Bringing Science to Market

2007 BIO convention will feature the commercial application of research

By Terry Devitt and Brian Mattmiller

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For Wisconsin, the buzz about the 2007 BIO International Convention will have a distinct business flair.

With more than 60 Wisconsin companies primping their products and profiles for prime time at the annual biotechnology fair, the emphasis will be squarely on the commercial application of science. But Wisconsin science, the basic research that sets the table for companies’ commercial ventures, also will be reflected.

Joining Gov. Jim Doyle at the May 6–9 event in Boston will be UW–Madison virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka, one of the world’s authorities on avian influenza. His presence at BIO helps showcase the strength of Wisconsin’s basic science portfolio. In biology and emerging new fields like nanotechnology, UW–Madison remains one of the nation’s basic science hot spots.

“Events like BIO 2007 remind us just how vital a magnet for creative ideas and new business UW–Madison is,” says Charles Hoslet, managing director of UW–Madison’s Office of Corporate Relations (OCR). “The work performed by our faculty, staff and — increasingly — our students is triggering new business startups based on cutting-edge UW research and fostering an entrepreneurial environment in Wisconsin.”

Donna Paulnock, UW–Madison Graduate School associate dean for the biological sciences, explains that the basic research done at UW–Madison and other Wisconsin research institutions is the groundwork for commercial development. The ideas and insights of UW–Madison faculty, she argues, are often the seeds that mature into the products, services and companies that are beginning to transform the state’s economy.

“To me, basic research is the key,” says Paulnock, herself a professor of medical microbiology and immunology. “Without it, [opportunities for entrepreneurial activity] pretty much die away. It is critical for the whole process.”

Wisconsin’s seminal research in human embryonic stem cells, for example, has led to the emergence of several small Madison companies, a healthy sign that Wisconsin research continues to contribute the seed stock for commercial ventures that has made Madison a center of biotechnology.

The first effects of commercialization, she notes, tend to be small, as companies — usually with just a few people — crystallize around an idea or product. But as those ideas and products mature, they hold great potential to grow the company and contribute substantially to the state’s growing technology sector. Such companies as Promega, Bone Care International (now owned by Genzyme) and Third Wave are examples of firms that emerged from UW–Madison labs and now are among the bedrock companies of Madison’s technology sector.

“The future holds more spinoffs,” Paulnock notes, “but not every one will survive. It’s important that we have a lot of them out there.”

Wisconsin has a commercialization edge in the combined and complementary efforts of OCR, University Research Park and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). UW–Madison, for example, continues to lead in patents and licensing of research. Figures for 2005, the most recent available, show UW–Madison inventors obtaining 77 patents through WARF, placing the university fifth on a list of the most productive intellectual-property settings among U.S. universities.

That ability to effectively identify, protect and commercialize research, Paulnock notes, is the key to moving ideas from the lab to the marketplace.

This past year, Wisconsin biologists were as productive as ever, Paulnock says, and the pipeline of ideas to the market is as strong as ever. Important studies ranging from new stem cell findings to novel methods for screening for cancer emerged from UW–Madison laboratories, and any of these research developments could germinate into a commercial venture.

A few research highlights of the past year give ample demonstration that Wisconsin’s investment in basic research and public higher education continues to pay big dividends.

Rankings and prominence: A report on federal research expenditures in spring 2006 cited UW–Madison as the fourth largest research university in the nation, according to the National Science Foundation. The ranking, reflecting 2004 research expenditures, shows that UW–Madison spent nearly $764 million on research in the sciences, engineering, the social sciences, and arts and humanities. That productivity has also translated well in the university intellectual-property arena, where UW–Madison was ranked fifth in the nation in 2006, with a total of 77 patents awarded the previous year. Some of the university’s most prominent patents are in the biosciences, including major developments such as Vitamin D-based osteoporosis therapies and magnetic resonance imaging.

Stem cell research: A series of research discoveries last year have shed greater light on the medical promise of stem cells, work that was pioneered at UW–Madison. For example, in December 2006, a team of Wisconsin scientists devised a rudimentary blood-brain barrier in the lab, using neural stem cells derived from the fetal brains of rats. This finding could have implications for new drug developments that effectively target brain function. Another animal-based study showed that neural progenitor cells derived from human fetal stem cells can protect the vision of animals with degenerative eye disease similar to the kinds of diseases that afflict humans. And the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health this spring became one of the first medical centers in the country to take part in a novel clinical trial investigating if a subject’s own stem cells can treat a form of severe coronary artery disease.

The Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery (WID): While this major public-private research complex is still a couple years from completion, some major progress was made this spring on what the institutes will eventually support: multidisciplinary, innovative research. Eight projects were chosen from more than 60 proposals across 25 departments to receive WID Seed Grants, which are meant to jump-start unique research collaborations that will ultimately be nurtured by WID’s twin institutes. Their projects encompass methods for discovering new drugs and detecting disease early; treatments for inflammatory diseases, attention-deficit disorder and chronic wounds; advanced “micro-lenses” with medical applications; large-scale production of human embryonic stem cells; and studies focused on eliminating gaps in school achievement among different student populations.

Biofuels and bioenergy: The past year saw UW–Madison come into its own as a major player in the growing bioenergy research movement. In the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, for example, forage specialists are investigating ways to use biomass crops in the bioenergy process. Another project is exploring a glue made from the byproducts of ethanol production that could have high market value. A third is looking at trimming harvest and handling costs to make crop-based biofuels more lucrative. At the College of Engineering, a project is exploring ways to make diesel fuels and industrial chemicals from simple sugar. And in summer 2006, UW–Madison and Madison Area Technical College launched a new biodiesel fuel reactor that will help train Wisconsin talent to support this burgeoning industry. University officials are working to make the case that Wisconsin has the research prowess and the industrial backbone to be perfectly suited for one of two federal bioenergy resource centers sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. These $125 million centers may be chosen this year.

Biomedical advances: As the university that pioneered the medical applications of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), UW–Madison continues to foster better approaches to medical technology. A faster MRI data-acquisition technique developed by UW–Madison engineers in 2006 will reduce the time many patients spend in the uncomfortable scanner while also providing more precise images for doctors. Also prominent are basic medical research advances that could have long-term implications for human health. A medical school researcher discovered a new part of the complicated mechanism that governs the formation of blood vessels, or angiogenesis — which may ultimately show the way to halting tumor growth. Another study detailed how the body’s immune system has the remarkable ability, at the cellular level, to remember past challenges and quickly adapt to new attacks. And a bacteriology researcher is identifying novel ways to find new classes of antibiotics that render virulent bacteria harmless without killing them.

Influenza research: The past year was a remarkably prolific one in the laboratory of Yoshihiro Kawaoka, one of the world’s leading influenza experts. The lab made a number of fundamental discoveries, including the identification of key genetic changes required for pandemic strains of bird flu; and the genetic reasons behind what made the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic so lethal and widespread. Kawaoka’s lab also made gains in the quest for better vaccines. For example, the lab reported some early evidence that certain flu strains are evolving resistance to Tamiflu, and are spreading via human-to-human contact. And, perhaps most promising, the researchers reported this spring the discovery of a novel compound that confers broad protection against influenza viruses, including deadly avian influenza.

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