UCinSoCal - Startups in the News

UCLA Startup, Solarmer Energy, Inc., to Present on Plastic Solar Cells with Greater than 5% Efficiency

bnidever@ucla.edu — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:21:00 GMT

EL MONTE, CA--(Marketwire - September 26, 2008) - Dr. Vishal Shrotriya, Director of Technology Development, will present Solarmer Energy, Inc.'s progress toward delivering commercial grade plastic solar cells and future plans at the Organic Semiconductor Conference in Frankfurt, Germany on September 30, 2008. The talk will focus on three key efforts contributing to significant progress towards the company's goals: success in materials development leading to improvements in efficiency, an emphasis on making translucent solar cells a reality, and plans to prove the manufacturability of Solarmer's plastic solar cells.

"We are very excited about having the flexibility to work with three distinct polymer systems that have attained more than 5% efficiency in the lab," said Dr. Yue Wu, Senior Researcher and leader of Solarmer's Device Engineering team. "These results were made possible through the successful combination of the device engineering and materials development expertise of Solarmer and our partners, and will give us multiple routes to explore to achieve higher efficiency and successful delivery of our commercial grade prototype." [marketwire] MORE

UCSD Technology Licensed by Urigen Pharmaceuticals

bnidever@ucla.edu — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:13:00 GMT

"For the millions of sufferers of a bladder condition called painful bladder syndrome/interstitial cystitis, hope is on the way, developed by urologic surgeon and researcher Lowell Parsons, M.D. of the University of California, San Diego Medical Center.

"What our team has identified is an experimental drug therapy that can provide pain relief to patients within 20 minutes," said Parsons, professor of surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine. "Depending on the individual, in my experience, one dose can last from 6 to 40 hours. The ability of the therapy to provide immediate relief is something entirely new for sufferers of interstitial cystitis."

"The new drug therapy combination has been licensed by UC San Diego Technology Transfer & Intellectual Property Services to Urigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for further clinical development and commercialization. [MedicalNewsToday] MORE

UCI Startup, RF Nano, Receives $8M to Develop Carbon Nanotubes for High-performance Wireless Communications

bnidever@ucla.edu — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:28:00 GMT

"Oxantium Ventures raised $8 million in venture capital to speed up technology development at RF Nano Corp., which makes radio frequency devices from carbon nanotubes.

The D.C.-based technology investment group led the round and Laguna Beach, Calif.-based Okapi Ventures, an existing RF Nano investor, also participated.

Newport Beach, Calif-based RF Nano is prepping its devices to dive into the $60 billion analog and mixed-signal communications markets. The three-year-old privately held company is targeting the sampling of its first products for the first quarter of 2009." [WashingtonBusinessJrnl] MORE

UCI Startup, Antigen Discovery Inc., Awarded SBIR Phase II Grant to Commericialize Novel Protein Microarray Based Platform

bnidever@ucla.edu — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:52:00 GMT

IRVINE, Calif., July 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Antigen Discovery Inc. ("ADI", formerly ImmPORT Therapeutics Inc.), a leader in high throughput antigen/biomarker discovery using advanced genomics and proteomics tools, announced today that the Company was awarded a Phase II SBIR from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). The $3 million grant will fund efforts to further develop ADI's protein microarray based serodiagnostic platform for applications in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases. ADI will collaborate with investigators at the Proteomics Core facility of the Pacific Southwest Regional Center of Excellence (PSW RCE), located at the University of California, Irvine.

"The major bottleneck that limits the translation of readily available genomic information into the development of next generation diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics, is the continued lack of effective antigen and biomarker discovery tools," said Dr. Xiaowu Liang, CEO of ADI. "We are grateful that the SBIR program continues to fund ADI and our UCI collaborators in the further development of this exciting new technology platform that truly revolutionizes the screening and detection of disease markers." [prnewswire] MORE

Raptor Pharmaceutical Inc. Enters Collaboration Agreement with University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in Liver Disease

bnidever@ucla.edu — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:31:00 GMT

"NOVATO, Calif., July 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Raptor Pharmaceuticals Corp. ("Raptor" or the "Company") , today announced the execution of a collaboration agreement (the "Agreement") with the University of California, San Diego ("UCSD") to include a Phase 2a clinical trial to evaluate a delayed-release preparation of cysteamine bitartrate ("Cysteamine") in adolescents diagnosed with Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis ("NASH"). NASH is a progressive form of liver disease that accounts for approximately 10% of newly diagnosed cases of chronic liver disease, and ranks as one of the leading causes of cirrhosis of the liver in the U.S.

Under the terms of the Agreement, clinical researchers from UCSD will perform the Phase 2a study at the University's General Clinical Research Center, and Raptor will provide funding and clinical supply of Cysteamine. In March 2008, Raptor acquired an exclusive, worldwide license to certain intellectual property and development rights from UCSD surrounding the use of Cysteamine as a potential treatment for NASH. [biospace] MORE

Nitride Solutions wins UCSB start-up prizes

bnidever@ucla.edu — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:03:00 GMT

" In this year’s University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Technology Management Program New Venture Competition at the end of May $25,000 was distributed between five winners in different categories. Winning $10,000 and $5,000 in the ‘Most Fundable Idea’ and ‘Dow Materials Use’ categories, respectively, was the startup Nitride Solutions of Santa Barbara, CA, USA.

" Nitride Solutions is dedicated to commercializing a process developed in UCSB’s engineering labs for the manufacture of high-quality aluminum nitride (AlN) substrates, enabling the fabrication of low-cost, high-efficiency and long-life ultraviolet LEDs (used for sterilizing medical devices or biological detection) and electronic devices that are currently not commercially available. [semiconductorToday] MORE

Neoprobe Expands Access to UCSD Developed Technology

bnidever@ucla.edu — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:08:00 GMT

"DUBLIN, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Neoprobe Corporation (OTCBB: NEOP), a diversified developer of innovative oncology and cardiovascular surgical and diagnostic products, today announced that Neoprobe and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have executed a definitive license agreement involving development rights to a molecular compound developed by researchers at UCSD. The new agreement accords Neoprobe the right to develop products using the compound for human medical applications incorporating optical or ultrasound technology. In addition, the development rights to the compound have been expanded to include veterinary applications. The compound is covered by U.S. patent 6,409,990 and corresponding issued patents in the European Union and Japan.

"William Decker, Assistant Director of the Office of Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Services of UCSD, said, "We're pleased that our office could assist in working with Neoprobe to bring an additional use of this technology to the public at-large." [BusinessWire] MORE

UCSB takes role in diabetes drug project

bnidever@ucla.edu — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:19:00 GMT

" UC Santa Barbara has joined with drugmaker Pfizer and several institutions to foster research that could lead to better understanding and treatment of diabetes.

"Pfizer is putting up $14 million for the first three years of the project, one of the first of its kind. The project embraces a new approach to research that marks a shift in how university and pharmaceutical researchers work and serves as a model for the future, according to those involved in its creation.

'"We have a program at UCSB that is working very much at the interface of medicine and technology," said Frank Doyle, who is heading the project at the university. "Even in the absence of a medical school, we're able to work on partnerships with Big Pharma that are going to deliver enabling medical technology." [VenturaCountyStar]MORE

Startup Commercializes UCLA Technology for Wearable Artificial Kidney

bnidever@ucla.edu — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:25:00 GMT

" Singapore – March 8, 2008: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has entered into a world-wide, exclusive licensing agreement with AWAK Technologies Pte Ltd for the development and commercialization of a peritoneal-based automated wearable artificial kidney (AWAK) for the treatment of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

An important feature of AWAK is that it is peritoneal dialysis-based. Current work by others on wearable artificial kidneys evolve around the technology of hemodialysis or hemofiltration, which require continuous anticoagulation of the extracorporeal circulation and are encumbered with potential immunologic and non-immunologic complications of continuous blood-artificial membrane interactions. Continuous extracorporeal circulation also exposes patients to the constant risk of exsanguinations through accidental disruption of the blood circuit. Prior clinically evaluated hemofiltration-based wearable artificial kidneys have consistently failed because of clotting within a week, in spite of aggressive anticoagulation.

The peritoneal-based AWAK requires no extracorporeal circulation, and is therefore “bloodless”. It is designed to continuously regenerate and reuse the spent peritoneal dialysate in perpetuity and is, therefore, also “waterless”. A sorbent-based assembly regenerates both the aqueous and the protein components (AqC and PrC) of the spent peritoneal dialysate, and produces a novel, autologous protein-containing peritoneal dialysate. [BioSpace] MORE

Industry, UCSB ties are growing

bnidever@ucla.edu — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:35:00 GMT

" SANTA BARBARA — The walls between industry and academe are being scaled in many different ways when it comes to engineering and science at UC Santa Barbara. The relationship is expanding to forge new bonds between the university's resources and research and corporate knowledge and needs.

Ideas from the university reach the market in a variety of ways. Professors at the university have started companies based on their research, and students have created their own companies while in the Technology Management Program.

There has been more than $650 million in venture funding in the past three years for companies with ties to UCSB.

There also are companies that do research at the university or invite university faculty and students into their labs. That's one reason for the corporate affiliates program — to create those partnerships." [VenturaCountyStar] MORE

UCI Startup, Neuromed, Tests Electronic Treatment for Pain, Depression

bnidever@ucla.edu — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:21:00 GMT

"'It sounded too good to be true," said Dave Schetter, the UCI administrator who oversees the university's dealings with technology companies.

" Hand-held electrical devices that zap away cold sores and genital herpes outbreaks, attacking them through the body's nervous system?

" Similar technology to combat pain, depression, tremors, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease?

" Schetter was nervous when he heard about the potential benefits of those devices, invented by Dr. Leon Silverstone and being prepared for regulatory approval and commercial launch by his company, NeuroMed Devices Inc. of Laguna Niguel. [ocregister] MORE

UCSD Startup, Traversa, Raises $2 Million in Angel-led Series A Financing

bnidever@ucla.edu — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:13:00 GMT

" Traversa Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held developer of RNAi delivery technologies, announced recently the completion of a $2 million Series A financing led by the San Diego Tech Coast Angels and joined by investors Mesa Verde Venture Partners and Morningside Group.

" Traversa was founded with technology developed by Professor Steven F. Dowdy, Ph.D., and his research group at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of California San Diego (UCSD) relating to siRNA delivery and the induction of RNA Interference (RNAi). [venturecapital reporter] MORE

Cavity-fighting Herbal Lollipop Created by UCLA Professor, Developed by Startup

bnidever@ucla.edu — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:49:00 GMT

" UCLA microbiologist Wenyuan Shi collaborated with the research company C3 Jian to develop a therapeutic orange-flavored lollipop that is actually good for your teeth. Herbal treatments have been used in China for more than 3,000 years. Professor Shi studied and tested over 1,000 Chinese herbs and determined that an extract of licorice root (Glycyrrhiza uralensis) targets and kills the primary bacteria (streptococccus mutans or S.mutans) responsible for tooth decay. The sugar-free lollipop, marketed as Dr. John's Herbal Candy, is infused with a natural ingredient found in licorice that works against tooth decay. It appears that taking care of your teeth can actually be fun and tasty. [TheFutureofThings] MORE

UCSD project is lauded for startup help

bnidever@ucla.edu — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:34:00 GMT

" The William J. von Liebig Center at the University of California San Diego is a model in how to promote the commercialization of discoveries made in the university's classrooms and laboratories, according to a national study released yesterday.

" In its first six years, the center, at UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering, fostered the startup of 16 companies that have acquired more than $71 million in private capital. The center also funded projects that resulted in four revenue-generating licenses for the university, according to the study by the entrepreneurship-boosting Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Max Planck Institute of Econmics. [SignOnSanDiego]MORE

UCSB gets serious about spin-offs

bnidever@ucla.edu — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:15:00 GMT

" A new program to accelerate and streamline the creation of spin-off businesses from the world-class research at UC Santa Barbara has been launched. UCSB’s Venture Acceleration Initiative (VAI) program supports new ventures through a highly integrated approach to the complex process of moving technology from the lab bench to commercialization. The initiative will benefit not only faculty entrepreneurs and their investors, but will also provide a significant boost to the local and regional economies as the nascent businesses take shape and grow.

" Dr. Don Oparah, the founding director of VAI, emphasized the importance of partnership to the success of the new initiative, stating, “Working closely with the external business world, the local community and other key stakeholders across the state and beyond is an essential part of our strategy for delivering on the vision and promise of VAI.” [MercuryNews] MORE