November 28, 2008
Albuquerque Journal
Gap funds and Angels help move UNM technology forward (New Mexico Business Weekly)
by Kevin Robinson-Avila NMBW StaffA bit of funding — and lots of business mentoring — is helping University of New Mexico inventors move new technology from lab to market.
The Science and Technology Corp., which manages technology transfer at UNM, approved another $100,000 in “gap funding” for four new technologies in November. That brings total awards from the STC’s “gap fund” — which launched in 2006 — to $225,000 for nine promising technologies, said STC President and CEO Lisa Kuuttila.
And, as awardees further tweak their inventions, some are getting expert advice from the New Mexico Angels, which is partnering with UNM to bring scientists and investors together.
“The gap funding is really helping to move technology along enough to generate commercial interest,” Kuuttila said. “We’ve also developed much closer ties with the Angels. They’re actively evaluating emerging technologies on campus and giving valuable feedback and advice to our researchers.”
The university created the gap fund to help scientists bridge the “valley of death” — that ominous void where grants from federal agencies and others have dried up, but the technology under research is not yet ready for private investment.
STC has doubled the amount it awards annually since 2006, when it set aside an initial $600,000 for the fund. It made two grants of $25,000 each in the first year, and three more grants totaling $75,000 last year.
Funding applications from aspiring scientists is also growing. This year, 14 researchers applied, up from 11 in 2007.
The STC selects grant winners based on how much the funding will advance a particular technology, and how much market potential exists for the new product.
“The committee believes the $25,000 awarded for each of the four technologies chosen this year will help move them along enough to generate commercial interest,” Kuuttila said. “All four have terrific market potential.”
The winning technologies include:
• development of an early pregnancy test that can help determine the likelihood of some abnormalties, such as Down syndrome and pre-eclampsia;
• testing for an improved version of an anti-tuberculosis drug;
• production of two new drugs using a new chemistry technique that quickens drug creation; and,
• development of thin-film, liquid-crystal heat switches that can save energy in cooling and heating systems.
Grant recipients said the money is critical because other funding sources have disappeared.
“We’re doing very applied research now,” said Graham Timmins, a medical chemistry professor working on the anti-tuberculosis drug. “The National Institutes of Health funded earlier stages of research, but now we need to do pre-clinical testing and it’s hard to get money for that. That’s where the gap fund comes in.”
Timmins said commercial partners are already interested in the technology, but they want more testing done.
“We’ve talked with potential partners, but there are a few key issues remaining,” he said. “Once more tests resolve those issues, it will allow us to move forward in the commercial realm.”
As researchers work to perfect their technologies, Angels are stepping in to build the base for future investment.
To encourage partnerships, STC began introducing Angels to researchers last spring, said NM Angels President John Chavez.
“We want Angels to peek under the covers at new technology even before it’s ready for market,” Chavez said. “That way, we can begin to prepare the business groundwork to move forward later.”
The emerging partnerships have led to the creation of two new startups.
Professors from UNM’s Cancer Research and Treatment Center and College of Pharmacy formed the Potential Oncology Drug Development Co., with serial entrepreneur and Angel member Richard Gill.
The professors received a $25,000 gap grant in 2006 to use super-fast cell meters — called high-through-put cytometers — to screen for new applications of federally approved drugs already on the market. That allowed them to identify potential new therapies for breast and prostate cancer, using existing medications.
Gill is now helping raise capital to bring the “re-purposed” drugs to market.
“The effort to partner Angels with professors is very effective,” Gill said. “It’s kind of like a dating service to join inventors with people skilled in commercialization.”
Roger O’Brien, another Angel and serial entrepreneur, formed a startup with a physician from the Department of Occupational Medicine to market proprietary software that will significantly cut costs for processing workers compensation claims.
Kuuttila said the STC is now promoting more emerging technologies, generating interest from more than a dozen Angels.
krobinson-avila@bizjournals.com | 348-8302