The economy may still be in the doldrums in many parts of the country, but The University of Minnesota has good reason to be upbeat about 2010: It plans to spin off three medical technology firms this year, introducing the three unnamed start-ups to potential investors at another new venture — its inaugural Life Sciences Showcase on March 4. The showcase will be held at the University Enterprise Laboratories in St. Paul. Tim Johnson, who joined Office of Technology Commercialization as its newest CEO-in-Residence, will lead a company developing “a giant magneto resistive sensor technology” that can detect antibodies in the blood by employing nanoparticles to draw antibodies to a semiconductor chip. Mike Selzer, another CEO-in-Residence, will run a company focused on using thermochemical energy to kill tumors without harming healthy tissue. The third start-up will commercialize a diagnostic device that detects biomarkers in the blood — genetic information that can predict the onset of specific diseases.

Doug Johnson, who heads the university’s Venture Center, says the Life Sciences Showcase, the first of three such events this year, will give investors and potential corporate partners a chance to review the university’s intellectual property and speak with start-up officials and inventors.

The showcase will also publicize the university’s commercialization programs to the broader community. “We have been too reactive,” says Johnson, a former venture capitalist and investment banker. “We need more time with people, with outsiders, for them to get to know who we are.”

Source: MedCity News

Posted February 23rd, 2010 under Intellectual Property Marketing

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