To join in the national conversation about the future of innovation policy and national competitiveness, this conference hosted by CU's Silicon Flatirons center will bring together a number of leading thinkers, industry leaders, and policymakers to focus on a critical set of questions that bear on innovation. The conference will focus on three principal questions as to the role of government in spurring innovation and economic growth: (1) how it can enable the basic building blocks; (2) how it can support the development of entrepreneurial clusters and regional innovation; and (3) what strategies it can employ to advance national competitiveness in a global economy.

Hot Topics in Cleantech Patents and IP Licensing 

September 29, Holland & Hart, Denver

Hosted by the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association (CCIA); discussion will include accelerating the patent process and benefits in the U.S. and internationally; an overview of recent cleantech patent initiatives; and critical licensing fundaments and their practical applications to your cleantech business.

Energy Innovation Speaker Series: Jason Bordoff 

October 4, CU-Boulder

The University of Colorado Law School, the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), and the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship present Jason Bordoff as our featured speaker. Jason Bordoff is the Associate Director for Energy and Climate Change at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Boulder/Denver New Technology Meetup Group 

October 4, 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.

RETool: Developing Business & Careers in the New Energy Economy  

Focused on a clean-energy future? Get ahead of the curve and take RETool: a 4-day executive education certificate program hosted by the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship and the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI) at the University of Colorado at Boulder. RETool provides a deep-dive short course for individuals seeking to "retool" their skills to enter the clean energy field, as well as for businesses seeking new opportunities in cleantech. Remaining 2011 fall sessions (8:30am-5:30pm):

Friday, October 7: Understanding Smart Grids (Downtown Denver)
Friday, November 4: Renewable Transportation Energy (Denver Tech Center)
Friday, December 2: The Promise of Energy Efficiency (Downtown Denver)

Entrepreneurs Unplugged: Paul Guerin, Chief Executive Officer of Rebit 

October 10, CU-Boulder

Silicon Flatirons, ATLAS, and ITP present Paul Guerin as our featured entrepreneur, with moderator Brad Bernthal.

Energy Innovation Speaker Series: Dr. Daniel Yergin 

October 19, CU-Boulder

The University of Colorado Law School, the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), and the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship present Dr. Daniel Yergin, the author of The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World. He received the Pulitzer Prize for The Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil Money and Power, and is Chairman and Founder of HIS Cambridge Energy Research Associates and CNBC's Global Energy Expert.

Making Your Medical Device Concept a Reality 

October 19, MIND Studios, Colorado Springs

Medical product design and development is a multibillion dollar industry. Each year, countless medical devices and products are introduced with the goal of improving patient care. What makes these products successful? How does one navigate through design, development and testing? At this seminar, experts from MIND Studios at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) will provide a forum for medical professionals to learn how to take their own medical product ideas from concept to reality.

TTO's Learning Laboratory: The Student Connection 

Nicholas Jensen, Chemical Engineering Intern

Nicholas joined the Boulder TTO in June as an undergraduate intern. His primary focus is to analyze potential intellectual property submitted by chemical, biological and mechanical engineering faculty at the University, and perform prior art searches on submitted technology. Nicholas also works on outreach to potential industry partners. Hi is currently chemical engineering at CU-Boulder with a focus on bioengineering. After graduation in spring 2013, he hopes to work in the pharmaceutical industry for a short time before attending law school to study patent law.

Adam Lucas, Marketing Student Assistant

Entrepreneur-Sourced Ideas For Reducing Barriers To Business Creation 

Today, we need to do everything possible to clear the way for entrepreneurs to go ahead and start that business. One critical way to do that is to reduce barriers that get in their way.

To understand more about these barriers, the Small Business Administration recently traveled around the country to talk to more than 1,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and others who want to play a role in building the next great American companies. A summary of their great ideas is in our new report, Startup America: Reducing Barriers.

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

With Biotech Wins, Harvard Targets $20M-$30M for Accelerator 

When discoveries from academic labs are developed into a blockbuster drug, universities often rake in big dollars from licensing revenue. With the translation of its life sciences research into commercial applications in mind, Harvard aims to put more financial muscle behind its 4-year-old Accelerator Fund.

VC Drought Affecting Colorado's Crop of Medical Inventions 

At VetDC, scientists are looking for ways to use advanced medical technologies typically used to help humans help pets. But when the company started out in 2009, CEO Steven Roy said they quickly realized that deep-pocketed investors willing to fund a bioscience start-up weren't exactly easy to find. Then, last summer, VetDC turned to the Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and Diagnostic Development (CID4).

Brookings Report: Denver Economy Needs Help 

"Resilience - if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you'd be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn't a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities."

Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder/CEO