UNMC, UNL receive $1.4 million U.S. Army grant to continue work in robotic surgery

July 22, 2014 Comments (0) News

by Vicky Cerino, UNMC

OMAHA, Neb. (July 22, 2014)—The University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have received a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Army to continue work on robotic telesurgery research.

UNMC and UNL researchers have been working since 2008 with the U.S. Army’s Joint Warfighter Medical Research Program to develop miniature robotic technology to enable surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures for members of the military injured on the battlefield.

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Dr. Oleynikov

“The Army is very interested in delivering care to injured warfighters or other personnel in remote areas,” said Dmitry Oleynikov, M.D., director of the Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery and the Center for Advanced Surgical Technology at UNMC. “Right now the biggest thing that they have in their basket is to get the soldier out of the battlefield on a helicopter to where they can get care within the one hour. The idea behind the robots is to begin lifesaving measures on soldiers who can’t be transported out immediately.”

He said the mini robots have the capability to provide basic diagnosis and triage of internal injuries in war zones and other military environments. The robot can be inserted into the patient and be controlled by a surgeon in a remote location. The device would transmit live video images so surgeons could identify the trauma and serve as a “remote first responder.”

Dr. Oleynikov is the principal investigator of the grant and Shane Farritor, PhD, UNL professor of mechanical and materials engineering, is co-investigator of the grant.

The surgery would be done via a tiny incision, through the mouth or another natural orifice, Dr. Oleynikov said, by surgeons far away. The person injured would be in a war zone or in a remote area where medical facilities aren’t immediately available.

“With the grant we’ll continue the successful work we’ve been doing,” Dr. Oleynikov said. “I think the grant and working with the Department of Defense is important. We’re doing some very exciting work as expertise in this surgery isn’t all that common.”

He said the technology ultimately may be applied in civilian settings and rural environments.

Dr. Farritor said he is excited about collaborating with UNMC. “We really think these robots can have a significant effect on health care and the way surgery is performed. We hope to do a clinical trial next year.”

Through world-class research and patient care, UNMC generates breakthroughs that make life better for people throughout Nebraska and beyond. Its education programs train more health professionals than any other institution in the state. Learn more at unmc.edu and follow us on social media.

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UNMC, UCSF $10 million dementia care grant to bring online respite to caregivers

July 1, 2014 Comments (0) News

by Vicky Cerino, UNMC

OMAHA, Neb. (July 1, 2014)—The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have been awarded a $10 million grant from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation to create a new web-based model of dementia care. It will provide around the clock consultations for patients and their families, online education and, for some patients, remote monitoring with smart phones and home sensors.

The Dementia Care Ecosystem will not replace clinicians, but rather bring educational resources developed over the past decade by UCSF’s Memory and Aging Center (MAC) to patients and their families, while enabling clinicians to monitor their patients from afar.

Dr. Bonasera

Dr. Bonasera

Steve Bonasera, M.D., PhD, associate professor of geriatrics at UNMC and co-investigator of the grant, said the project has the potential to give patients with Alzheimer’s disease, their families and care partners, advice and expertise no matter where they live or their income.

“We hope to show that by providing comprehensive, personally tailored services, we can keep everyone healthier, happier, and decrease time spent in hospitals,” said Dr. Bonasera, who did his fellowship at UCSF. “I think the interventions in this trial will keep people with dementia at home longer, and at the same time lower family and caregiver stress.”

Beginning this fall, 2,100 patients, all diagnosed with varying stages of dementia, will be enrolled through San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, UCSF Medical Center and the UCSF MAC clinics and Chinatown Clinics, as well as UNMC and other organizations in Nebraska serving the elderly.

Each patient will have a navigator, who will check in by telephone or with a personal visit, as well as be monitored through an Internet dashboard, created with the help of Salesforce. Navigators will be people without a formal medical degree who will be supervised closely by nurses, social workers and pharmacists with expertise in dementia care.

The navigators will triage calls, making sure that patients see nurses and doctors when necessary and helping with other things that don’t require medical expertise, such as a hazardous situation in the home that could cause the patient to fall. Meanwhile, patients and their families will be able to get training online to help make financial plans and work through tough medical decisions before their loved ones have reached a crisis stage.

“Our ecosystem will have wisdom and experience continuously piped in every day to caregivers who are overwhelmed,” said Bruce Miller, M.D., director of the MAC, who holds the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professorship in Neurology at UCSF. “Typically, these people have a hard time getting through to anyone in the medical system.”

Researchers hope to create a virtual care system that is supportive enough to protect the mental and physical health of caregivers, who tend to neglect their own needs. If caregivers learn to cope better, patients may be able to remain at home longer before moving into assisted living.

Last year, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, about 15.5 million people in the United States were caring for friends and family members with dementia. Nearly 60 percent said the work was highly stressful and more than a third reported symptoms of depression.

Some patients in the study will use smart phones and electronic wristbands to record activity levels, count the number of steps they take and measure how far they range from home. And a small number will have sensors placed inside their homes to detect behavior changes that could signal the onset of a health problem, like being up all night, staying in bed all day or going to the bathroom more times than usual.

The system also will monitor the drugs that patients take and flag high risk and inappropriate medications that can send patients with certain forms of dementia to the emergency room.

Initial projections are that the improved caregiver support, more continuous access to medical help and medication management will reduce emergency room visits by a half, cut hospitalizations by almost a third and delay the move into a nursing home by six months. This is projected to save $4.3 million over the three years of the grant.

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Symposium marks 10 years of UNMC-China collaboration

June 13, 2014 Comments (0) News

OMAHA, Neb. (June 12, 2014)—Officials and researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center highlighted recent and ongoing research Thursday while commemorating 10 years of UNMC-China collaborations during the Asia Pacific Rim Development Program’s fifth annual Joint Research Symposium, an international biomedical research forum held Thursday at the Durham Research Center.

Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D.

UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., greets attendees during opening remarks at the Asia Pacific Rim Development Program’s fifth annual Joint Research Symposium at the Durham Research Center in Omaha.

UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., opened a full day of seminars and presentations with brief remarks to illustrate the value of UNMC-China research collaboration. UNMC has a four-part mission, he said, that is equal parts education, research, quality clinical care and community engagement.

“This symposium underscores all parts of this mission,” he said.

He added that research doesn’t end when results are published, when a grant ends or when funding runs out. “Research is completed when it changes some human life,” he said.

Le Kang, PhD

The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Le Kang, PhD, discusses the value of UNMC-China research during the fifth annual Joint Research Symposium on June 12, 2014.

Dr. Gold was followed by remarks from Le Kang, PhD, the director-general of the Institute of Zoology and president of the Beijing Institutes of Life Sciences, which are part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Kang was presented with an admiralty in “The Great Navy of the State of Nebraska,” a fictional position used by the governor’s office since 1931 to honor esteemed guests and citizens of a landlocked state.

Dr. Kang presented UNMC with a gift of a four-panel mural depicting traditional Chinese artistic paintings of a plum blossom, an orchid, a bamboo blossom and a chrysanthemum. Known as the “four gentlemen,” the four plants symbolize strength, humility, moral character and resilience. In Chinese culture, presenting them as gift is a significant demonstration of friendship.

The remainder of the symposium featured UNMC and Chinese research partners presenting and discussing their most recent findings in areas including cell-death mechanisms, schizophrenia, the Epstein-Barr virus, and stem cells.

Four Gentlemen

This four-panel mural of traditional Chinese art was a gift to UNMC from Le Kang, PhD, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Known as the “four gentlemen,” the four depicted plants symbolize strength, humility, moral character and resilience.

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Symposium helps bridge gap between academia and industry

June 11, 2014 Comments (0) Blog, News

Industry leaders seek to improve collaborations

By Agnes Lenagh, UNeMed

OMAHA, Neb. (June 11, 2014)—Industry-academia collaboration was the overarching theme of the First Annual Biopharmaceutical Research and Development Symposium.

Eager researchers and leading biopharmaceutical industry scientists talked about ways to strengthen our relationships in a two-day symposium hosted by the UNMC College of Pharmacy. The aim was to improve dialogue and research collaborations between industry and academia.

In addition to the presentations, the symposium also facilitated roundtable discussions with faculty, postdoctoral scientists and graduate students. Speakers and attendees exchanged valuable tips to improve techniques, and shared new methodologies.

During the first roundtable discussion industry leaders discussed how to increase visibility and enable collaborations with industry partners: Invaluable advice that highlighted what industry wants.

    • Industry personnel said they often identify opportunities by scanning the literature for tools they need and reading information offered by technology transfer offices like UNeMed. A company frequently reaches out to academia to find the appropriate equipment, ideal technique, correct animal model, or even expertise on a subject.
    • In order to work together, academic research has to fit and match the research done by the potential industry collaborator.

Gangadhar Sunkara, PhD, executive director of the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, made the comparison to a lock and key, where academia has to have the right key to open the door and collaborate with industry.

  • Industry representatives also said they use connections in academia, including former classmates and contacts made at networking events. They use these relations in academia to better understand what we do and how to best take advantage of the available resources.

During the symposium, speakers offered two important pieces of advice to researchers: flaunt it and speak at the same level.

First, as a researcher, if you have it, flaunt it. When speaking to industry professionals, let them know that you are the director of whatever division or facility. Industry wants top-notch people, and they appreciate knowing who’s in charge of which resources.

Second, don’t talk over their heads. Stick to using vocabulary, terminology and concepts that are at their level. Be sure to find a common ground so everyone can be on the same page and the important details aren’t lost in translation.

Companies present included Gilead Sciences, AbbVie, Novartis, Bend Research, FreeThink Technologies, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Biopharmaceutical and Drug Delivery Consulting, Biogen Idec, Genzyme Sanofi Corporation, and Celerion.

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Grant will fund drug candidate simulations for next-gen cancer treatments

June 2, 2014 Comments (0) News

by Charlie Litton, UNeMed

OMAHA, Neb. (May 28, 2014)—Researchers and resources from three university campuses will join forces on a $250,000 proof-of-concept grant from the Nebraska Research Initiative, and use complex computer simulations to identify top drug candidates that could lead to the next generation of pancreatic and ovarian cancer treatments.

Surinder Batra, PhD, professor and chairman of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Department of Molecular Biology, is now on the verge of proving the potential of a molecule he originally discovered more than a decade ago—a gene called pancreatic differentiation factor 2, or PD2. New funding will use supercomputer simulations that researchers hope will demonstrate the potential power of PD2 against cancer.

Surinder Batra, PhD

In 1997, Surinder Batra, PhD, discovered PD2, a biomarker for pancreatic and other cancers. Now, supercomputer simulations could help make PD2 an effective weapon against the deadliest cancers.

PD2 is involved in the growth of stem cells, but becomes a problem if it gives cancer cells the same set of growth instructions. Cancer cells that express high levels of PD2 act like stem cells, growing tumors that can resist most forms of treatment.

“It has a lot of potential, this molecule,” said Dr. Batra, a two-time UNMC Distinguished Scientist and the 2012 Scientist Laureate. “It is in many cancers, not only pancreatic stem cells.”

Nick Palermo, a computer expert with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will try unlocking PD2’s power with the supercomputer at the Peter Kiewit Institute’s Holland Computing Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Palermo will build a computer model of PD2, and then simulate its interaction with millions of other known molecules. Renowned UNMC drug development researcher and College of Pharmacy professor Jonathan Vennerstrom, PhD, will also collaborate on the project.

“In general, the strength of the university is when people from different disciplines can work together,” said James Linder, M.D., interim president of the University of Nebraska and president of the University Technology Development Corporation.

Grant funding for the PD2 project will also increase the supercomputer’s “horsepower”—a legacy improvement that will benefit future projects. UNeMed, the technology transfer office at UNMC, has already received interest from drug discovery companies that want to collaborate on other new drugs using the same process.

“If this project works,” said Joe Runge, UNeMed’s director of business development, “then we can take discoveries about diseases and translate them to medicines—all within the University system.”

Even if the perfect fit to PD2 doesn’t appear to exist naturally, Palermo can combine elements of the best matches to custom-build potential candidates.

“I think this is a matter of time and effort,” Palermo said, “and we will get it done. And have a good product.”

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New yardsticks needed to create new ideas

May 19, 2014 Comments (1) Blog

By Charlie Litton, UNeMed | May 19, 2014

Imagine drawing up plans for the Empire State Building before anyone ever thought to invent structural steel or something that resembles an elevator.

It’s almost nonsensical.Phillips screw head and driver

There are ideas so groundbreaking that there aren’t even good ways to measure or test them. Or sometimes the tools that could make them work don’t even exist, like a Phillips head screw without its driver. The inventor often has to build a better yardstick and create new tools before they can even start working on the actual big idea.

Think about that for a minute.

Try inventing something when there is nothing in the known world that can prove the invention works.

The inventor must innovate to innovate.

In biomedical research, it sometimes requires that researchers essentially invent a new animal, like Anna, an adorably scruffy mutt famously engineered by researchers at Johns Hopkins in pursuit of an effective treatment for blue baby syndrome.

Researchers at UNMC don’t have a portrait of a loveable dog gracing any prominent walls like Anna does at the Johns Hopkins library. But we might one day see in rich oil paints the swirling hues of a sheep that helped improve kidney dialysis.

One way to improve dialysis is not with the machines that scrub blood of toxins normally removed by healthy kidneys. Rather, by improving the point of entry and exit as the machine pumps the dirty blood out and cleaned blood back in.

Currently, the best point of entry involves creating a portal, or fistula, between an artery and vein in the patient’s arm, usually in the wrist. Called an arteriovenous or AV fistula, the procedure is a medical marvel that significantly lowers the risk of death and improves the quality of life for people with failing kidneys. Like a wall socket provides regular access to a home’s electrical system, the AV fistula provides quick and easy access to the human vascular system.

And like any modern marvel, AV fistulas are a complex and imperfect solution, even when performed by an expert team of surgeons and support staff. In the best circumstances, they are difficult to create, fail in half of the patients who need them most, and almost always develop complications at one point or another.

A better, more reliable way to create AV fistulas seems like a good idea.

We have a surgeon here who thinks he has one. He worked it out, submitted his plan, and we’ve even had a few companies raise an eyebrow or two.

This is where I usually get a little excited.

But the old warhorses that have been around the block a few times tell me that I need to stow the pompoms and dial back the cheerleading.

The problem is understandable. When it comes time to show that an improvement like a new AV fistula could work, a researcher must first prove that it works on living tissue. The bigger problem is that no one in the world, as far as we know, has ever made an AV fistula work in anything other than a human. There just is no good analog to the human vascular system.

So the people with the development money in their back pocket tell us: “Yeah, looks great kid. But show me that it works in an animal model before I cut you a check.”

That’s setting the bar a little high.

It’s like saying, “You want to launch satellites into low-earth orbit? Sure, just land a probe on Ganymede first. Then we’ll talk.”

Jupiter's largest moon, GanymedeBefore our guy could even begin designing a better AV fistula procedure, he needed to invent a way to test it, which would involve the world’s first successful AV fistula on something other than a human.

But that is a story for another time.

For now, the larger point is that innovation takes more than just a great idea. An idea doesn’t even pack the suitcase for the long journey of development.

The idea seems to be the easy part.

The taller task is proving that the idea can work, a far more complex chore than merely collecting data. Failing that, an idea or a concept is just something to put on a shelf.

But the right test or tool that proves an idea can work? That’s something you hang from a wall.

 

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Innovate to Innovate: A new breed of dog needed for blue babies

May 8, 2014 Comments (2) Blog

by Joe Runge, UNeMed | May 8, 2014

Anna

Anna

Babies born with congenital heart defects rarely survived childhood. Today, 85 percent of babies born with congenital heart defects survive to adulthood. That happened because surgeons learned how to reconstruct a baby’s heart through a series of unimaginably complex surgical procedures.

How those surgical procedures came to be is more complex than the surgery itself. The miracles produced in a few hundred years of modern science embolden audacious questions:

  • Can we reprogram a patient’s cells to attack his tumor?
  • Can we assess an individual patient’s risk for disease by looking at her DNA?
  • Can we reconstruct a baby’s defective heart?

What emboldens the question is the possibility of answer. The currency of innovation is the new and powerful ways that researchers can test their ideas but the most innovative questions are the most challenging to test. If no one has ever thought to ask the question then there is likely no known way to test it.

Medical researchers not only invent a new way to treat a disease but also a new a way to find out if it works. Before you can innovate, you have to innovate.

For example, a team from Johns Hopkins invented one of the first procedures to alleviate congenital heart defects in the 1940’s. The procedure bypasses the baby’s beating heart by cutting major arteries and reconnecting them to major veins.

To learn how to do the procedure, the team invented a way to surgically create congenital heart defects in dogs. Then they invented a way to surgically relieve the defect. It took years and hundreds of failures.

The first dog in which the team successfully created and then treated the defect was named Anna. Her portrait hangs at library at Johns Hopkins—an honor usually reserved for the human faculty.

The currency of innovation is the impossibly elusive data needed to actually answer the question. To reconstruct the baby’s heart first you must reconstruct a dog’s heart. To reconstruct the dog’s heart, you must first create an accurate model of the baby’s defect that you seek to correct.

To even ask the audacious question you need access to the problem, expert knowledge to understand it, and a creative approach to treat it. To answer your question you need the tools to test your idea. The more audacious the question, the more innovation is needed to bring about the answer.

That answer may require a genetically modified mouse that is susceptible to human tumors; it may be a national database of DNA sequences from thousands of patients with a disease; or it may be a little dog named Anna, and her improbable creation.

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UNMC, UNL make history by testing mini-robots in ‘space’

May 7, 2014 Comments (0) News

by Vicky Cerino, UNMC

HOUSTON (May 5, 2014)—For more than 10 years, inventors at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have spent countless hours building, testing, perfecting and patenting miniature surgical robots.

The robots were developed for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with the hope that flight surgeons can one day perform emergency surgery in space.

The next step called for testing the mini-robots in a simulated space environment.

This was accomplished in late April when Anton Simorov, M.D., UNMC surgery fellow, and UNL engineering students, Kearney Lackas, Walter Bircher and Tom Frederick, donned flight suits and took off from Johnson Space Center in Houston.

During two parabolic flights, the UNMC-UNL experienced 80 parabolic maneuvers that create a weightless environment in a modified 727 jet. The jet, at 24,000 feet, climbed 45 degrees to 34,000 feet. The pilots then perform a “push over” maneuver to create zero gravity or weightlessness for 20-30 seconds.

Dr. Simorov practiced surgical techniques — grasping, pulling, and cutting — during the weightless time periods, while engineering students monitored equipment.

“We accomplished our experiment goals. We collected a lot of data which will take several weeks to process and analyze,” Dr. Simorov said. “This will allow us to further our experiments. It was a great, unforgettable experience.”

The flight was the result of a 2013 visit by NASA officials to learn about university research with potential applications in space, said Marsha Morien, executive director of the UNMC Center for Advanced Surgical Technology. “The NASA visitors saw the project and said it was ready for flight testing,” Morien said. “Getting this flight is amazing. It’s highly competitive.”

Dmitry Oleynikov, M.D., a co-inventor of the mini-robots, said the flight was a big step.

“We’re very excited. We’ve always felt it was a good idea to take a surgical platform, miniaturize it and use it in places you can’t have a hospital,” said Dr. Oleynikov, director of the Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery and the Center for Advanced Surgical Technology at UNMC. “It’s a natural extension of that concept to use it in space, on the battlefield and in other remote areas.”

Shane Farritor, PhD, UNL professor of mechanical and materials engineering, said the flight represents a key milestone in the surgical robot program. “It was a great learning experience for the students to successfully deploy a complex field system and operate it in a unique environment,” said Dr. Farritor, co-inventor of the mini-robots. “It really moved the research forward. We have more to do, but I really like where we are.”

Through world-class research and patient care, UNMC generates breakthroughs that make life better for people throughout Nebraska and beyond. Its education programs train more health professionals than any other institution in the state. Learn more at unmc.edu and follow us on social media.

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Biopharmaceutical symposium is June 5-6

May 7, 2014 Comments (0) News

OMAHA, Neb. (May 7, 2014)—In a step to improve dialogue, research collaboration and student learning objectives, UNMC’s College of Pharmacy is sponsoring a Biopharmaceutical Research and Development Symposium in June that will bring together leading academic researchers with biopharmaceutical industry scientists for two days of seminars, round-table discussions and networking opportunities.

Planned topics of discussion include the drug development and approval process, redefining the interface between industry and academia, enabling oral drug delivery technologies and new modalities in biopharma. Guest speakers include representatives from Novartis, Bristol-Meyers-Squibb, Merck, Biogen, Abbott Labs, Gilead Sciences, Bend Research, Celerion Corporation and Genzyme Corporation.

The symposium is free to all UNMC faculty and students, and registration for non-UNMC attendees is $150, which includes a lunch and snack on both days.

The symposium is planned for June 5-6 at the Michael F. Sorrell Center on 42nd and Emile Streets.

To register or view a complete list of events, times and speakers, visit https://www.unmc.edu/pharmacy/brds.htm.

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Make Nebraska No. 1, vote UNeMed in ‘Buzz of BIO’

April 15, 2014 Comments (0) Blog, News

OMAHA, Neb. (April 15, 2014)—Help UNeMed put Nebraska’s biomedical innovation community at center stage of the world’s largest biotech conference by voting for UNeMed in the “Buzz of BIO” competition.

BuzzofBIOLogoVisit https://convention.bio.org/buzzofbio/voting.aspx and select UNeMed in the “Technologies of Tomorrow” category (companies are listed alphabetically). Anyone can vote, so spread the word and vote UNeMed to help put Nebraska on the map. Voting for UNeMed is a unique opportunity to promote UNMC technologies to potential partners and investors around the globe.

Voting closes April 22.

UNeMed is participating in the Buzz of BIO for the 2014 BIO International Convention (BIO), the world’s premiere biotechnology convention, which will be held this year on June 23-26 in San Diego, Calif.

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Dixon testifies for University of Nebraska at House committee

April 9, 2014 Comments (0) News

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 9, 2014)—Testifying before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Tuesday morning, UNeMed Corporation President and CEO Michael Dixon urged lawmakers to consider the potential impact to academic research commercialization efforts before drafting legislation aimed at stopping patent assertion entities.

Nebraska U.S. Rep. Lee Terry (left) chats with UNeMed President and CEO Michael Dixon following a Commerce, Trade and Manufacturing Subcommittee hearing April 8, 2014. Dixon testified for the committee hearing which is chaired by Terry.

Nebraska U.S. Rep. Lee Terry (left) chats with UNeMed President and CEO Michael Dixon following a Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee hearing April 8, 2014. Dixon testified for the committee hearing, which is chaired by Terry.

“Any action must preserve patent rights,” Dixon told the committee, which is chaired by Nebraska U.S. Rep. Lee Terry.

Terry called the hearing to examine the issue of patent demand letters, a common practice abused by some patent assertion entities, or PAEs. Everyone who spoke during the hearing unanimously decried the deceptive practice, citing as the principle problems: The general lack of clear details in demand letters, a lack of federal guidelines and no clear definition of local or state jurisdiction.

Terry said he and the committee wanted to hear from expert witnesses as the committee contemplates drafting a bill that would “itemize or prescribe what should be in a demand letter.”

Unscrupulous PAEs, commonly called “patent trolls,” build a stockpile of patents by purchasing them from inventors and other intellectual property owners. The patent trolls then pursue claims of infringement against all manner of businesses, often targeting small or new businesses because they are too scared, too inexperienced or just can’t afford to defend themselves.

Removing the vague demand letter from their toolbox would be a major blow to patent trolls, said Dixon, president at UNeMed, the technology commercialization office for the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

“Reduce the ambiguity of demand letters,” Dixon said, “and you’ll reduce the power of patent trolls.”

Sent by the thousands to small businesses, vague demand letters threaten legal action for patent infringement. The letters often do not refer to a specific patent or even how the business infringed a patent, which leads some businesses to pay for a license just to avoid the greater expense of lawyer fees.

“This bottom-feeder model is premised on the idea that they don’t have to be specific,” said Jason Schultz, an associate professor of clinical law at New York University who also testified before the committee. “…just pay to get it out of the way, which so many are doing.”

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Legislature passes, governor signs Business Innovation Act extension

April 7, 2014 Comments (0) News

LINCOLN, Neb. (April 7, 2014)—The sunset on Nebraska’s Business Innovation Act was extended five years following a unanimous 44-0 vote on LB 1114 in the state legislature on March 27.

Gov. Dave Heineman signed the bill into law on Wednesday, April 2.

Co-sponsored by Heath Mello of Omaha and Galen Hadley of Kearney, LB 1114 extends the Business Innovation act from its original expiration date by five years to Dec. 1, 2021.

First passed in 2011, the Business Innovation Act created a mechanism for the state to provide funding and assistance to small or new Nebraska companies that need financial help with critical research or with building expensive prototypes.

The extension includes a provision for creating a fund to study best practices and research other methods to “support and increase venture capital in Nebraska.” The measure also earmarks $50,000 to create a “High Growth Business Development Cash Fund” to pay for the commissioned study.

Earlier this year, Michael Dixon, the president and CEO at UNeMed, testified in support of the bill before the Appropriations Committee on Feb. 19.  Mello, LB 1114’s co-sponsor, also chairs the committee.

The legislature also passed—and the governor signed—the companion appropriations bill, LB 1114A, which funds the mandated study.

Five members were listed as absent, and did not vote on LB 1114. They were Sens. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, Al Davis of Cherry County, John Harms of Scottsbluff, Charlie Janssen of Fremont, and Scott Latenbaugh of Omaha.

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Dixon to testify before House subcommittee

April 4, 2014 Comments (0) News

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 4, 2014)—Michael Dixon, president and CEO of UNeMed Corporation, is scheduled to testify on behalf of the University of Nebraska before a congressional committee next week in Washington D.C.

MikeDixon, who oversees intellectual property commercialization efforts for research developed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, was invited to provide testimony to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade by U.S. Rep. Lee Terry of Nebraska, the subcommittee chairman.

The hearing, “Trolling for a Solution: Ending Abusive Patent Demand Letters,” is scheduled for Tuesday, April 8, at 9 a.m. The committee is expected to discuss the practice of so-called “patent trolls,” which are often accused of targeting small businesses with patent demand letters that threaten financial or legal action.

Dixon’s testimony is expected to address the merits of university research and commercialization efforts, and the potential impact that new legislation may have.

Additional information about the hearing, including video coverage, will be available through the committee website. C-Span coverage of the hearing has not yet been determined.

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Schmidt passes patent bar, headed for USPTO and Notre Dame

March 31, 2014 Comments (0) News

OMAHA, Neb. (March 31, 2014)—UNeMed intern Jeff Schmidt, recently passed the patent bar exam, clearing a path toward a promising career as a patent attorney.

Jeff Schmidt, PhDAs an intern at UNeMed, Schmidt helped the licensing team evaluate new inventions, performed patent searches, and researched the patentability of some inventions. That experience played a crucial role in his future plans, including applying to a highly selective internship program with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va.
Schmidt was accepted into the program and will begin there in June.

“Without UNeMed, I don’t think I would have got that opportunity,” Schmidt said. “They like to see applicants who have patentability research experience, and understand the things that factor into intellectual property in general.”

Schmidt, 28, started working as an intern at UNeMed in May 2013, shortly after completing his doctorate in cancer research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. In August he completed his MBA from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Schmidt, from Belle Plaine, Minn., also holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn.

After he completes the two-month program at the USPTO, Schmidt plans to attend law school at Notre Dame when the fall semester begins in August.

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Third annual Midwest Entrepreneurship Conference is April 4-5

February 26, 2014 Comments (0) News

MWEC_logoOMAHA, Neb. (Feb. 26, 2014)—University of Nebraska Medical Center students will receive a special discount to attend the third annual Midwest Entrepreneurship Conference, a University of Nebraska at Omaha event aimed at aspiring entrepreneurs and young professionals. The conference is designed to inform, support and inspire college students to be entrepreneurial, drive innovation and seek opportunity through enterprise creation.

The event will feature several prominent young entrepreneurs from around the country, including planned keynote speaker Mike Schultz, co-founder and co-president of RAIN Group.

Hosted by the UNO Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization and the Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Franchising, the Midwest Entrepreneurship Conference will be April 4-5 at the Kaneko in the Old Market area of downtown Omaha.

Schultz, the author of “Rainmaking Conversations,” is expected to discuss how he successfully launched his new venture and what it takes to sell. His talk is sponsored by the Nebraska chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization.

Student tickets are $59. General admission is $119, or $99 if purchased on or before March 15. Friday only tickets are $30.

Register at EventBrite.com or find more information at MWEComaha.com.

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Committee hears support for Business Innovation Act extension, tags as ‘priority bill’

February 21, 2014 Comments (1) News

by Charlie Litton, UNeMed

LINCOLN, Neb. (Feb. 20, 2014)—After hearing roundly positive support for a bill that would extend the sunset on the Business Innovation Act Wednesday afternoon, the Nebraska Legislature Appropriations Committee returned the next morning and marked the bill, LB 1114, as “priority” legislation—increasing the chances it will see a final vote before the current legislative session closes in April.

Co-sponsored by appropriations committee chairman Heath Mello of Omaha and Galen Hadley of Kearney, LB 1114 extends the Business Innovation Act from its original expiration date by five years, to Dec. 1, 2021.

Nebraska State Senator Kate Bolz

Appropriations committee member Senator Kate Bolz of Lincoln discusses LB1114 during testimony on Feb. 19. The committee later designated LB1114—an extension of the Business Innovation Act—as a “priority bill.” Photo: Charlie Litton

Passed in 2011, the Business Innovation Act created a mechanism for the state to provide funding and assistance to small or new Nebraska companies that need financial help with critical research or with building expensive prototypes.

Seven prominent business leaders and entrepreneurs—from as far as Texas and California—testified in support of the bill at the Feb. 19 committee meeting, including Michael Dixon, president and CEO of UNeMed Corporation, the technology transfer office for the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

“I think this program is absolutely a leg up,” Dixon told the committee, “or at least puts us on the same footing as other states with a similar program.”

No one testified in opposition to the bill.

Several proponents noted that Nebraska has ranked at or near the bottom when measured against other states’ entrepreneurial and venture capital environments. But that has begun to change since implementation of the Business Innovation Act.

“Nebraska is starting to show up in top 10 lists,” said Dixon, who also sits on the Board of Directors for Invest Nebraska—a funding program in the Nebraska Department of Economic Development aimed at encouraging small businesses, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Thanks to the Business Innovation Act, Nebraska is on the verge of an “entrepreneurial renaissance,” Dixon said.

Extending the end date on the Business Innovation Act would give it a better chance to realize its full potential, Sen. Mello said during his opening remarks.

“Venture capital is an area where more long-term planning would be critical,” Mello said.

The extension includes a provision for creating a fund to study best practices and research other methods to “support and increase venture capital in Nebraska.” The bill also earmarks $50,000 to create a “High Growth Business Development Cash Fund” to be used to pay for the commissioned study, which will be due at the end of the year on Dec. 1.

Only one committee member appeared to challenge the merits of the bill. District 2 Senator Bill Kintner of Papillion questioned why taxpayers should essentially “subsidize” small business ventures.

The benefits, according to those who commented, centered on increasing job and economic growth in the state while attracting additional investment from outside Nebraska.

“The hardest money to raise is that first money,” said Bruce Lichorowic, CEO of Trak Surgical. Lichorowic is a self-described “serial entrepreneur” based in San Jose, Calif., who has raised more than $500 million in venture capital for more than 20 startup companies in a career that spans 30 years.

His latest venture, Trak Surgical in Omaha, is a new surgical tool company based on technology developed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

“I wish California had a program like this. It does not,” Lichorowic said. “This early stage money is really, really important. It got me here.”

Joseph Knecht, managing director at VentureTech in Lincoln, also supported LB1114. The New York native said he would not be in Nebraska if not for the Business Innovation Act.

Kintner, the senator from Papillion, asked Knecht: “Is there a downside to this program? There’s got to be a downside.”

“The only risk is not doing it,” Knecht said.

Corrective amended, Feb. 24, 2014: Spelling of Sen. Bill Kintner was incorrect.

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