University Startup Seminar is Wednesday, May 30, 2012

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OMAHA, Neb. (May 28, 2012)—Most students are led to graduate school by dreams of making a significant discovery or inventing a lifesaving drug. However, slightly  less than half of all graduates receiving a PhD degree will continue to pursue their dreams in academic institutions, according to statistics. However, this doesn’t mean that the rest have to say goodbye to their dreams. An alternative career in a biotech startup is one of the opportunities that may turn out as rewarding.

Join us at noon on May 30th in the DRC Auditorium to learn about career opportunities in a biotech startup company. Dr Zagit Gaymalov will speak about what it takes to start a business and what it’s like to run one. Dr Gaymalov received his PhD degree from UNMC Pharmaceutical Sciences Graduate Program and continues his career as a technology transfer professional with UNeMed Corporation and CEO of NeuroNano Pharma, a biotech business he started with his PhD advisor Dr Alexander “Sasha” Kabanov.

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UNeBlog, UNeMed’s Technology Transfer Blog

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by Agnes Lenagh, UNeMed | May 28, 2012

WELCOME!

We’re excited to launch this blog to share our enthusiasm for enhancing the development of UNMC technologies on a more personal level.

This blog will serve many purposes – to inform the UNMC community what UNeMed is doing, share news about technology transfer and commercialization, elaborate on methods and best practices to protect inventions, and report on research development and available programs and new opportunities.

We also hope that the UNeBlog will incite some new ideas that will assist in the development of basic research toward clinical stages.

The topics that will be covered will be divided into 6 searchable categories including:

  • Tech Transfer 101 – Informative posts related to technology transfer and research commercialization including, but not limited to: patents, public disclosure, confidentiality and CDAs, MTAs, licensing, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, entrepreneurship, and funding.
  • Case Studies – A look into essential aspects of technology transfer and successful stories that result from both internal and external practices.
  • Portraits – Features UNMC and community leaders including inventors and entrepreneurs involved in biomedical research, rechnology transfer, product development or enterprise.
  • Guest Posts – Invited communications from experts in the field.
  • News – Highlights local and national events in the technology transfer community.
  • Announcements – Covering seminars, meetings, workshops, and events of interest.

We’re eager to share this journey with everyone at UNMC.

If you have a new idea or would like your technology transfer questions addressed on our blog, please let us know

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DNA analyzing device goes from idea to market — all in Nebraska

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Read the original article here: https://www.omaha.com/article/20120223/MONEY/702239955

by Roger Buddenberg, Omaha World-Herald

OMAHA, Neb. (Feb. 20, 2012)—Connie Ryan was watching one of the “CSI” shows on television recently when she heard the investigator lament that a perp was likely to slip through the cops’ fingers because a tiny bit of DNA evidence would take hours — hours! — to analyze.

“I thought, we ought to call them,” she said. Because it shouldn’t take that long anymore.

Her Omaha company, Streck Inc., has just brought to market a laboratory device that dramatically speeds up the task. More important, the gizmo was invented, developed into a salable product and built in Nebraska — an example, Ryan said, of the kind of homegrown inventor-entrepreneur collaboration that can rev up the state’s economy, create jobs and even revive America’s beleaguered manufacturing sector.

She thinks that’s a message Nebraska’s policy makers and its wealthy — its would-be venture capitalists — ought to hear.

But first the device. It’s called a thermal cycler.

It can rapidly and precisely heat and cool a minute trace of DNA — a fleck of blood or a snippet of virus — thus multiplying it through a process called polymerase chain reaction so that it’s big enough to be analyzed. This copying process is a quarter-century old, but until now has taken an hour or two per batch.

That’s fine if you’re not in a hurry.

But if you are, say, a cop tracking a murderer or a hospital rushing to diagnose a lethal disease or to see whether perishable transplant tissue is compatible — speed is vital, Ryan said. Her company’s machine, called the Philisa Thermal Cycler, cuts the time to 15 minutes.

The first Philisa has just been sold for about $10,000 to a government agency that wants to remain anonymous because it is about to publish research involving the machine, Ryan said. About a dozen other Philisas are getting tryouts with hospitals and other potential customers.

The goal, she said, is to sell 50 in the next six months. And she’s confident, based on Streck’s 41-year track record of identifying the lab problems of the white-coated crowd, then devising solutions for them.

Getting to this point, though, wasn’t simple. And Ryan thinks the tale holds some lessons:

The idea for the speedier thermal cycler was born about eight years ago with three University of Nebraska-Lincoln academics, Hendrik Viljoen, a professor of chemical biomolecular engineering, and two colleagues, Joel TerMaat, then a doctoral candidate, and Scott Whitney, then a post-doctoral fellow.

They formed a company, but it was little more than an idea worked out in a Lincoln garage using cobbled-together materials such as drinking straws from a nearby 7-Eleven, Viljoen said.

What it needed, Ryan said, was someone with money and the know-how to turn the idea into a marketable product. That’s where Streck came in. It bought the startup in March 2010, put TerMaat and Whitney on the payroll and hired Viljoen as a consultant.

Playing matchmaker for this deal were two arms of the university devoted to commercializing scholars’ ideas, NUtech Ventures and UNeMed, as well as a member of Nebraska Angels, a group that investigates early-stage investment opportunities.

One more ingredient was required to make the device a practical reality, Ryan said: plastic tubes of just the right shape and thickness to hold the DNA samples. After all, you can’t keep using straws from the 7-Eleven.

Again, a Nebraska company filled the bill, she said. Streck turned to HTI Plastics, an injection-molding firm founded in Lincoln in 1985.

“People sometimes underestimate the technology that exists in this state,” Ryan said. “We really have some amazing companies.”

What’s necessary to replicate this story, she said, is more money, nerve and entrepreneurial know-how.

The ideas are plentiful — “there are tons of interesting things happening at our universities,” she said.

And so is the money. “We have a lot of wealthy people in this community. . I think wealthy people want to make a difference. Investing in our state is a great way.”

Facilitators can help, such as UNL’s Innovation Campus, now taking shape on the former state fairgrounds, she said.

But the real shortage, she said, is entrepreneurial — people able to sift through ideas, pick ones that are good risks, then put in the money and hard work needed to turn them into market-worthy products. And good Nebraska manufacturing jobs.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1140, roger.buddenberg@owh.com

Read the original article here:   https://www.omaha.com/article/20120223/MONEY/702239955

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Smartphone app developed by Munroe-Meyer’s Keith Allen

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OMAHA, Neb. (Dec. 23, 2011)—A smartphone application developed by the Munroe-Meyer Institute’s Keith Allen, PhD, that will help children with autism communicate more effectively is being licensed by UNMC. The app focuses on evidence-based natural teaching procedures. BehaviorApp, LLC — a Lincoln-based smartphone app development company — will create the app, which could be available for use by March.

UNMC Today Announcement https://app1.unmc.edu/publicaffairs/todaysite/sitefiles/today_full.cfm?match=8853

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Nebraska seeing more cash for startups

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From the Lincoln Journal-Star

LINCOLN, Neb. (Nov. 28, 2011)—Nebraska has long lagged behind the rest of the nation when it comes to financing for startup businesses.

More than one ranking has put the state near the bottom — or in some cases at the bottom — in venture capital funding. And other forms of financing such as angel investments and seed capital also can be hard to find.

But that may be changing.

Within the past few months, nearly $60 million in new public and private funds has become available for startup and other small businesses.

Nebraska Global Investment Co. — a venture capital firm that finances the creation and development of software companies in Nebraska — earlier this year closed its fund at $37.3 million, about $7 million more than it hoped for and about $10 million less than it could have raised.

Add to that more than $21 million in federal and state money targeted at startup companies, entrepreneurs and innovation, and you’ve suddenly got a bigger pot.

“It’s a good problem to have,” said Dan Hoffman, executive director of Invest Nebraska. The nonprofit group has a contract with the state to create angel investment funds to match a one-time infusion of $12.6 million from the federal government.

Of the money, $9 million is for loans for existing startup companies, and $3.6 million is for equity or convertible debt investments in startup companies that must be matched by private angel fund investments.

The idea of states taking equity investments in startup companies may seem like a new or novel idea, but it’s actually something that has been going on for several years.

“Most of the other states have been doing this for quite some time,” Hoffman said.

The reason the state is stepping forward now is because an economic study showed Nebraska officials what those in the business community have known for a long time: The state lags in financing opportunities for startup companies.

The Battelle Institute study recommended the state come up with an angel investment tax credit and help facilitate the formation of a private sector-driven innovation and technology development organization, as well as create a private sector-driven venture financing entity.

Gary Hamer, the interim director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, said the state took the Battelle recommendations very seriously.

The Legislature approved a tax credit for angel investors, and the state nearly quadrupled the amount of money available to startup companies and early stage businesses.

Hamer said it’s not really any big change in the way the state goes about economic development, as it has always had a big emphasis on helping small, homegrown businesses.

But people usually hear only about the economic development “home runs,” such as PayPal in LaVista and Verizon Wireless in Lincoln.

“Over time, if you put enough money into startups, you’re gonna have some home runs,” Hamer said.

Whether the recent infusion of money is enough is up for debate.

Patrick Smith, the chief operating officer of Nebraska Global and one of its founding partners, said the nearly $60 million “really does not scratch the surface” of the available capital that’s out there.

“There is significantly more capital available in the state than this, including early funders for startups,” Smith said.  “The difference (with the new money) is more publicity, legislation and general public acknowledgment around wanting more startup activity and entrepreneur activity.”

Smith said the federal and state money will fill a niche in early funding rounds when a business may be too small to appeal to early stage investors such as angel investors. Also, the matching funds for seed capital investments can act as a multiplier for smaller investments.

“If there is a small round on a very early stage idea, doing some matching funds made available from the feds or state can be beneficial,” he said. “However, the dollars become less meaningful when you have substantially larger rounds or are in later stages of investment.”

Smith, however, said he’s also concerned about how the government money will be spent.

Specifically, he said, he’s concerned it may not generate additional business activity and instead will go to companies that have been turned down by other investors.

“I would hazard a guess that any loud voice regarding the lack of capital available, in part, came from people who sought capital with poor ideas and businesses that never should have received any funding,” Smith said.

“It will be an interesting retrospective on the use of dollars if they go toward deals that all others have passed on for good reason. I would love to think we are wrong and that a lot of additional successful activity is created, but I am not certain how to reconcile how that may happen at this point.”

Hoffman of Invest Nebraska said that’s where his organization comes in.

“That’s the reason why the department has partnered with Invest Nebraska,” he said.

The organization’s board of directors has venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and others with the necessary expertise.

Hoffman also said that similar state government-nonprofit partnerships in other states have proved successful.

 

Government money for startups

Federal money (one-time funds that the state has two years to use)

Nebraska Progress Loan Fund: $9 million

Nebraska Progress Seed Fund: $3.6 million

State money

Nebraska Operational Assistance Act: $250,000

Nebraska Economic Gardening Program: $200,000

SBIR Initiative: $1 million

Nebraska Innovation Fund: $3 million

Nebraska Research and Development Program: $2 million

Microenterprise Technical Assistance: $300,000

Microenterprise Financial Assistance: $700,000

InternNE Internship Grants: $1.5 million

Source: Invest Nebraska

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UNeMed Innovation Week Award Ceremony Celebrates Innovation at UNMC

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OMAHA, Neb. (Nov. 11, 2011)—Hundreds gathered in Omaha last week to recognize local inventors and researchers in science fields as part of the UNeMed Innovation Week. Research, newly developed equipment and innovations in technology were among the top award winners at the week-long event.

The event was the culmination of an entire year’s worth of research and gave awards, licensing and patents to recognized award recipients. The event was hosted and put on by UNeMed, a corporation part of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Since UNeMed was founded in 1991, it has worked with researchers to bring innovative ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace and helps provide licenses, patents and grants to these researchers

“Innovation Week culminates in the awards ceremony,” said Steve Schreiner, Licensing and Marketing director of UNeMed. “We invite everyone we can onto campus and we invite everyone who submitted an idea to us. We acknowledge each of those. There are 70 to 100 people on that list. The awards ceremony highlights who on campus has submitted an idea to UNeMed.”

Early in the week, speakers and scheduled events focused on UNeMed’s work. What started as a small event a few years ago now sees nearly 200 guests and it continues to grow. Schreiner said Innovation Week is entrepreneurial itself because it started small and on its own and grew to the size it is today.

The Innovation Week program works as a way to help patent the ideas of innovative researchers and developers in the science field. People who have ideas go to UNeMed and pitch these ideas. The best ones are selected for grants, licensing and patents and are recognized at the Innovation Week event.

The awards are broken into three categories. The first category is devoted to special awards to the ideas that are most promising. Schreiner said these awards are the ones with the most potential and would have the biggest impact, not necessarily produce the most money. This award is given each year and the winners receive $10,000 in unrestricted grants to use for research and funds.

The second category is called the emerging inventor award and provides $25,000 in unrestricted research grants to someone on the campus that’s working in an innovative area that will bring commercial value to the office. This was only the second year this award was given. This year’s winner of the emerging inventor award was Amar Natarajan, PhD, an associate professor at the Eppley Institute. Natajaran’s research focuses on anti-cancer compounds.

The emerging inventor award isn’t provided every year and in years it isn’t handed out, a lifetime achievement award is given. So far, two lifetime achievement awards have been given.

Another award was the most promising new invention award. Dr. Stephen Bonasera, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine, was awarded the most promising new invention award. In addition to these honors, UNeMed releases patents to seven researchers and licensed technologies for ten others.

Up until recently those involved with Innovation Week have been solely individuals working in the University of Nebraska system. However, Schreiner said that the field has expanded to include inventors from outside the university. Schreiner said by opening up Innovation Week to others, more ideas can be given the chance to receive grants, patents and licensing that normally would not.

“We’ve begun taking on external (outside the University of Nebraska system) customers and we try to work with them on a pay basis,” Schreiner said. “Now we can actually work with them and we can actually treat them like our own inventers [and they benefit].”

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UNeMed Emerging Inventor, Amarnath Natarajan, discusses his research

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Amarnath Natarajan, PhD, stood up and walked to a white board covered in red, black and green, hand-drawn chemistry diagrams.  “If you really are interested, I can tell you about this all day,” the associate professor in the Eppley Institute said.

He cleared a section of the board and began to draw lines and ovals that symbolize proteins, cancer cells and a compound he and his team have designed that has the potential to make cancer cells sensitive to treatment by blocking the inter cellular communication mechanisms.  The longer he talked, the faster he drew. He explained how his compound works and why it shows promise as a way to treat pancreatic cancer, one of nature’s most efficient human killers, as well as other forms of cancer.

His excitement took him back to his younger days in India when his science class dissolved coins in acid to learn about metals.  “I was amazed to learn about the elements contained in coins,” Dr. Natarajan said.  That one experiment ignited a curiosity that led him to organic chemistry and, eventually, create his own compounds.

His first compound was conceived around Thanksgiving of 1996 in his laboratory at the University of Vermont, where he hid from the cold. He had recently moved from his native India and never experienced temperatures below 75 degrees. Inside the warm laboratory, while others ate turkey and watched football, he worked on his novel compound that would serve as part of a new drug.

Since that day he has discovered several other compounds, including the one to treat pancreatic cancer, yet the feeling of discovery never gets old, he said.  “I still get excited when I or someone on my team discovers a new compound,” Dr. Natarajan said. “I truly love discovering something new.”

Dr. Natarajan isn’t the only one excited by his work.  He came to UNMC at the request of Hamid Band, M.D., PhD, professor and associate director of translational research in the Eppley Institute.  The two met when Dr. Band – then a faculty member at Northwestern University — visited the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where Dr. Natarajan worked at the time.  Their discussion soon turned to collaboration on Dr. Band’s work in breast cancer.

When Dr. Band came to Omaha a couple years ago, he suggested Dr. Natarajan consider doing the same.  After a visit to the medical center, Dr. Natarajan decided UNMC offered a lot in terms of opportunity and potential, so he moved his team from Texas to Omaha.  “As a biologist, it’s been very exciting to have a chemist on hand to add his input and expertise into our work,” Dr. Band said. “He’s a tremendous asset and stands to significantly aid us in our quest to battle cancer and help patients.”

One of Dr. Natarajan’s biggest assets is his willingness to expand his knowledge and expertise to other areas of medical science, Dr. Band said.  “He actually taught himself biology,” Dr. Band said, with a tone of admiration n his voice.

With his new expertise, Dr. Natarajan has bridged the two traditionally separate fields of chemistry and biology in a manner that could benefit many.  One of just a few medicinal chemists on the UNMC campus, Dr. Natarajan has the expertise and skills to make UNMC a player in the world of cancer drug discovery, said Michael Dixon, PhD, president and CEO of UNeMed, UNMC’s technology and transfer arm. UNeMed recently honored Dr. Natarajan with its Emerging Inventor Award for his compound.

The creation of novel compounds has led to some incredibly profitable developments at several universities, Dr. Dixon said.  He points to Florida State University, where a team of scientists led by Robert Holton, PhD, created a synthetic version of the cancer drug, Taxol –  a discovery that led the school to receive $350 million in royalties.  “The compounds Dr. Natarajan is developing have never been created before and could lead to powerful new treatments for cancer,” Dr. Dixon said. “This is good news all around as it benefits patients and could significantly affect UNMC economically.”

The potential for financial windfall is intriguing for Dr. Natarajan, but it doesn’t drive him. No, the fuel for this fire has been the same the whole time.  “My interest goes beyond chemistry, beyond biology, beyond cancer,” Dr. Natarajan said. “I’m interested in science, period. That’s what excites me.”  It always has.

He’s here to help

If you’re a researcher and you need a compound made, Amarnath Natarajan, PhD, wants you to call him.   “We are always open to collaborations and exploring ways to help others in their research,” Dr. Natarajan said.  “We’re open to pretty much anybody.”  Dr. Natarajan and his team now work with Eppley Institute’s Hamid Band, M.D., PhD, and Tony Hollingsworth, PhD, professor and director of pancreatic cancer research.  Dr. Natarajan has created compounds that have helped with Dr. Band’s breast cancer research and have shown promise in Dr. Hollingsworth study of how to better treat pancreatic cancer.

He’s also in conversation with several other campus researchers about making compounds to help advance their research.  Dr. Natarajan is interested in helping any researcher, regardless of field of study, who has a need for a new compound.  “Our skill set is that we can make small molecules, which later may become the basis of drugs and treatments,” Dr. Natarajan said.

“If you need small molecules made, that’s a job for us.”

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2011 Innovation Week – Calendar of Events

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Poised for a patent change

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by Ross Boettcher, Omaha World-Herald

The plan to dramatically shift the U.S. patent system is prompting mixed reactions from Midlands companies and universities preparing for the changes.

After President Barack Obama signs into law the America Invents Act — the first major patent system overhaul in nearly 60 years — the country’s system will flip from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file system, bringing the U.S. in line with most other nations around the world.

For those who aren’t scientists, intellectual property attorneys or inventors, here’s what the legislation passed by Congress on Thursday means:

Under first-to-invent, entrepreneurs and inventors had a one-year grace period to determine whether their inventions were worth filing patents on. During that time, they could meet with investors or corporate partners and get a better understanding of how valuable their invention might be. If the idea leaked to another inventor or company and it filed a patent first, the initial inventor would have an opportunity to prove that he was the original inventor by keeping logs that prove when the idea was born.

Under the America Invents Act, the patent goes to the first inventor or company to file for an idea or product even if not the first to conceive it.

The new system is aimed at relieving a backlog of patent filings, curbing costly patent litigation and stimulating innovation.

Officials at some Midlands businesses that are heavily tied to patented technology, ideas and products said they’re leery that the new law could favor large corporations and change the way small companies and inventors innovate and assess whether their creations are worth patenting.

“The read that we have is that the first-to-file is going to force companies to file a lot quicker than you normally would. And maybe more often,” said John Gustafson, president and chief executive of Prairie Ventures, a private Omaha-based holding firm with operating companies in publishing, telemedicine, medical technology, business intelligence, staffing and social networking.

“We’re going through and reviewing our (intellectual property) portfolio and evaluating what filings we may want to accelerate instead of waiting until the end of the one-year period,” Gustafson said.

Ryan Grace, a patent attorney who represents Omaha-based ConAgra Foods Inc., said large companies are positioned to take advantage of the first-to-file system because they have more money to spend on filing more patents more often and larger legal teams to help handle that volume increase.

But some small firms and individual inventors, Grace said, will thrive in a first-to-file system because they weren’t properly documenting the development of their inventions under the first-to-invent system, making it impossible to prove that they were the first.

“To them, it was a first-to-file system before,” Grace said.

Other business officials agree that the changes overall improve the system.

Nebraska’s largest patent-holder, with 80 patents secured from 2006 to 2010, Lincoln’s J.A. Woollam Co., takes a big-picture perspective and says the United States is simply falling in line with the rest of the world.

“My personal belief is that it will change the way we file (patents) for sure and what we disclose and don’t disclose,” said Greg Pribil, an engineer at J.A. Woollam, which develops spectroscopic ellipsometer technology for testing materials with light.

“But as far as the grand scheme of things, I don’t think we’re too concerned. Considering that it’s (first-to-file) everywhere else, we already have to deal with that.”

Connie Ryan, the president of Streck Labs, which produces clinical laboratory products and received 39 patents from 2006 to 2010, said Streck has long supported the first-to-file system because it will streamline the patenting process and cut down on expensive litigation.

“We’ve believed in it for a long time,” Ryan said. “All the rest of the world is first-to-file. Only the U.S. is first-to-invent.”

Streck Labs, Ryan said, has spent millions of dollars on litigation involving patent infringement. In 2002 and again in the past year, Streck went to federal court to protect its patents. One case was settled by a California company for a reported $39 million plus royalties. In the second case, a jury decided in Streck’s favor.

Pioneer Hi-bred, the international seed company headquartered in Des Moines, also thinks the legislation is an improvement over the existing law.

“While it is not perfect, we believe it better aligns the U.S. with international patent systems,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement. “Ultimately, improvements like this will help encourage innovation and job growth.”

Some other large, patent-holding Midlands firms have been largely silent on the issue. A spokeswoman declined to comment for Atlanta-based payment processing giant First Data, which has significant operations in Omaha. A spokesman at West Corp., the Omaha-based provider of voice- and technology-based business outsourcing services, also declined to comment.

Many of the nation’s large companies — including Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Google, General Electric and Johnson & Johnson — supported passage of the America Invents Act.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the United Steelworkers and the Association of American Universities also favor the change.

Much of the debate in the six years it took to pass the patent revisions centered on issues related to money.

Because of inventors needing to file more patents frequently under the first-to-file policy, Nita Lovejoy, associate director of the Iowa State University research foundation, expects more of the university’s budget to be allocated toward patent filing. Typically, Iowa State spends between $800,000 and $900,000 on patents. When the bill becomes law in 18 months, Lovejoy expects that number to exceed $1 million.

Lovejoy said the updated system could cause some problems for universities to find corporate sponsors to back their inventions because it’s critical that information about the invention or idea not leak into the wrong hands. “There’s going to be more questions about value of what we have.”

But for the most part, Lovejoy said, the results will be positive for ISU.

“We are fortunate that we’re self-supporting and have some funds to be able to meet these challenges, but we don’t want to frivolously start filing on everything,” Lovejoy said. “I’m sure we’ll be doing some analysis of how we’re reviewing inventions as they come in.”

Michael Dixon, president and CEO of UNeMed Corp., which helps bring inventions from the University of Nebraska system to market, said the passing of the reform will be a boon for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as long as the money gained by patent fees are kept within the patent system. The money, he said, is expected to hire more patent office employees, update software programs and increase the number of satellite offices across the country.

“I think the biggest reason that most universities are in support of this is the fee diversion,” Dixon said. “The patent and trademark offices have been used as a piggy bank for years, funding other programs. By now allowing them to keep the fees they charge it will help clear out the backlog of patents in the system. That’s the biggest benefit to the reform, for us.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was a longtime supporter of patent reform, primarily because he sees it eliminating patents that allow companies to find loopholes in the tax system or hold exclusive rights to use loopholes.

“More and more legal tax strategies are unavailable or more expensive for more and more taxpayers,” Grassley said in a statement after the bill’s passage. “We have to protect the right of taxpayers to have equal access to legal tax strategies.”

The Senate passed a final version of the bill on Thursday with rare bipartisan support. Nebraska Sens. Ben Nelson, a Democrat, and Mike Johanns, a Republican, and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat, joined Grassley in voting for final passage. The bill had passed the House in June.

Obama signaled his support most recently in his Thursday night address about job creation, calling the bill “the kind of action we need.”

“You passed reform,” he told Congress, “that will speed up the outdated patent process so that entrepreneurs can turn a new idea into a new business as quickly as possibly.”

Contact the writer:

402-444-1414, ross.boettcher@owh.com

twitter.com/rossboettcher

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Gov. Heineman signs Talent & Innovation Initiative Bills into law

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LINCOLN, Neb. (May 24, 2011)—Governor Dave Heineman today signed the final measures of a four-part legislative package into law. The Talent and Innovation Initiative was a 2011 legislative priority for the Governor and introduced by several State Senators on his behalf. The initiative is aimed at advancing business innovation and strengthening workforce recruitment efforts in Nebraska.

“The Talent and Innovation Initiative is about enhancing technology and innovation, and growing and attracting new, technology-focused companies to Nebraska,” Gov. Heineman said. “It puts a laser-like focus on growing Nebraska’s innovation economy. With this initiative, Nebraska has one of the strongest public policy strategies in place to advance business recruitment and development.”

Based on 2010 recommendations made in a comprehensive review of Nebraska’s economic climate, the Talent & Innovation Initiative was developed to better leverage existing funds and enhance momentum in developing industries positioned to benefit from technology and innovation. Programs contained in the bills will be implemented by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

LB 386, the Nebraska Internship Program, introduced by Sen. Lavon Heidemann of Elk Creek, takes effect June 1. It is a partnership with Nebraska businesses to create new internship opportunities for college and university students. Funded with $1.5 million a year in job training funds, and matched by eligible companies, the program will create opportunities for 500 to 750 juniors and seniors studying at four-year institutions or students in their second year at a Nebraska community college to gain job experience.

Awards will be made on a first-come, first-serve basis to companies creating new internship opportunities, which are capped at 10 per business. Internships will pay at least minimum wage and range from 12 week to year-long programs.

LB 387, the Business Innovation Act, introduced by Sen. Galen Hadley of Kearney, intended to help businesses develop new technologies to enhance quality job opportunities in the state. It will provide competitive grants for research at Nebraska institutions, new product development and testing, and help expand small business and entrepreneur outreach efforts.

It will expand grant opportunities within targeted industries to help businesses providing matching funds with prototype development, commercialization and applied research in the state and provide assistance for microenterprise projects. The law takes effect Oct. 1.

LB 388, the Site & Building Development Fund, introduced by Sen. John Wightman of Lexington, takes effect Oct. 1 and is intended to help increase industrial and commercial sites available and ready for business development. Communities will provide matching funds toward projects that can involve demolition, new construction and rehabilitation. State funding will be focused on land and infrastructure costs with 40 percent of funding available to non-metro areas.

LB 389, the Angel Investment Tax Credit, introduced by Sen. Abbie Cornett of Bellevue, is effective for the current tax year. It encourages investment in high-tech and other startup enterprises in Nebraska by providing refundable state income tax credits to qualified investors investing in qualified early-stage companies. Capped at $3 million annually, the program requires a minimum investment of $25,000 for individuals and $50,000 for investment funds. Eligible small businesses must have fewer than 25 employees, with the majority based in the state.

Additionally, the Governor signed LB 345, the Small Business Innovation Act sponsored by Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, which provides additional tools and technical assistance for entrepreneurs across Nebraska.

Gov. Heineman said, “I want to thank the many senators who supported these proposals, the business community and other private sector leaders. This is about making investments that will develop new career opportunities in innovative and technologically-advanced sectors.”

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KUDOS award to Valerie Gunderson

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OMAHA, Neb. (May 20, 2011)—On behalf of the Board of Regents, UNeMed Business Manager Valerie Gunderson was presented a KUDOS award by Chancellor Harold Mauer.

Her supervisor and nominator, James Linder, M.D., executive director of the UNeMed Corporation and professor of pathology and microbiology, said, “As the ‘administrator’ of UNeMed (the technology transfer office for UNMC), Val has helped to grow the unit during periods of recruiting and staff realignment. She has helped communicate the mission of UNeMed to our internal customers (faculty and staff) and to our external partners (UNL, UNO, Creighton University, the Omaha Chamber of Commerce and private business). These interactions are carried out with the highest quality work and represent UNMC in an outstanding manner.” Dr. Linder also said, “Val is known to virtually all administrative personnel on campus because of the years of service she has provided at UNMC. From implementing the Electronic Residency Application Service for all medical students to creating the awareness among faculty of grant transfer opportunities, Val is part of the administrative bedrock that allows UNMC to accomplish its mission.”

Another nominator, Michael Dixon, PhD, director of UNeMed, said, “Val has the unique ability to bridge the scientists, lawyers, business professionals, paralegals, marketing specialists and administrative associates in our group to ensure that the ‘job gets done and on time.’ She also always knows the right person or department to contact for anything.”

Today, Valerie Gunderson has brought her husband, Scott Gunderson and her direct supervisor and nominator, Dr. Jim Linder.

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UNeMed hosts Midwest Technology Exchange on May 8-10

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OMAHA, Neb. (May 6, 2011)—Over the past few years there has been an increasing discussion that commercialization of university-based discoveries is essential to help the US recover from the latest economic recession.  As noted by Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke, “How well America moves ideas out of the research lab and into the marketplace will determine whether we remain the most competitive and vibrant economy in the world.”

As any third grade geography teacher will tell you, the Midwestern states comprise a large percentage of the US land mass.  What you won’t find in that geography book is that there is also a considerable amount of medical research occurring in this corridor.  With the majority of biomedical commercialization resources and venture capital located on the two coasts, it is essential that the Midwest collaborate to leverage resources effectively.

On May 8-10 in Omaha, NE, the Midwest Technology Exchange (mTechx) will gather an internationally-renowned panel of speakers to help lead a collaborative conference focusing on the development and commercialization of Midwestern technologies which have been developed in collaboration with the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) and the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC).  Confirmed speakers include, Richard Bendis of Innovation AmericaSteven G. Burrill of Burrill & CompanyLesa Mitchell of the Kauffman FoundationRohit Shukla of Larta, and Jim Jaffe of NASVF.  See the bios of all the speakers here.

This conference will be an inclusive two-day meeting that will bring together Army funded principal investigators in the Midwest region, technology transfer experts, company representatives, venture capitals, economic developers, military and civilian experts to discuss and collaborate on advanced methods to achieve tangible commercial success and develop an infrastructure to help advance technology development and commercialization of Army funded projects in the Midwest.

For more information on mTechx, visit our website www.mtechx.org or download MTECHX May 8-10, 2011.

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Licensing Executives Society seminar on IP and licensing is April 16

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OMAHA, Neb. (April 10, 2011)—Do you want to know more about how to protect your ideas and inventions? Are you curious about how to move an idea to the marketplace? On April 16, 2011 UNeMed and the Licensing Executives Society (LES) will host a one day seminar, “Intellectual Property and Licensing Basics” in the Durham Research Center on the UNMC Campus in Omaha.

This course is designed for anyone interested in developing a fundamental understanding of Intellectual Property (IP) commercialization, including students, faculty researchers, entrepreneurs, postdocs, business development professionals and business owners.  Those who attend will gain a practical understanding of core IP and licensing concepts from both the business and legal perspectives, which will help them to understand and participate effectively in the process of protecting IP and facilitating its commercialization.

In today’s innovation economy, protection and commercialization of IP is the best way to create high growth/high value companies.  IP is used as a means to spur business development, job creation and to help secure a competitive advantage.

The course is taught by both legal and business experts who leverage real-world examples, interactive exercises and valuable information sharing between instructors and fellow students to cover the material in a very dynamic way.

The course covers five areas:

  • IP Basics: patents, trademarks, know-how, and trade secrets
  • Smart strategies for creating, organizing, managing and securing IP assets
  • Bringing IP to market
  • Royalties and ideas for maximizing IP value
  • A licensing game with an interactive deal negotiation

 This is part of LES’ popular Professional Development Series. LES is a professional society comprised of nearly 5,000 members engaged in the transfer, use, development and marketing of intellectual property.

This course has been approved for 7.5 hours of CLE credit.  Registration includes breakfast, lunch and a networking reception.  And, this is a particularly good opportunity for students who can register for only $35 and receive a free one-year membership to LES (USA & Canada).   For more information about the seminar:  LES Seminar 4.16.11.

For more information on the course or to register visit www.lesusacanada.org/newlicensing/apr11.

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UNMC brings in Research Funding

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by Leslie Reed, Omaha World-Herald

OMAHA, Neb. (March 12, 2011)—University of Nebraska Medical Center leaders appear to have found the magic formula to expand federally funded research.

They built state-of-the-art research towers in midtown Omaha and stocked them with sophisticated laboratory equipment. The facilities helped attract more top-notch scientists. Those scientists, in turn, helped win more federal grant dollars. Research funding at the medical center has increased an average of nearly 27 percent each of the past three years, Vice Chancellor Tom Rosenquist told the NU Board of Regents Friday.

“It’s no secret — we just have a strategic plan to utilize our best research space to recruit and retain the best scientists,” he said in an interview. “We make this a desirable place for people to come and to stay and to do their research.”

He credited researchers like Ken Bayles, wooed from the University of Idaho five years ago, who does groundbreaking work on antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Howard Fox came three years ago from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., to study the chronic effects of HIV on the nervous system.  Not all of the big grant generators are new recruits, however. Irv Zucker has been on the UNMC faculty since 1971, studying congestive heart failure.

“I think facilities are critical to attracting top faculty,” said UNMC Chancellor Harold Maurer. “We’ve got great core laboratories and great infrastructure to allow research. If you have all that, you have the ability to attract the best and the brightest.”

UNMC researchers have been able to capture a growing share of National Institutes of Health funding even though NIH funds are increasingly limited, Rosenquist said.  UNMC has outperformed its peer group institutions. Over the past five years, NIH research funding at the medical center has grown 35.5 percent. The University of Kansas Medical Center, also with more than 30 percent growth, is the peer that comes the closest. But the remaining eight peer institutions had less than 10 percent growth. Four received fewer NIH dollars in 2009 than they did in 2005.

With $91.6 million in federal research grants for the 2009-10 fiscal year, UNMC is closing the gap with its sister campus, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which reported $94.3 million in federal research funding for the same time frame.

It’s not that UNL is slacking off. It has increased its research effort by an average of nearly 11 percent a year for over the past three years.

“We should be proud of these two campuses, they’re outcompeting their academic peers,” said Richard Hoffman, associate vice president for academic affairs and research, in the NU Provost’s Office.

In 2007-08, UNL received $72.3 million in federal research grants, while UNMC collected $43 million.The N  U system now collects more than $300 million a year in outside support for its research, NU President J.B. Milliken said. The bulk of that funding comes in the form of federal grants awarded to UNL and UNMC faculty researchers.  Both campuses have exceeded goals set by the regents for growth in federal research dollars.  It may be challenging to maintain that momentum, however.

Matt Hammons, NU’s director of federal relations, warned that federal budget cuts likely will make the competition for federal research dollars more intense in coming years.  “We are really entering a new era,” he said.   In addition, neither UNMC nor UNL have given faculty a general pay increase during the past three years, because of state budget cuts.

As of 2009-10, UNL average faculty salaries were 4.6 percent lower than the average paid at 10 comparable institutions, such as Iowa State, Iowa, Purdue and Ohio State. UNMC faculty salaries, not including clinical staff, were 7.4 percent lower than nine comparable institutions, such as Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas and the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Milliken told the regents that NU will make an effort to boost faculty salaries next year, even though it does not expect to receive increased funding from state government. He said that may require budget cuts elsewhere in the system.

Maurer told board members that improving salaries is the Med Center’s “No. 1” budget priority.

“People are coming to me to talk about it,” he said. “People are going to leave unless it’s addressed.”

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Dr. Amar Natarajan is here to help

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UNeMed gains record licensing revenue with tenfold increase

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From the December 10, 2010 issue of the Midlands Business Journal. Reprinted with permission.

UNeMed’s work to see ideas and research become products and solutions that may be sold and used to advance health care is shown with the likes of Vireo Systems or Virtual Incision.

Vireo is a manufacturer of nutritional supplements with a brick and mortar presence in Plattsmouth, Neb., which has been an economic engine generating jobs and even overseas busi­ness. Virtual Incision Corp. is set to make its remotely controlled surgical tools available to health care practitioners. These research ini­tiatives-turned-viable businesses represent the seven of every 10 patents that go on to be licensed — and in turn available to industry — thanks to UNeMed’s support.

“One of the central criticisms of any tech­nology transfer is to patent things that are not available to industry,” said CEO Dr. James Linder. But in this case, he said, 70 percent of all the ideas are later commercialized and “sent out the door” to be used by the greater society.

This is in contrast to the industry average for programs comparable to UNeMed, which focus on taking intellectual property out of the lab and bringing it to the marketplace.

“The national average is 50-50,” said President Michael Dixon, PhD As such, the idea has just as much of a chance of never be­ing broadly used, as it does of being utilized by industry; however, the odds are in favor of success on this front, with regard to UNeMed.

Specifically, Dixon said, as of mid- November there were 543 patents and patent applications. Of those, 377 are licensed.

“That means a company is working to develop it into a product,” he said.

Dixon said the total number grows by some 15 to 25 patents each year. With regard to actual license agreements, UNeMed ex­pects roughly 15 to 17 new ones every year. Last year, he said, it was on the higher end of the scale at 17. These new licensing agreements also represent a twofold increase over 2006 and 2007 figures, according to Dixon.

“Just looking at last year, our licensing revenue was $2.1 million, which was the most we’ve been able to generate with tech li­censing ever,” he said, noting this represents a tenfold increase in the past four to five years.

Linder attributes such boosts directly to Dixon and his team’s interfacing with in­dustry.

“We try to be an inventor-friendly office, as well as an industry-friendly office,” he said. “We want to see the technology put to use, and we’re not difficult to work with.”

For example, Linder noted that in addi­tion to listening to one’s needs, technology may be utilized for some time before full terms kick in, which helps to develop a relationship with what he coins a “mutually beneficial arrangement.”

UNeMed has also got a little help from some external factors.

“The country’s been in an economic downturn for a couple of years now and that’s caused a lot of job loss, and companies are looking for ways to get back on track,” Linder said. “There is more of a national emphasis on looking into universities and trying to understand there is technology there to try to utilize.”

In fact, Dixon referred to the $130 million in research activity at the med center, which shoots up to more than $350 million when combined with other research institutions, like Creighton University.

In turn, Linder said the organization’s team has worked hard to develop relation­ships and collaborate with other entities, such as the Peter Kiewit Institute. Linder is also on the board of the Halo Institute; based out of Creighton, it seeks to transform ideas into viable business in part through the guidance of existing business professionals.

UNeMed is also focusing on fostering relationships that enable long-term research to be funded, in a way that flies in the face of traditional funding, through the likes of NIH grants.

The UNeMed team supports entrepre­neurs in other ways as well, recently judg­ing three business plan competitions in one week. It’s also working to solidify plans for a technology commercialization and economic development conference, with a focus on government-related tech transfer, in March.

It’s expected that more than 100 universi­ties and 30 companies hailing from at least 17 states will be on hand.

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