Office of Public Relations — Newsroom
News Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Lindsay Polak, 303-735-5518, lindsay.polak@cu.edu
CU Announces Annual Technology Transfer Award Winners
DENVER, Colo. (January 14, 2008) - The University of Colorado's Technology Transfer Office, ranked eighth nationally for the number of companies created and 11th for gross revenue, presented its annual awards January 14 to researchers working in areas ranging from leukemia treatments to lasers in homeland security applications, and to companies supporting innovation. The awards event, held at the historic Tivoli Turnhalle, was attended by more than 200 local business leaders and faculty inventors. Following a talk by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, awards were presented to inventors, companies and others who demonstrate best practices in technology transfer. Awards were given to:
Dr. Michael Larson, New Inventor of the Year, Colorado Springs. Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and El Pomar Endowed Chair of Engineering and Innovation. Current research focus is on laser/materials interactions, especially related to medical and homeland security applications.
Dr. Lia Gore & Dr. Deborah DeRyckere, New Inventors of the Year, Denver. Respectively, Assistant Professor and Research Instructor of Pediatrics, Section of Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation. Research is focused on treating cancers and leukemias using a variety of compound combinations.
Dr. Stephanie J. Bryant, New Inventor of the Year, Boulder. Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Research interests revolve around functional tissue engineering, photopolymerization, and biomaterials.
Dr. Paul A. Bunn, Inventor of the Year, Denver. Director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, and James Dudley Endowed Chair of Lung Cancer Research. Research interests include novel therapies in non-small cell and small cell lung cancer.
Dr. Douglas L. Gin, Inventor of the Year, Boulder. Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Research group is applying organic synthesis and molecular design to the construction of functional nanostructured materials.
Dan Mitchell, Bioscience Business Advisor of the Year. Founding partner, Sequel Venture Partners. Honored for his leadership in university bioscience start-up company financing, his involvement as a reviewer and evaluator of University bioscience IP, and his help as a mentor for biotech entrepreneurs.
Paul Nelson, Physical Science/Engineering/IT Business Advisor of the Year. Renewable energy entrepreneur. Honored for his efforts building University/Industry partnerships in the renewable energy space.
ColorLink, Inc., Physical Sciences/Engineering/IT Company of the Year. ColorLink, formed in 1995 to develop and commercialize research conducted at CU-Boulder, is one of the world's leading inventors and suppliers of photonics-based solutions. Current focus is on polarization control solutions for customer-defined performance and cost requirements. The company's products are now being utilized in demanding polarization applications including consumer electronics, medical diagnostics, avionics and photography. In March 2007 ColorLink Corporation was acquired by REAL D, a world leader in digital 3-D technology.
BaroFold, Inc., Bioscience Company of the Year. BaroFold is a venture backed Boulder-based biopharmaceutical company focused on developing improved biopharmaceuticals for patients suffering from chronic immunologic and auto-immune disorders. The company's goal is to discover, develop and commercialize protein biologics incorporating its proprietary PreEMT™ high pressure folding technology (a patented technology invented by CU founders Ted Randolph and John Carpenter), along with other state-of-the-art technologies. Since its inception in 2003, the company has leveraged its unique technology to generate licensing agreements with several biopharmaceutical companies, including Genentech, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and, most recently, Avecia Biologics. In May 2007 the company closed a Series A institutional financing round raising $12M.
Dr. Myron J. Levin, Inductee into the Pinnacles of Inventorship. Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at UC Denver. Dr. Levin was a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty for over ten years, as well as Chief of the Division of Clinical Microbiology at the Sidney Farber (now Dana Farber) Cancer Institute, before joining the faculty of the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine and The Children's Hospital in 1982. Dr. Levin's major research interests include prevention of varicella or herpes zoster with live attenuated varicella vaccines; mechanism of latency of varicella-zoster virus; mechanism and efficacy of antiviral agents; and immune response to vaccines, with emphasis on herpes viruses. Dr. Levin's shingles vaccine, Zostavax, was approved by the FDA in 2006 and is marketed by Merck & Co. Recently, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Varicella-Zoster Research Foundation.
Dr. John M. Stewart, Inductee into the Pinnacles of Inventorship. Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at UC Denver. Dr. Stewart has authored nearly 400 peer-reviewed papers, and is an inventor on 23 patents. His research revolves around the chemistry and biology of peptides, and enabled the design and construction of the world's first automated peptide synthesizer. A current research focus is the development of more potent bradykinin antagonists, and application of them to the pathophysiology of inflammation and cancer. Dr. Stewart has served on the faculty of the UC Denver School of Medicine since 1968.
About the Technology Transfer Office
The CU Technology Transfer Office pursues, protects, packages, and licenses to business the intellectual property generated from research at CU. The TTO provides assistance to faculty, staff, and students, as well as to businesses looking to license or invest in CU technology. For more information about technology transfer at CU, visit www.cu.edu/techtransfer.
About the University of Colorado
The University of Colorado is a three-campus system with campuses in Boulder and Colorado Springs, and a Denver campus located in downtown Denver and at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. CU is a premier teaching and research university, ranked sixth among public institutions in federal research expenditures by the National Science Foundation. Academic prestige is marked by CU's four Nobel laureates, seven Mac Arthur "genius" Fellows, 18 astronauts, 19 Rhodes Scholars and CU-Boulder's ranking of 11th best public university in the world by the Institute for Higher Education. For further information, please visit http://www.cu.edu.
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