University Startups in the News

UCLA launches tech incubator to bring research to marketplace

bnidever@ucla.edu — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:36:00 GMT

In a conference on March 24, UCLA/CNSI launched a “technology incubator” – the first of its kind for UC – in conjunction with UCLA’s Office of Intellectual Property and Industry Sponsored Research (OIP-ISR). The event, held in the CNSI auditorium, brought together faculty entrepreneurs, representatives of industry startups and venture capital firms.

The UCLA on-campus technology incubator will be housed in the CNSI building and will offer four to five separate startup projects access to a total of 1,000 square feet of flexible lab space for 18 to 24 months. Only companies that use technology owned by the UC regents will be admitted, and the startups will pay a modest rent based on Westwood market rates.

The incubator is a “culmination of a list of accomplishments made by UCLA over at least five years and highlights the cohesiveness of UCLA’s family – faculty, staff, administration and students, all coming together behind a goal of creating an improved culture of entrepreneurship,” said Kathryn Atchison, vice provost for OIP-ISR. [uclapress] MORE

UCI Startup, Hyperwall, OEM's Technology to Samsung

bnidever@ucla.edu — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:16:00 GMT

" If you like wide-screen TVs and computer monitors, check out Hiperwall's video wall technology. The startup has demonstrated its system running on 40 LCD monitors combined into a display that's 10-feet-high and 27-feet-across. Now, Samsung Electronics has agreed to distribute and support the super-sized, high-resolution displays.

" Hiperwall is a spin-off of the University of California at Irvine. The technology was developed at UC Irvine's California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology. Hiperwall, the company, was created a year ago to commercialize the technology, which goes by the same name. The deal with Samsung represents its first OEM distribution agreement. [InformationWeek] MORE

Electrical Geodesics, Inc. (EGI) Licenses Key Technology for EEG/fMRI Recording from UCLA

bnidever@ucla.edu — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:22:00 GMT

Eugene, Oregon - November 18, 2008 - New techniques for imaging the functional activity of the human brain by simultaneously recording changes in its electrical activity (EEG) and blood flow (fMRI) are contributing important insights into normal and pathological brain functioning. However, the EEG signal recorded with existing EEG/fMRI technologies is often of disappointing quality.

Today, EGI announced that it had licensed a key patent from The Regents of the University of California covering methods for improving the signal quality of the EEG when it is recorded during an MRI exam (U.S. Patent No. 7,286,871, “Method and apparatus for reducing contamination of an electrical signal”). The licensed techniques, developed by Dr. Mark Cohen of UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, allow the artifact introduced into the recorded EEG signal by the large gradient pulses emitted by the MRI during its normal operation to be effectively removed from the data using timing pulses generated by the MRI. Additional claims in the patent protect the use of “twisted” pairs electrodes to help improve the signal-to-noise ratio, which also results in cleaner EEG recordings. [company pr] MORE

WaterStyle Holdings, Inc. and UCLA Announce an Exclusive License for Certain Advanced Technology for Water Sustainability

bnidever@ucla.edu — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:55:00 GMT

" LOS ANGELES, Nov 19, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- WaterStyle Holdings, Inc. ("WSH") and UCLA jointly announce the licensing of certain key intellectual property for use in the water sector. The intellectual property focuses on advanced water systems, services and solutions for desalination, reclamation, reuse and sustainability. Under the terms of the License, WSH will have exclusive worldwide rights to this technology. This serves as the foundation for WSH's technology platform and systems capability.

" Some of unique features to these water technologies include smart water systems deploying advanced remote monitoring and control, rapid process diagnostic systems and field testing, membrane process monitors, high performance nano-structured membranes for nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis ("RO") desalination, advanced processes for high recovery water desalination, and new methods for process optimization. The technologies developed by the UCLA WaTeR Center are pioneering technologies that have emerged from extensive multidisciplinary research and knowledgebase of fundamental science and technology. [marketwatch] MORE

Amyris: UC Berkeley Alternative Fuel Startup Opens Prototype Facility

bnidever@ucla.edu — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:39:00 GMT

"Yeast, when left to its own devices, eats sugar and secretes alcohol. Amyris has engineered it to eat sugar and secrete hydrocarbons instead.

That, in a nutshell, is the business plan for the company, a synthetic biology specialist that spun out of UC Berkeley. Through selective breeding and genetic engineering, the company has created a group of organisms that effectively release industry-standard fuels, chemicals or fuel precursors when they go to the bathroom.

The company grew out of research conducted by Jay Keasling and Jack Newman at Berkeley. The two were pioneers in the field of synthetic biology, which is the art/science of decoding natural processes in a lab and then trying to recreate them. Why can abalone create hard shells out of plain chalk? Synthetic biologists try to figure out questions like that. [greentechmedia] MORE

NanoPacific Announces Two New Exclusive Licensed Technologies Invented at UCLA -- Nanoemulsions and Polypeptides

bnidever@ucla.edu — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:19:00 GMT

"LOS ANGELES, Oct 23, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- As part of its strategic plan, NanoPacific Holdings, Inc. (NPH) has executed two additional licenses with UCLA for nanoemulsons (including double nanoemulsions) and polypeptides. These nano technologies are highly adaptable and may be used in a variety of applications. Under the terms of agreement between NPH and UCLA, NPH will have an exclusive worldwide license to key intellectual property. These are integral components of NPH's nano controlled-delivery platform and provide complimentary novel technologies to its porous nanoparticles, previously licensed from UCLA, capable of storing and selectively releasing guest molecules via nanoscale gates that can be opened and closed at will on the surface of the nanoparticles. This will significantly expand NPH's nano controlled-delivery capabilities. [marketwatch] MORE

Wireless Healthcare Startups - UCSD Professor Launches Santech

bnidever@ucla.edu — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:50:00 GMT

" At least four wireless health care startup companies have launched in San Diego. One of those, Santech, is commercializing UCSD technology for weight management, using text messages, sensors and wireless devices.

" Santech uses accelerometers – the technology behind the motion-sensing Nintendo Wii – along with GPS and heart-rate monitors to track a participant's location and activity level. Information is sent from the sensors, via Bluetooth wireless to a phone, which relays it to Santech servers. [unionTribune] MORE

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