San Francisco, CA – April 16, 2013 – The Entrepreneurship Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) today announced the winners of a venture competition in its core entrepreneurship course Idea to IPO. The winning team was awarded $15,000 to help launch Cortera, a cortical mapping venture that will produce a state-of-the-art device allowing neurosurgeons to perform challenging brain surgeries with less risk and greater efficiency.
Two teams tied for second place in the competition and were awarded $5000 each. Chemofilter is developing an innovative approach to reduce the systemic side effects of chemotherapy in liver cancer, increasing treatment efficacy, and Bladder Sense has devised a system to help individuals at risk of urinary incontinence better control their bladder function. M3D, a Big Data analysis venture, received honorable mention in third place.
“The mission of the Entrepreneurship Center is to encourage startup ventures and commercialization of UCSF inventions. We are tapping into our world-class scientific and medical talent, providing the knowledge and support to help bring their technologies to the outside world,” said Stephanie Marrus, Director of the Entrepreneurship Center at UCSF. “It has been gratifying to watch our scientists and physicians in Idea to IPO absorb the elements needed to successfully commercialize their ideas. In only 12 weeks, people who entered the course without business experience left with quality venture presentations that have funding potential.”
Marrus added, “Course directors Steve Burrill, a global life sciences investor, and UCSF faculty member Charly Craik have been major contributors to the success of the course from its inception. Burrill & Company upped the ante this year by providing seed funding to the top-rated entrants. We also had great participation from leading entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts as lecturers, mentors and judges.”
The 17 proposed new ventures addressed a variety of market segments: digital health, medical devices, diagnostics and therapeutics. Most participants were from UCSF, but the course was also open to participants from Berkeley, Stanford and industry.
G. Steven Burrill, CEO of Burrill & Company, noted, “We are impressed with the diversity, quality and funding potential of the new ventures coming from this course. These are some of the most promising new enterprises we have seen over the life of the course and we think many of them will be of interest to the investment community.”
Idea to IPO is the Entrepreneurship Center’s experiential, team-based course that challenges participants to develop the business plan for a healthcare or life science venture that has the potential to scale to a significant enterprise. The course is aimed at faculty, researchers, post-doctoral scholars, clinicians, residents and PhD and masters students, who learn from leading industry players how to take a raw idea, assess its market potential, create a venture, access capital and move toward commercialization. The class concludes with a presentation to venture capital and angel investors.
For more on the competition, see http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2013/04/105096/innovative-course-teaches-how-turn-ideas-life-sciences-ventures
To view videos of the top three presentations, see the following:
? Cortera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WXAYHUDKZs
? Bladder Sense: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R024VRW-aU
? Chemofilter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjeT9W9oTV4
? M3D: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkdFR8tr9Wc
About The Entrepreneurship Center at UCSF
The Entrepreneurship Center is a division of the UCSF Office of Innovation, Technology & Alliances. The Center supports entrepreneurial interests in all segments of life science and healthcare. It offers numerous resources including entrepreneurship courses, industry talks, an Entrepreneurs Club and mentoring. Its programs attract a diverse mix of industry and academic participants who are creating a world-class entrepreneurial ecosystem. For more information, visit: http://www.cbe.ucsf.edu/cbe/Home.html.
About The Office of Innovation, Technology & Alliances at UCSF
The UCSF Office of Innovation, Technology and Alliances coordinates the university’s efforts in forging collaborations that translate cutting-edge science on campus into therapies and products that directly benefit patients worldwide. The office oversees intellectual property, technology transfer, innovative alliances with commercial, non-profit, and government organizations, and the UCSF Entrepreneurship Center
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