Helping startup companies to commercialize new technology is the idea of the state Bioscience Discovery Evaluation Grant Program. Companies that applied for the grants had to show matching funds to be eligible for the program, which is funded from state gambling revenue and is part of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
"These are high-potential, Colorado-based companies that have emerged from CU research laboratories and are making their way forward into the commercial world," said David Allen, CU's associate vice president for technology transfer, in a press statement.
Alzheimer's disease research company AmideBio LLC in Boulder received $250,000 from the grant program, according to Sonya Guram, program manager. The company's technology is based on the work of CU-Boulder associate professor Michael Stowell.
Flashback Technologies LLC in Longmont, a company that makes computer software to test physiological data, received $50,000 from the program. The software is used to predict cardiovascular collapse in emergency situations. Steve Moulton, a CU School of Medicine professor and surgeon, and Greg Grudic, a former CU-Boulder computer science researcher, received grants from the program in 2009.
OnKure Inc. in Longmont received $250,000 from the program, Guram said. The company is developing compounds that inhibit cancer cell growth, based on the work of CU-Boulder professor Xuedong Liu.
Shape Ophthalmics LLC in Aurora received $150,000 from the program. The company is developing shape-memory polymer-based devices to deliver medication to the surface of the eye. It is based on the work by CU School of Medicine faculty members Malik Kahook and Naresh Mandava and of CU-Denver/CU-Boulder professor Robin Shandas.
Cancer drug development company SuviCa Inc. in Boulder received $125,000 from the program. The company also received program funding in 2011 and is based on the work of CU-Boulder professor Tin Tin Su.
Two other Boulder companies received funding from the program in fall 2011: Crestone Inc., which makes antibacterial compounds; and Sophono Inc., which makes implantable hearing devices.
Since 2002, 80 companies have been formed based on CU intellectual property, according to the CU Technology Transfer office, which licenses research from the university to companies. Of those, 65 companies continue to operate, either on their own or after merging with other companies.
The state program kept $102,000 to roll over into 2013 grants, Guram said. In all, the state program granted $1.6 million in the 2012 fiscal year, Guram said, including a grant made to a Fort Collins company using technology licensed from Colorado State University.
