Life Sciences : Innovation + Job News

Minnesota technology leaders, start your engines.
 
The high-profile Tekne Awards just opened for entries, and five new categories have been added: STEM education and digital learning, healthcare delivery, impact on industry, agricultural technology, and safety and security.
 
Innovative entrepreneurs, organizations, nonprofits, and government agencies will all compete in the award program, now in its 14th year, presented by the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA).
 
The state remains at the forefront of cutting-edge technological growth, the MHTA noted, and the robust and growing competition highlights the kind of innovation that's homegrown here, from cleantech to robotics.
 
Last year, winners included Nova-Tech Engineering, Ecolab, Global Traffic Technologies, Maverick Software Consulting, and Sophia Learning. The City of Minneapolis also received an award, for technology excellence in a non-profit organization, getting a nod for an emergency operations training facility that blends digital data and streaming video.
 
This year, the five fresh categories showcase new directions in the state's approach to innovation. STEM education, a hot topic these days, gets its own category for programs that engage K-12 students in applied learning opportunities. Healthcare delivery will award innovation in the area of medical devices, diagnostics, data management, and other areas that improve patient care.
 
"We are watching significant growth in the areas of mobility as well as safety and security and want to make sure the Tekne Awards reflect that," says Andrew Wittenborg, Director of Outreach for MHTA. "At the same time,  we want to recognize and support the collaborative efforts that lead to Minnesota breakthroughs."
 
In addition to its new categories, the awards will feature well-established, competition-rich categories like software, startup, advanced manufacturing, and mobile technologies.
 
Applications for this year's awards will be open until July 15th, and there's no application fee, nor do applicants have to be MHTA members. Finalists will be announced in September, with an award celebration held in November.
 
Source: Andrew Wittenborg, Director of Outreach, Minnesota High Tech Association
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

When it comes to crowdfunding, most people are familiar with Kickstarter, a site that boosts the potential of artists and businesspeople, with a strong focus on community efforts and creative arts. For those who don't fall into those categories, though, utilizing crowdfunding has been almost impossible.
 
That is, until now. Savage-based company LiifGroup offers a dynamic platform that allows users to raise money through multiple crowdfunding sites designed by the firm.
 
Co-founded by Mark Connelly, Jack Cosentino, and Kristi Masser, the platform launched on January 8th, and has already been gaining traction.
 
"The last couple months have been crazy," says Connelly. "We're vetting projects, looking at financials, and going from meeting to meeting. We're the first crowdfunding company started in Minnesota, and it's obvious already that there was a need for this."
 
LiifGroup's model differs from Kickstarter, since a venture won't lose all their money if a certain amount isn't reached within a specified timeframe. Instead, they can receive partial funding. LiifGroup generates revenue by receiving five percent of the amount each company raises.
 
The medical market, in particular, will benefit from the platform. Connelly is an emergency and trauma physician for North Memorial Health Care, while Masser spent 15 years with pharmaceutical giant Merck. That experience, combined with Cosentino's tech startup background, made the trio gravitate first to the many medical device startups in the region.
 
In addition to its medical crowdfunding site, called LiifMed, the company has a platform for sports-related startups, LiifSport. Connelly notes that another one is being built for luxury goods, and he anticipates a variety of platforms in the future.
 
"Already, we see growth ahead, and a great deal of opportunity," he says.
 
Source: Mark Connelly, LiifGroup
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

Much has been written about cracking the genome's code, but little is said about how this information will be used, particularly on an individual level. Will your genome data be public property, or will you be able to have a level of ownership over its contents? One Minneapolis-based startup prefers the latter.
 
Founded in March 2012 by entrepreneur Paul Saarinen and University of Minnesota Associate Professor of Genetics Scott Fahrenkrug, Miinome aims to be the largest member-owned genetic database and genetic data broker in the world. The name Miinome derives from a combination of 'genome' and a play on 'Wii' game controllers, creating a blend that indicates members will have control of their own unique genetic code.
 
"We believe in the concept of property rights, and genomic data right now isn't necessarily legally yours yet," says Saarinen. "We want to change that, to a model where you would have access to your genetic information, and the ability to choose what you do with it."
 
The company is in its early stages right now, but sparking quite a bit of interest with partnerships and investors. The pair has filed an initial patent around the idea with plans to release a beta version of their platform in the next six months. Until then, Saarinen is jetting around the country collecting advisors and raising capital.
 
"This is getting a little crazy in terms of traction, and we're just trying to keep up," he says. In other words, keep an eye on Miinome this year as it goes from stealth to boom.
 
Source: Paul Saarinen, Miinome
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

MHTA Session Preview: Tech, Innovation, and Life Science Industries
February 5
Science Museum of Minnesota
20 Kellogg Blvd. W., St. Paul
4:30 pm - 7:00 pm
$15
 
Presented by the Minnesota High Tech Association and Life Science Alley, this event features a panel discussion with several legislators, including Speaker of the House Paul Thissen, talking about the future of tech, innovation, and life sciences in the state.
 
Health 2.0: Aetna and Azul 7
February 6
Azul 7 offices
800 Hennepin Ave., Suite 700, Minneapolis
5:30 pm - 8:00 pm
$15
 
For the past year, design firm Azul 7 has been working the Aetna to develop a cohesive user experience across multiple systems. In this talk, both sides will discuss the project, as well as give insight on the challenges and benefits of designing user-friendly technologies in the health care industry.
 
Business Valuation Conference
February 6
University of St. Thomas
1000 LaSalle Ave., Minneapolis
7:30 am - 4:30 pm
$199
 
This annual conference, now in its 23rd year, covers an array of business valuation topics, including the basics of a real estate appraisal, use of regression analysis, and eminent domain. Toby Madden, from The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, will give an economic update to kick off the day.
 
Social Media and Data Analytics for Digital Marketing
February 7 & 8
Carlson School of Management
321 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis
8:00 am - 4:30 pm
$3,000
 
As part of its Executive Education series, the Carlson School of Management presents this two-day conference on making smarter use of social media and their data. Participants will learn how to extract business intelligence from social tools, why they should tap into open innovation opportunities, and much more.

UnitedHealthcare (UHC) is hoping that plenty of innovation-minded individuals will be ready to take on a new challenge, and perhaps win some prize money as a result.
 
At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, the health benefit company announced the introduction of a "Breakthrough Health Tech Challenge," meant to spark creativity both within and outside of the health care industry.
 
Innovators can win a prize of $60,000 for an idea that utilizes common consumer technologies or devices to solve a healthcare challenge. For example, an innovator might propose a mobile app for preventing diabetes, or outline how an online game could reduce the risk of heart disease.
 
"We believe this groundbreaking challenge will inspire new ideas and concepts that could serve as breakthrough solutions to improving people's health and the healthcare system," says Gail Boudreaux, UnitedHealthcare CEO.
 
Boudreaux adds that since the competition is worldwide, the "crowdsourcing" technique should be even more potent. Details of the challenge are available here, and ideas are accepted until April 8th.
 
This isn't the first contest run by UHC for addressing technology and healthcare. The company has developed a series of innovation challenges since mid-2012, and Boudreaux notes that a number of unique ideas and concepts have resulted, with implementation on the horizon.
 
For the current contest, entrants must submit a written proposal and experimental proof-of-concept data or prototype. UHC offers a partial award of up to $20,000 if a proven solution doesn't exist yet, and there may be opportunities for collaboration between UHC and the innovator if the project sparks interest.
 
Source: Gail Boudreaux, UnitedHealthcare
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

Finding skilled employees is always a challenge, but what about staffing a short-term project that requires expertise on thin polymers or medtech regulations? Then it's time to call Talencio.
 
The staffing firm, founded in 2008 by Paula Norbom, specializes in contract and direct-hire professionals in biotech, pharmaceutical, healthcare, and medtech. Norbom had been an executive in the medical device industry, and found that there was a particular need in the life sciences field for shorter-term experts who could lend their experience to projects.
 
"The life science industry is really strong here in Minnesota, and there's some great talent," says Norbom. "So, we're all about making those connections."
 
The company has five employees, and maintains a database of about 2,000 contractors, with around 80 percent located in the state.
 
Norbom expects that Talencio will keep growing its contractor roster, and expanding its services. Part of that growth will come from a pool of contractors who appreciate the flexibility that a project-based arrangement can bring.
 
"Many people just want to do what they love and what they know how to do best," Norbom says. "They don't want to be stuck in meetings all day. This way, they can just step in and get the job done and move to the next project."
 
She adds that companies are changing how they view employment as well. Many of her clients have a core group of talented employees, and bring talent in as needed from Talencio. Norbom expects this strategy to keep booming, and the firm will grow as a result. So, for those in the life science industry who need help with everything from risk management to clinical research, Talencio is ready.
 
Source: Paula Norbom, Talencio
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

Highlighting the strength of the state's technology sectors, the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA) announced finalists for the 2011 Tekne Awards.
 
The award program, now in its 12th year, recognizes innovations from 2010 that represent the brightest in development, commercialization, and management of technology in Minnesota. Forty-two finalists were named in fourteen categories.
 
The MHTA noted that recent growth in Minnesota's educational and robotic technology sectors were particularly visible this year, but that all technology sectors are staying strong.
 
In the education category, finalists are Capella University, Sophia, and Naiku--which recently won the recent Minnesota Cup award. Finalists in other categories represent a range of companies, from large firms like Imation Corp. and Digital River to smaller businesses like Xollai and QuickCheck Health.
 
The awards are designed to showcase these types of companies, and draw attention to the innovative and competitive companies in the state, according to MHTA president Margaret Anderson Kelliher. They're part of the organization's larger mission to boost education and entrepreneurship along with technology development.
 
"We're very excited about the opportunities available to technology companies here," says Kelliher. "In general, we believe that individuals and companies in the state have more potential than they do challenges. We're proud and happy to support them in any way we can."
 
The Tekne Awards will be presented on November 3 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
 
Source: Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Minnesota High Tech Association
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

You wake up with a killer sore throat and suspect that it's strep. Instead of sweet-talking your way into a same-day appointment with your doctor or taking a chance on a short wait at Urgent Care (good luck on that), you just swab your own throat, use a simple device, and get the answer.
 
If you're right, you go through a quick online clinic visit and get a prescription sent to your local pharmacy. Fifteen minutes after waking up, you're on your way to pick up the antibiotics.
 
This scenario may seem futuristic, but it's closer than ever, thanks to QuickCheck Health, an Excelsior-based startup that aims to revolutionize home health care.
 
According to a recent Rand Corporation study, about 90 percent of visits to retail clinics were for ten acute conditions, including upper respiratory infections, sore throats, and urinary tract infections as well as blood tests for issues like STDs.
 
QuickCheck aims to handle the testing for these conditions with devices that provide rapid diagnostic results for minimal cost. The company is developing devices that can detect the presence of Lyme disease, mono, pregnancy, pinkeye, yeast infections, strep throat, the flu, and urinary tract infections. They're also developing tools that can track cholesterol and glucose levels.
 
With the ability to provide accurate test results at home, people can utilize online health care services more effectively, says QuickCheck president and CEO Tom Henke.
 
Launched in February 2010, the company sprang from Henke's 25 years in the health insurance industry. He says, "During that time, I saw that the industry was going down a path that wasn't leading to lower costs or customer satisfaction. In fact, it was quite the opposite."
 
When he left the industry, he had several business concepts and an entrepreneurial drive, and settled on QuickCheck after watching his four children struggle through multiple bouts of strep throat.
 
"I thought, why am I bringing them to the doctor every time?" he says. "I wondered why people couldn't just do this at home. So I began reverse-engineering the process."
 
QuickCheck's devices will be submitted to the FDA soon, and are getting ready for consumer use studies. After that, you can expect to see the devices on store shelves by early next year, and look for QuickCheck to grow rapidly from that point on.
 
"We love the idea of people taking more charge of their health, and this will help them do just that," says Henke.
 
Source: Tom Henke, QuickCheck Health
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

Trade association LifeScience Alley is looking to boost its legislative activity, with the creation of a new role: vice president of government and affiliate relations.

The group has hired Shaye Mandle, an expert on policy and coalition-building to take the post. Mandle most recently served as the executive director of the FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis, where he helmed economic development and industry engagement.

In the private sector, Mandle managed government affairs, university relations, and business strategy for the Science Applications International Corporation, a firm with extensive R&D operations in Arlington, Virginia.

At LifeScience Alley, Mandle will work to develop a public-policy strategy, and be responsible for working with key state and national groups, including federal agencies, other industry associations, and legislators.

The group is hoping to improve the regulatory and economic climate for life-science innovation, and more involvement in legislation and policy is an important next step in that effort.

"The mission of the organization isn't changing," says Mandle. "Part of our core competency is to be a voice for the industry. So, we'll be lobbying on a day-to-day basis around existing legislation, and also looking for other ways to play in the policy arena."

Mandle's first steps will be connecting with the association's membership, to determine levels of need, and what they'd like to see happening in terms of policy action.

"If you look at the evolution of our government relations, you'll see that it's been mainly reactive," says Ryan Baird, director of marketing and communications at the organization. "We've finally gotten to the point where we can take a more proactive approach, and Shaye is a big part of that."

Source: Shaye Mandle and Ryan Baird, LifeScience Alley
Writer: Elizabeth Millard

A start-up company hopes to use University of Minnesota technology to create a medical device that will treat the debilitating disease pulmonary hypertension.

Aria CV, Inc., has licensed technology that was developed at the U of M's Medical Devices Center through its Innovation Fellows Program, a "year on steroids of product development" says Art Erdman, director of the center.

The cross-disciplinary program brings fellows with backgrounds in engineering, medicine, and biosciences together with faculty, medical professionals, and industry collaborators to develop and test ideas for new medical devices.

The yearlong program starts in the field, identifying medical needs in hospitals and on ambulance rides, says Erdman. Last year, 800 needs were narrowed to about 20 projects, which look at every aspect of medical-device development.

Some of those projects make it through to actual development; in its first three years, the Medical Devices Center has produced two startups, 35 patents, and a license agreement, according to Erdman.

Aria's two active founders--Vice President of Engineering Karl Vollmers and and CEO John Scandurra--and the other inventors were fellows in the program until last fall. Since licensing the technology Aria has filed other patents related to the device, which is in the testing and feasibility stage of development, says Vollmers.

Aria CV is a certified company with the Minnesota Angel Tax Credit and has received funding by private investors through the program, says Vollmers, who says Aria could start hiring employees next year.

Vollmers says the device will not replace the drug therapy that many pulmonary hypertension patients go through, "but we believe it will improve the life span and the quality of living considerably."

It will be years before the device is approved, first in Europe and then in the U.S., says Vollmers.

Sources:
Art Erdman, U of M Medical Devices Center
Karl Vollmers, Aria CV
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Pub Standards MN
Thursday, July 14, 6–8 p.m.
Psycho Suzie's
1900 Marshall Street NE, Minneapolis

Join in the monthly meet-up of Pub Standards MN to "drink, talk shit, complain, and commiserate" with other web professionals, as their website states.


Annual UEL Summer BBQ
Wednesday, July 20, 3–6:30 p.m.
University Enterprises Laboratories
1000 Westgate Drive, St. Paul
Free

Call 651-641-2804 or email to rsvp for this annual gathering at the biosciences research center and early-stage company incubator.

Creativity in the Digital World — MIMA event
Wednesday, July 20, 5:15 p.m.
McNamara Alumni Center, U of M Campus
200 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis
Free to $45

Heath Rudduck, chief creative officer at Campbell Mithun, will present at this event from the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA). Registration and cash bar at 5:15 p.m.; presentation at 6 p.m.; networking, food & cash bar at 7 p.m. Pre-register for $40 (free for MIMA members and students) or walk in for $40–$45.


Hacks/Hackers Twin Cities
Hacked! - Why You Should Care about Privacy in Social Media
Thursday, July 21, 6 p.m.
Public Radio International
401 Second Ave. N., Suite 500, Minneapolis

Join the newly established Hacks/Hackers Twin Cities for a conversation about privacy and security in social media.


Bootstrappers Breakfast
Thursday, July 28, 7:30–9 a.m.
Wilde Roast
65 SE Main St., Minneapolis
$10
Early stage technology startups compare notes on operational, development, and business issues with peers who "eat problems for breakfast." Moderated by start-up lawyer Kevin Spreng.


CoCo/Project Skyway Grain Exchange opening party
Saturday, July 30
400 South Fourth Street
details TBA

The early news is that CoCo and Project Skyway will celebrate the opening of their Minneapolis space at the Grain Exchange on July 30. Watch for details on their websites.


Visit Tech.MN for a full listing of tech-related events.

A total of 51 companies have moved into the semi-final round of the 2011 Minnesota Cup, which is now in its seventh year.

The list of companies includes two, Naiku and Qualtrx, that were also selected for Project Skyway's inaugural tech accelerator.

The Minnesota Cup is also similar to the national Cleantech Open, which also announced semifinalists last week-- companies compete for divisional and grand prize money (a total of $185,000) but also receive invaluable mentoring and exposure to investors, entrepreneurs, and other business experts.

Companies fall into six divisions: Clean Technology and Renewable Energy, BioSciences, High Tech, Social Entrepreneur, General, and Student.

Matt Hilker, director of the Minnesota Cup, who is in his second full cycle of the competition, says this is where the value starts for the semi-finalists--with "the validation and the exposure they get for their idea, whether it's potential advisors or even customers, that's huge," says Hilker.

"Just the process itself is good, because they're given deadlines of when they have to turn in a business plan," says Hiler. "It's motivation."

Over the next month-and-a-half, each company will be paired with at least one mentor while they write their business plans. In mid-August, three finalists will be chosen from each division, with the winners of each collecting $25,000 and moving on to the final round in September.

The Minnesota Cup's program background and details page gives a good explanation and a timeline of the competition.

Source: Matt Hilker, Minnesota Cup
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Ximedica (pronounced "Zye-medica") is already established near one medical device hotspot (Boston) and is now expanding to another: the Twin Cities.

"Minneapolis is the hub of so many medical device companies and the hub of so many of our customers," says Sandra Weiss, director of marketing for the Providence, Rhode Island-based firm.

Ximedica provides up-front research, design, strategy, product development and introduction, and many other services to medical device and consumer healthcare companies.

The new office will be located in the University Enterprise Laboratories (UEL) Center, near University Avenue and Highway 280.

The company will be hiring locally, says Weiss--a key part of maintaining the presence and trust with local partners that the company has established on the East Coast for nearly 25 years.

"We're [hiring locally] so we can continue to maintain that service, we can continue to earn that trust locally, just like we've done in Providence," says Weiss, who notes that the Twin Cities is also a hub of academia and research related to the industry.

Ximedica does not have a solid target for the number of employees there, but it is "actively recruiting" and "aggressively hiring," says Stephanie Chamberlain, human resources manager for Ximedica.

As of mid-June, the staff count was one: Director of Human Factors Industrial Design David Copeland. His team will eventually include a director of engineering; senior level mechanical, software and electrical engineers; and program managers.

The Minnesota facility is expected to be at full capacity this fall, according to a press release, and Ximedica is also expanding its Providence location to 100,000 square feet of "integrated product development space."

Source: Sandra Weiss, Ximedica
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

After a decade as Vital Images' largest customer, California-based Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (TMSC) plans to take the local visualization and analysis software company into its fold. 

Through a $273-million cash tender preceding a merger, a TMSC subsidiary will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Vital Images common stock for $18.75 per share--a 39 percent premium over a recent volume-weighted average, according to a press release.

Executives of both companies applauded the pending merger, which they believe will strengthen their longtime partnership. "This transaction means we can now accelerate our global presence with the strength and backing of TMSC," says Michael Carrel, CEO of Vital Images, in the release.

Toshiba plans to continue to build the Vital Images business locally at its Minnetonka headquarters, where 175 of its 245 employees work, says Nancy Johnson, account supervisor for Padilla Speer Beardsley, which handles press relations for Vital Images. The company expects that the merger will lead to the hiring of more employees in the future, she says.

Vital Images' software allows doctors to non-invasively examine internal organs and more easily make diagnoses and plan for surgeries. The software takes two-dimensional, black-and-white images of internal organs through CT scan, MRI and other formats, then "stacks" them to create more complex imagery.
 
Doctors can navigate through the images, removing layers for a clear examination and "internal accounting without going through a physical operation," says Johnson.

Originally used in radiology departments, the software has been extended in recent years for hospital-wide accessibility by numerous physicians, she says, and it is accessible beyond the hospital via the Web, according to a product description. Vital Images software also serves as a data-management and work-flow tool.

Sources: Vital Images; Nancy Johnson, Padilla Speer Beardsley
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Dgimed Ortho, Inc. has double the reason to celebrate, with the near-completion of a $2.5 million equity round and a medical device industry award too boot.

By mid-April, the Minnetonka-based early-stage medical device company had sold $2,124,780 of a securities offering, according to an SEC filing. It is the company's fifth offering a various type since its first $3.4 million initial round was completed in 2009.

In 2008, founder and chairman Dan Gladney acquired the rights to technology for a proprietary system to assist orthopedic surgeons in the delivery of long-bone intramedullary nail implants, according to an Orthopedics and Spine News Blog entry that year.

The product Dgimed Ortho developed is the DISTALOCK Intramedullary (IM) Nail and Drill System, which last week received a 2011 Medical Design Excellence Award.

The system offers surgeons the ability to treat long-bone fractures with better clinical outcomes, lower surgery costs, and little or no need for x-rays, according to a press release about the award.

"Our team has worked hard to develop a world-class system to benefit patients and hospital staff," said Dgimed Ortho President and CEO Mark McMahan through the release. Award winners will be honored at a presentation ceremony in June in New York City.

Source: Dgimed Ortho
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

St. Paul-based Synovis Life Technologies received the Manufacturers Alliance Association's 2011 Manufacturer of the Year Award not so much for what it creates, but how it produces it.

The diversified medical device company makes implantable biomaterials, devices for microsurgery, and tools used in surgical repair and reconstruction of soft tissue damaged or destroyed by disease or injury.

The annual award, now in its 15th year, recognizes companies that use lean tools and techniques in their manufacturing. Synovis won in the mid-sized manufacturers' category.

""We started looking at lean five or six years ago," says Brett Reynolds, Synovis' chief financial officer. Synovis switched to the Kanban (or "just-in-time") product scheduling system, reducing its on-hand stores of inventory from 17 weeks to just eight weeks.

Furthermore, work cells organized by product line increased efficiency, says Reynolds. As a result, Synovis has been able to stay in its 65,000-square-foot facility despite an average annual growth of 25 percent over the past five years, and its on-time shipping rate has gone up to virtually 100 percent, says Reynolds.

The MAA award recognizes not only innovation in manufacturing, but a company's willingness and efforts to share those ideas and practices within the industry, something Reynolds says Synovis has been active in doing.

Its operations team shares ideas at conferences, and companies and educational groups tour the facility to see the manufacturing process, he says.

Synovis was founded in 1985 with $300,000 in revenue, a number that grew to almost $69 million last year, says Reynolds, who expects $80–85 million in 2011. Of its 300 employees, 200 work in St. Paul at University Avenue and Highway 280 on the border of Minneapolis.

Source: Brett Reynolds, Synovis Life Technologies
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

A new startup hopes to offer a safer and more effective treatment for atherosclerosis through its licensing of University of Minnesota medical technology.

Emad Ebbini, an electrical and computer engineering professor in the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota, led a team that developed the high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) technology, according to a U of M press release. The university says it has finalized a license agreement with startup International Cardio Corporation, who declined to comment for this article.

Atherosclerosis is a condition in which arteries become blocked by a buildup of plaque, usually treated with drugs or angioplasty.

By contrast, HIFU is a noninvasive, real-time ultrasonic imaging and localized treatment of tissue abnormalities which developers hope may have even broader applications, including the treatment of cancer.

The form of non-ionizing radiation localizes treatment to small areas (the size of a grain of rice or a sesame seed, states the release) at a much faster rate than other current systems such as MRI.

The technology links imaging and therapy by returning dynamic images that allow doctors to almost instantaneously refocus the energy at the target--an outcome that can be faster, more precise, and safer than invasive surgery or radiation therapy.

The equipment necessary for HIFU is less expensive than other imaging techniques, such as MRI, making it more accessible to doctors and less expensive for patients, says the release.

International Cardio Corporation may submit the technology to the FDA for testing later this year.

Source: University of Minnesota
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

The Minneapolis-based health-care/IT company formerly known as VisionShare began in February in its offices near the University of Minnesota and ended the month as ABILITY Network in its newly designed headquarters in Downtown Minneapolis' Butler Square.

The new 51,000-square-foot digs--designed to meet LEED Commercial Interior standards--reflect the 11-year-old company's physical growth. Now with 135 employees, ABILITY has added 100 jobs in the past few years and expects to add a hundred more in the next few, including dozens more jobs this year, says CEO Mark Briggs.

Meanwhile, the fresh moniker reflects the substantial growth and change of the business; after many years enabling secure internet Medicare transactions, ABIILTY has extended its services to more health-care providers.

ABILITY now connects 3,500 hospitals nationwide--about half the hospitals in the  country, says Briggs--as well as tens of thousands of other health-care facilities.

Furthermore, ABILITY now allows those customers to do more than just administer Medicare transactions, but to work with commercial payers or plans, says Briggs.

He characterizes the network as a "Google for doc[tors]" that "enables clinicians to be aware of the fragmented nature of their patients' clinical record," says Briggs.

"When I show up at the hospital for the first time, I start with a blank manila folder," he explains, "I've got health information scattered across the health-care network. There was no way, pre-ABILTIY, for the health-care-giver to know where all that information was."

ABILITY allows the care-giver to locate the information and bring it together, with patient consent and in a secure way that takes the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) into account, Briggs notes.

The result is "more efficient health care that leads to better patient outcomes, lower costs [for both insurers and patients] and to take the same budget and provide care for more people instead of less-efficient care for fewer," he says.

Briggs notes that stimulus funding and the attention the current administration has given to health care have "been helpful in enabling health-care providers to have the resources to connect." IT advances have made the work possible.

"Only recently did the technology mature to the point where this became feasible," says Briggs, "and hospitals and doctors have funding to enable these types of networks to grow profitably."

Source: Mark Briggs, ABILITY Network
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Agitators, innovators, evangelists and maybe even some angels (as in investors) gathered Feb. 23 for a MOJO Minnesota-hosted conversation on technology transfer.

At issue: how to bridge the gap between inventors and entrepreneurs and smooth the runway for the commercialization of innovations and intellectual property produced by Minnesota researchers.

The event took place on the U of M's West Bank campus. The panel of six, which was moderated by MOJO "agitator" Rick Brimacomb, represented the university (and Mayo Clinic) research side, the entrepreneur side, and someone in between:  recent U of M graduate-turned entrepreneur Alex Johansson, co-founder and CTO of the startup NewWater, LLC,

Jay Schrankler, executive director of the U of M's Office of Technology Commercialization, offered some statistics about the university's improving track record of "spinning off" companies--and ones that stay in Minnesota.

From 2001–2006, said Schrankler, 14 companies spun out of the university, of which four still exist. Of the147 jobs those companies created, 111 are in California now--an example of the tech-and-talent drain that was a key topic of the MOJO conversation.

By contrast, 23 companies have come out of the U of M since 2006, he said, 21 of which are still around. They account for 50 jobs, all of which are in Minnesota, according to Schrankler.

Early conversation addressed the success or failure of tech-transfer attempts.

"Success is a deal that doesn't fall through," said Jeff Carpenter, senior portfolio manager for Development Capital Networks. He outlined mistakes he sees companies making in the process of bringing research to market.

"The companies tend to … overestimate the stage of development, and they underestimate the cost and the time to get something to market."

Lee Jones, CEO in residence at the university's Venture Center, stressed the importance of similar expectations on the parts of the researchers and entrepreneurs.

"When I hear people say 'it's hard to get technology out of [the university],' what I really hear is that they, a) don't know how to access it, or b) they have expectations that they are getting more than [the concept of the technology].

"There's expectation that the development process has already taken place, or that the inventor is going to willingly hand over all of his information," she said.

Schrankler laid out the four elements necessary for a successful start-up company: the right technology, a good market for that technology, a good management team, and, of course, capital.

Johansson hit on a key point with his advice for entrepreneurs looking to license technology from the university.

"[The university's] one concern is the revenue that's going to get generated by this technology," he said, "and by licensing it to you, they are preventing anyone else from generating revenue with [that] technology."

Schrankler followed with a breakdown of revenue return: one-third rightly goes to the inventor, he said, and the rest goes back into research.

Later, conversation turned to the potential for technology to flee the state. While the university is strong in biotech research, "If you have a biotech invention, and you want to spin off a company, where is it going to end up?" asked Carpenter. "San Francisco or Boston."

Johansson noted that, of 40 recent, top-of-their-class graduates he knows, all have jobs, and only four are in this state.

Schrankler assured potential entrepreneurs that the university is trying to not send technology out of state--despite opportunities to do so--and he asked them to be patient.

"We have more potential companies in our pipeline right now than the system can handle," said Schrankler. "Have patience with us. The longer we can keep that company inside the university and work the problem so that it can stay here…"

An audience member asked why so much emphasis was put on biotech research at the university when the Twin Cities has stronger markets for other technology.

"We are the Silicon Valley of medical devices," said the audience member.

The argument was also made that the region's concentration of med-tech chokes off the potential for growth in other areas.

To this point, Carpenter advised entrepreneurs to diversify their interests in technologies.

"There's more here than just med-tech," he said. "Maintain what you've got with med-tech, but support all the other innovations out there."

"God bless you!" responded Darren Cox, founder and "chief evangelist" of Commerce and Search for Tech Transfer (CaSTT).

Earlier on, he had given prospective entrepreneurs some simple advice:

"Be curious … and figure out what it is that you're interested in that is going on at the U. It's a huge place, and they are some of the most amazing things that I've ever seen coming out of research.

"There are gold mines here, trust me," said Cox. "There are cash machines, and entrepreneurs who ignore the university's innovations are doing themselves a great disservice."

Source: MOJO Minnesota tech transfer conversation, Feb. 23
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

We often hear the University of Minnesota described as the "economic engine" of the state. From bioscience to information technology to agriculture, the U is indeed a source and driving factor behind many of Minnesota's successful economic endeavors and sectors.

Earlier this month, the university's Office of the Vice President for Research hosted an event to recognize the innovators at the very beginning of the continuum from research to commercial application.

"It's a key part of what we do as a university, and we want to acknowledge the folks who play a vital role in [the innovation] process," says John Merritt, director of communications for the Office of the Vice President for Research. "They are really the source of the intellectual property and technology that emanates from this place."

In the past two years (fiscal years 2990–2010), 161 inventors from 10 colleges generated 106 patents and 84 license agreements--contributing to the nearly $390 million in revenue over the last five years.

That dollar amount reflects the economic importance of innovation to the state and the nation, and it is a very necessary return on investment that supports additional research at the university. Merritt stresses how critical innovation revenue is to research funding--especially right now.

"As public support declines, as the support of the state in particular declines," says Merritt, "we're looking towards [technology commercialization] revenue to help fill some of that gap."

The university has seen an upward trend in a couple of key measures, says Merritt. The number of disclosures of inventions by faculty increased from 217 in FY2008 to 255 in FY2009. Likewise, the number of patent filings rose from 52 to 66 in that same period.

"We're seeing a nice growth of revenue here that comes from products," says Merritt, even above and beyond the U of M's revenue "home run"--innovation drug Ziagen, licensed to Glaxo Smith Kline (but set to roll off patent in 2013).

Inventors of recently applied research honored at the Feb. 10 event include:

-- Dr. Erik Cressman of the Medical School, whose discovery of a novel treatment for chronic venous insufficience resulted in the formation of the device startup XO Thermix Medical;

-- biochemistry professor Gary Nelsestuen, who licensed technology in 2008 using modified vitamin K as an anti-coagulant or pro-coagulant;

-- Kevin Groenke, coordinator for the College of Design, whose desk for architecture students has been licensed to three companies since 2009;

-- Vipin Kumar, head of the Computer Science and Engineering department, who developed software that allows researchers to track the growth and degradation of forests worldwide;

-- and Tom Levar, forestry and horticulture specialist at U of M Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute, whose technology to protect plants from browsing by deer and mice was licensed to Repellex, which will release the product this spring.

The event also recognized patent and licensing activity from the St. Paul campus, including:

-- Honeycrisp apple trees;
-- La Crescent, Frontenac gris, and Marquette grape varieties;
-- FINPACK software for farm financial planning and analysis;
-- and the technology behind recent startup NewWater.

Even as it celebrated its recent patents and licenses, the university was finalizing an exclusive, worldwide license agreement with Paris-headquartered biotechnology company Cellectis for gene-modification technology, according to a press release.

U of M representatives will take part in a MOJO Minnesota-hosted conversation about the other end of the research continuum--the transfer of technology to the market--on Wednesday, Feb. 23. (More on that next week.)

Source: John Merritt, University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

When he took the call last December from Ellen Prosser of Fort Lucas Farm in Massachusetts, Dan Ellsworth could sense the sincerity and concern in her voice.

Hundreds of llamas were starving and in need of rescue at the defunct Montana Large Animal Sanctuary.

"It was a simple answer," says Ellsworth, vice president of marketing for Destron Fearing, a South St. Paul company specializing in animal identification solutions. The company donated 600 of its LifeChip microchips and four microchip readers to aid in the effort.

The chips and readers saved the rescue effort "thousands of dollars," says Gary Kaufman, spokesperson for the Camelid Rescue Coalition, made up of several regional llama rescue organizations from around the country. The chips were used to "provide a permanent form of non-invasive identification of the animals, similar to what people use on their dogs and cats," says Kaufman.

By the first week of February, "well in excess of 500" llamas had been rescued and shipped to recovery areas in at least eight states, according to Kaufman. (Not all the llamas survived; Kaufman estimates the original number was 700.)

Kaufmann had little information about why the rescue was necessary, except that the animal sanctuary "no longer had money for the llamas." It will take months to nurse the animals back to health, he says. Those interested in donating to the effort may contact Northeast Llama Rescue.

Founded in 1945, Destron Fearing was the first animal identification company in the country, according to Ellsworth. Their radio frequency identification (RFID) systems are used to identify livestock, wildlife,  fish, pets, and companion animals.

Destron Fearing has 150 employees globally, about three-quarters of them at their headquarters a few miles downriver from downtown St. Paul.

Sources: Dan Ellsworth, Destron Fearing; Gary Kaufman, Camelid Rescue Coalition.

Writer: Jeremy Stratton

A Maple Grove med-tech company has won approval to begin a large clinical trial for its implantable neuro-stimulator, which is designed to help people with obstructive sleep apnea.

Inspire Medical, founded in 2007 with technology spun out of Medtronic, announced last week that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration signed off on a 100-plus-patient clinical trial for the therapy.

"It's the key trial that collects the data necessary for U.S. approval," CEO Tim Herbert said.

The study will test an alternative treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which the tongue and throat muscles relax during sleep and cause the airway to collapse. People with the condition briefly wake up and gasp for breath as many as 30 to 50 times an hour.

The most common treatment today is called continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP. It's a mask that needs to be worn while sleeping and that blows air down the airway with enough pressure to keep it from closing.

"It's a very effective therapy. It's a very efficient therapy. The problem is you have to wear that mask and it's not really comfortable for a lot of people," says Herbert.

Herbert says research has shown that about 50 percent of people who are prescribed a CPAP are no longer using it a year later. Untreated, the condition can increase the odds of a stroke, hypertension, not to mention fatigue.

Inspire's treatment is an implantable system, similar to a pacemaker. Only instead of sending electrical pulses to the heart, the device sends tiny jolts to a nerve under the chin that controls the tongue and throat muscles.

The system is approved for sale in Europe. The company's clinical trial will begin enrolling patients early next year and likely take about two years to be completed. The company has 12 employees and outsources its manufacturing work to other companies, including Medtronic.

Herbert said the company is working toward having the therapy approved for sale in the United States by 2013.

Source: Tim Herbert, Inspire Medical Systems
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Medical outcomes vary too much for every doctor or surgeon to be able to claim they're doing the best job.

That idea was one of the premises behind a recent study of bowel surgery data by a team at UnitedHealthcare, says Dr. Ed Dasso, the company's medical director for clinical improvement and analytics.

The company sifted through health care claim data from its network and looked at how outcomes varied for surgeons in similar cases, markets, and specialties. Where it found a wide spectrum of results, it took a closer look at what factors or decisions, such as length of hospitalization, were most often associated with a quick and complete recovery for the patient.

The result was a set of data and a list of evidence-based best practices for preventing bowel surgery complications, both of which UnitedHealthcare shared with gastrointestinal surgeons.

"The approach we took here was no penalties, no promises. We just did a good-faith effort of sharing information with these surgeons," says Dasso. "We said, 'Here are your results compared to your peers'... and then, 'by the way, if you are interested, here are the most current evidence-based treatment guidelines that could help reduce that variance. What you choose to do with that information is totally up to you.'"

"That was one of the premises we wanted to test with this: is just the sharing of this type of information going to result in some sort of action and potentially impact practice patterns? And, fortunately, it did."

Over the next 18 months, the health insurer observed a 50 percent decrease in avoidable hospital days and a decrease in surgery-related readmissions. The changes also produced inpatient cost savings of approximately $7.4 million during that time period. Dasso says cost savings wasn't the motivation, but that they're learning that better care and reduced costs often come hand-in-hand.

The work recently earned the company an innovation and leadership in health care award from Milliman Care Guidelines, a company that develops evidence-based clinical guidelines.

Source: Ed Dasso, UnitedHealthcare
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A Minneapolis imaging company is hoping its MRI technology can become a magnet for investors.

Steady State Imaging recently disclosed that it's seeking to raise $4 million to continue refining and commercializing its technology, which enables MRI machines to image both soft and hard tissues. The fundraising round kicked off in October with the sale of $250,000 in equity, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The technology is a software platform called SWIFT (short for SWeep Imaging with Fourier Transformation), which was developed by Dr. Michael Garwood at the University of Minnesota's Center for Magnetic Resonance Research and can be installed on existing MRI machines, much like a firmware update can upgrade a cell phone or video game console.

Currently, MRI machines are good at imaging soft tissue in the body, such as your brain or muscles, but it's not the best option for imaging hard tissue like bone or cartilage. X-rays are still the most common method for imaging those harder tissues, despite the risks from ionizing (x-ray) radiation.

"Dr. Garwood's technique really broadens the applicability of MRI. It allows for really good imaging of hard and soft tissues," says Steady State Imaging CEO Danny Cunagin. "You can kind of think about his invention as combining an X-ray machine and an MRI machine in one device, without the ionizing radiation of X-rays."

Another benefit of the software is that it allows MRI machines to run much quieter than most do today, which makes it more patient-friendly, says Cunagin. It's currently for sale for in the pre-clinical market, and Cunagin says they expect to announce a clinical partner within the next three to four months.

Steady State Imaging was incorporated in 2005 and relaunched in 2008 under new leadership. It employs about half a dozen people at its office just west of downtown Minneapolis. Cunagin says the latest round of fundraising will allow the company to refine the software based on feedback from existing users, as well as prepare for commercialization in the clinical market.

Source: Danny Cunagin, Steady State Imaging
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BioMedix Vascular Solutions has outgrown its space in the suburbs and is preparing to move to downtown St. Paul in the spring.

The health care technology company makes a suite of hardware, software, and online services to assist physicians in diagnosing vascular disease.

It's currently headquartered in an 8,000-square-foot office space in White Bear Lake, but spokeswoman Meg Heim says the location can no longer accommodate the company's growth.

BioMedix's new home will be at 178 E. Ninth St., a three-story, 24,000-square-foot building that's currently boarded up and is slated for renovation before the move-in date, likely to be sometime in March. The company will lease two and a half floors of the building -- all but half of the first floor--for its approximately 75 local employees. (The company employs about 150, but half are traveling or remote salespeople.)

"We are looking forward to the energy and the atmosphere that downtown St. Paul offers," Heim said in an e-mail earlier this week.

She said preparations for the move are well underway, and that they're looking forward to seeing the building when the renovation is complete.

The growth that prompted the move has come across several product categories, including its medical hardware and health IT software, Heim said. The new space will help accommodate the growth the company expects to see in 2011, as well as help support its existing, and expanding, client base, she said.

Source: Meg Heim, BioMedix Vascular Solutions
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A local software shop is experiencing some healthy growth.

PowerObjects helps companies configure and customize Microsoft Dynamics relationship management software, which helps organizations keep track of information about their clients, customers or sales leads.

The company was Microsoft's fastest-growing partner in its last fiscal year. COO Jim Sheehan says revenues are on track to be 40 percent over last year. In June, PowerObjects announced an expansion of its office in the SO|HO building in downtown Minneapolis, where it employs 32 people.

Sheehan credits the company's growth to its "laser focus" on Microsoft Dynamics software. Until three years ago the company was much less specialized and did a variety of custom software projects for customers.

"It was pretty scary for us. We had a few million dollars in business in other software lines, and we said: Nope, we're going to get rid of it all," Sheehan said, and focus exclusively on implementing Microsoft Dynamics software.

As a result, they're known at Microsoft, and that's resulted in some major business referrals.

It also has an expertise in software for health care and life sciences--"pretty much anything that relates to or could touch a patient," says Sheehan.

The company also has about 15 employees in Texas at offices in Dallas and San Antonio.

Source: Jim Sheehan, PowerObjects
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The BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota supports businesses that are working with materials on the molecular and cellular level.

In other words, stuff that's too small to see with the naked eye.

Last week, the organization unveiled an original artwork it commissioned that it hopes will help Minnesotans visualize the type of work it promotes.

"We wanted to create a symbol that will help to connect the individual to the science, so that people can feel part of it and connected to it," said Dale Wahlstrom, CEO of the Alliance.

"Unfolding the Natural History and Science of Life" is a 3'-by-6' print by multimedia artist Lynn Fellman, who specializes in science-inspired art. Fellman reversed the scale of her subjects; the largest footprint goes to proteins and DNA strands, while animals and plants are pictured smallest.

Wahlstrom said the goal is for the image to become an identifiable symbol for the life-science community the Alliance represents in the state. It also plans to sell notecards and posters to raise funds for its Destination 2025 mission.

The image is hanging in the BioBusiness Alliance's office. (A small version image can be viewed on its website here.)

Source: Dale Wahlstrom, BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota
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A local software shop is up for an innovation award for a web app that streamlines the process of finding new patients for clinical studies.

Fortress Medical Systems, which is based in Hopkins, is one of five finalists for the Society for Clinical Data Management's 2010 Data Driven Innovation Award. The company makes software for managing clinical trial data, particularly for medical device studies, which require tracking of more variables than drug studies.

"What differentiates us is our flexibility, because medical device trials are really different than pharmaceutical trials," says CEO Mark Jones.

Fortress' customers include a few dozen medical device companies in the Twin Cities, from industry giants like Medtronic to emerging startup companies.

Typically, a company conducting a clinical trial will hire a call center to screen prospective patients. The call center then relays information back to the research company, which then contacts the patient's doctor or hospital about enrollment.

Fortress is up for an award for helping design a web-based software program that lets call center screeners report information directly to the doctors or hospitals.

"The benefits are that it increases the speed at which patients can potentially get enrolled into the study," minimizing the risk of patients changing their minds or being lost in the shuffle, explains Jones.

Fortress was founded in 1997 and has nine employees. The Society for Clinical Data Management will announce the innovation award winner at its annual conference in Minneapolis on October 17-20.

Source: Mark Jones, Fortress Medical Systems
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A group of civic and business leaders announced an initiative Tuesday to try put Minneapolis-St. Paul on the map in the areas of creativity and innovation.

The nonprofit 4FRONT is made up of local business, education, arts, and government leaders who want the region to take its "rightful place on the world stage."

Executive director John Foley points to a recent ranking of innovative cities worldwide in which Minneapolis slipped to 45th overall from 33rd the previous year.

"Cities all over the world get it. They're working really hard at innovation and trying to figure out how to attract talent, and we're acting like we're not even in the race," says Foley. "We continue to compare ourselves to the likes of Sioux Falls and Mississippi, literally. It's like we don't get it. We're not there yet. We just don't understand the dimensions of this race, and we're missing the big picture that we're competing with Amsterdam and Paris and San Francisco" and other major cities around the globe.

The plan is for 4FRONT to attract, retain, and nurture talent in the areas of food, health, design, and the arts. The centerpiece will be an international symposium and awards event that they hope will annually attract more than 40,000 people.

The Twin Cities are in a global competition for talent, says Foley, and the hope is that the awards will be a way to identify talent and give them a connection to the region. The goal is for Minneapolis-St. Paul to be recognized as the world's premier center of innovation and creativity by 2015 in health, food, design and the arts.

The group is working toward holding its first major event in the summer of 2012, with an abridged event and awards ceremony to introduce the concept in 2011.

Source: John Foley, 4FRONT
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Six division winners are in the running for the Minnesota Cup grand prize. The winners of the sixth annual entrepreneur competition were announced last week. Each will receive $20,000, except for the student division winner, which gets $5,000.

"This year's Minnesota Cup winners are behind some of our state's most innovative new business ideas," Minnesota Cup co-founder Scott Litman said in a statement.

The winners are:

     GeaCom, a Duluth company developing a device to help doctors and patients communicate across language barriers

    BioMatRx, a Twin Cities company that provides tissue engineering products, equipment and information to the dental industry
 
    EarthClean, a Minneapolis startup that is commercializing a non-toxic, biodegradable firefighting gel (See our previous coverage)

    Go Home Gorgeous, a Twin Cities company that provides postpartum recovery treatments to reduce the stress associated with childbirth
 
    Springboard for the Arts, a Twin Cities organization that connects artists with skills, contacts, information, and services

    Blue Water Ponds, a Twin Cities company that provides pond restoration services using barley straw and pond weed harvesting

A grand prize winner, to be named on Sept. 13, will win another $20,000. An awards ceremony is scheduled for 5 pm, Sept. 13 at the U of M's McNamara Alumni Center.

Source: Minnesota Cup
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A St. Paul med-tech startup has secured a $1 million bridge loan to keep it going until it can finish its next round of fundraising.

NxThera is developing a minimally invasive ablation procedure for treating enlarged prostate and prostate cancer. Unlike existing ablation treatments, NxThera's device uses vapor rather than radio-frequency or microwave energy.

"The best way to describe it is that we're using vapor to kill tissue," says Bob Paulson, a former Medtronic executive who now NxThera's chief executive.

Paulson says the procedure takes less than two minutes, compared to the 30 minutes or more needed for ablation treatments using radio frequency or microwaves instead of vapor.

"As it phase-shifts from vapor to liquid, it releases stored thermal energy and kills the tissue, but kind of does it gently," says Paulson. It's faster and less painful, and leads to fewer complications, he says.

The company is still proving out those results. It started its first human patient study earlier this year in Chile, and the results have been "extremely favorable" so far, according to Paulson.

NxThera was founded in March 2008 by Michael Hoey, a former physiology professor at the University of Minnesota, along with patent attorney John Shadduck.

The company is currently finalizing its product design and working on completing its next round of fundraising, which will pay for a full-scale U.S. clinical study.

"As you may have heard, it's kind of a tough market to raise money these days," says Paulson. "We haven't slowed down any of our development. It's taking longer to get the dollars to finalize the financing, but we'll get there."

Source: Bob Paulson, NxThera
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OrthoCor Medical kicked off sales last month for its first device: a knee wrap that uses heat and electromagnetic pulses to alleviate pain and swelling.

The product, called the OrthoCor Active Knee System, sells for about $200 and runs on a rechargeable battery and disposable, single-use heat "pods."

The Twin Cities company has been gearing up for sales since December, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the device for sale. In February, OrthoCor disclosed plans to raise $1 million from investors to grow its sales and marketing force. CEO John Dinusson said in an interview last week that fundraising has since exceeded $1.5 million.

(OrthoCor was the first business certified under Minnesota's new angel investor tax credit program.)

While investors appear to be enthusiastic, insurers remain skeptical. Clinical data about the product's effectiveness is limited, which will hinder any efforts to win reimbursement from insurers. Instead, the company is counting on chiropractors to be the primary distribution channel for the device.

"We know that we have a huge patient population," says Dinusson. An estimated 26 million people in the United States suffer from knee pain, and many become less active instead of seeking treatments, says Dinusson. He hopes their product can change that trend.

OrthoCor has five employees, including inventor Kin-Joe Sham. The devices are manufactured at Sham's father's company in China, and Dinusson has been contracting independent sales reps. Several other products are in the pipeline, including devices for relieving wrist, ankle, elbow, and lower back pain.

Source: John Dinusson, OrthoCor Medical
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A gene database developed at the University of Minnesota could help reduce the time and cost involved with vetting new cancer drugs.

The school is in the process of copyrighting the database, known as OncomiR, and has plans to license it to pharmaceutical companies and other researchers.

"Our final goal is to make this database the one-stop shop for any information related to this gene," says Rasik Phalak, 24, who created the database while earning a computer science masters degree.

OncomiR and Phalak are also semifinalists in the student division of this year's Minnesota Cup entrepreneurship contest.

As a graduate student, Phalak helped Dr. Subbaya Subramanian, a med school researcher, organize his data related to microRNA. MicroRNA is a gene type scientists think may contain clues about the causes of cancer growth.

OncomiR organizes all of Subramanian's data into a single database. Phalak also developed a web application that allows drug researchers to search via a web browser.

"With this, they'll get a good starting point, which will help to eventually reduce the time and the cost involved in the entire process," says Phalak, who plans to continue to populate and update the database.

Source: Rasik Phalak, OncomiR
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Exos Medical Corp. introduced a high-tech alternative to plaster casts last year that can be re-conformed as injuries swell and subside.

The company hopes its new Arden Hills facility will allow it similar flexibility. And right now, sales are swelling.

CEO Fariborz Boor Boor described sales as "nothing short of phenomenal" for a new medical technology, which often have slow adoption curves. (A recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission listed revenue at less than $1 million.)

Meanwhile, Exos' products have been worn by some high-profile athletes, from NFL quarterbacks to Olympic skier Lindsay Vonn, and also noted on national tech blogs by Fast Company and BoingBoing.

"Actually, part of our growth challenge right now is meeting the demand, so we're taking steps to make sure we have product to sell," Boor Boor said.

Exos moved on April 1 from a 4,000-square-foot space in White Bear Lake to a 12,000-square-foot facility in Arden Hills, tripling its floor space. Meanwhile, it's grown from just five employees at the start of the year to more than 20 today. It expects to be at around 30 employees by the end of the year.

The company's technology is a lightweight foam and polymer product that can be molded and hardened into casts, braces, and splints. Unlike plaster casts, they're breathable, waterproof, and adjustable during the course of healing.

"Beyond that, the comfort level of our products is unprecedented," Boor Boor said. "That really was our focus, making sure we could make a product that was comfortable for the patient and easy for the practitioner to apply."

The cost is "a bit higher" than traditional casts, he said, but the price becomes competitive when you factor in that traditional casts often have to be replaced.

The company was created in Aug. 2007 as a spin-off from Boor Boor's previous endeavor, a med-tech incubator called Enova Medical Technologies.

Source: Fariborz Boor Boor, Exos Corporation
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Bringing a new medical device to market is a complicated, highly regulated process, one that requires documentation at every turn.

Kristin Mortenson doesn't believe there's been a simple solution for most medical device companies to keep track of it all, until now.

Mortenson is co-founder of Acera Innovation, maker of a software-as-a-service application built specifically to help medical device companies manage workflow and collaboration around product development, regulatory compliance, and quality management.

"Our goal to lower their time, risk, and cost to bring their product to market," says Mortenson.

Most medical device companies are like the ones Mortenson has worked with the past 20 years: fewer than 100 employees and too small to be able to afford large enterprise software customized to their needs.

As a consultant, she looked for software that would help clients stay organized but couldn't find any good solutions. As a result, regulatory compliance became a time-consuming headache for many firms.

About a year and a half ago she met with a couple of software entrepreneurs, Myke Miller and Steve Swartz, and they formed Acera Innovation. The company signed up its first paying user about a year ago. It's in a "limited-release" mode right now with about a dozen customers, mostly in the Twin Cities.

Because it's a cloud-based service, companies don't need any specialized staff or hardware to run the program, just a computer with Internet access. This frees up companies to concentrate on the task at hand:

"Placing the energy and the time and the creativity on the device."

Acera Innovation is currently raising money and also preparing to release an updated version of the software in the fall.

Source: Kristin Mortenson, Acera Innovation
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A Burnsville startup is making progress vetting its promising but still unproven diabetes treatment.

Exsulin CEO Lisa Jansa says the company's Phase II clinical trial at the Mayo Clinic and Canada's McGill University is now more than 50 percent enrolled and on track to be completed by the end of the year.

"The good news is we're very close to having data," says Jansa, one of more than two dozen scheduled speakers at a diabetes innovation summit Wednesday at Park Nicollet's International Diabetes Center.

The company's product, a drug called ExsulinTM, aims to help the body regenerate insulin-producing cells within the pancreas. If it proves successful, it could reverse the effects of diabetes in Type 1 and Type 2 patients and reduce the use of injected insulin.

Jansa says there's reason for optimism based on previous animal and clinical studies. If the current 27-patient trial suggests the drug is safe and effective, then larger studies will follow. If those are also successful and the drug is approved by regulators, it could be for sale within five years.

Exsulin TM's progress is being tracked closely by the diabetes industry because it's the only treatment of its kind at this stage of development, Jansa said. If it makes it all the way to pharmacy shelves, the product would likely find a massive potential market. Diabetes affects 24 million Americans. In Minnesota alone, 15,000 people are diagnosed each year.

The Twin Cities could play a key role in developing treatments for those patients. The region has strong research expertise at the Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota, and International Diabetes Center, says Jansa, as well as emerging companies like Exsulin that could help diversify the area's reputation beyond medical devices. She hopes Wednesday's event will give a glimpse of that future.

"I'm hoping it'll be the first of what we'll see as some real momentum in the region."

Source: Lisa Jansa, Exsulin Corporation
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A group of ProUroCare Medical investors have upped their anti, loaning the Eden Prairie medical device startup an additional $885,000.

The company is seeking approval from federal regulators to begin selling an imaging product it believes will help doctors detect and document abnormalities that could be related to prostate cancer.

ProUroCare's device is inserted into a patient's rectum and applied against the prostate gland. It can then map how the tissue responds to pressure. Abnormal tissue tends to be denser and less elastic and shows up differently on the electronic image generated by the device.

The new financing, which comes from "a small group of existing investors closely aligned with the company," will be used to pay off debt, as well as boost manufacturing and marketing activities, expand the company's intellectual property portfolio and create a scientific advisory board, the company said. It brings the total amount the company has raised since 2007 to more than $9.3 million.

"We are very pleased by the support that we continue to receive from investors for the ProUroScan prostate imaging system and the market opportunities that exist for this technology," CEO Rick Carlson said in a statement.

The device is not yet for sale in the United States. The company applied for approval to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November. The Star Tribune reported then that the company's next challenge would be convincing Medicare and private insurers that the scans result in improved medical care.

Source: ProUroCare Medical
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A Waconia-based website that aims to be a matchmaker between patients and healthcare providers announced last week that it's received a $1 million angel investment to help expand its services.

WellClicks.com lets consumers search for physicians and other health and wellness providers by criteria such as location, specialty, gender, and years of experience. Providers, meanwhile, pay to be included in the search results.

Mark Prondzinski and Lisa Suchy launched a limited pilot version of the service in July 2009 with backing from Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia. Up to now the site has only covered providers in the southwest metro.

The site's usage has been "low to moderate," but with a limited marketing budget and small geographic area, they didn't expect an overnight blockbuster. The goal was only to prove the concept for investors.

"Our objective now, with the investment funds, is to expand the concept, both from the product side and from a geographic point of view, and then really try to turn the business model into something that is profitable and see and realize some of our longer-term business objectives," Prondzinski said. "It's not a tremendously huge amount, but it's enough to help us take the next steps down that path."

WellClicks.com is the first product from CreateHealth, a for-profit healthcare innovation center created and spun off by Ridgeview Medical Center in 2007. Prondzinski, who previously interned in the hospital's operations department, was tapped with Suchy to co-found the center.

Source: Mark Prondzinski, WellClicks.com
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Minnesota's medical technology industry employs more people per capita than any other state, according to a new economic study by a national medical technology trade group.

The report (PDF), authored by The Lewin Group and released last week by AdvaMed, says med-tech accounts for 1.06 percent of Minnesota's employment (the next highest per capita figures come from Utah and Delaware). It estimates the total number of med-tech jobs in Minnesota at 26,862, placing it second behind California and ahead of Massachusetts.

"Minnesota has long had a strong network of academic, industry, and government assets working together to support our life-science ecosystem," LifeScience Alley President/CEO Don Gerhardt said in an e-mail statement. LifeScience Alley is the local trade association for life science companies.

Gerhardt said the numbers in AdvaMed's report aren't surprising, and if anything they under-count the number of med-tech jobs in Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development estimates Minnesota has around 35,000 med-tech jobs.

One explanation for the accounting gap: The data used in the AdvaMed report misses jobs at med-tech suppliers, such as Phillips Plastics, that don't operate exclusively in med-tech.

Sources: AdvaMed, LifeScience Alley
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Minnetonka-based medical device maker Anulex disclosed last week that it's raised about $18.3 million in new venture capital.

The company makes a product that lets doctors repair spinal tissue that's punctured during herniated-disc surgeries. Xclose has been on the market since 2007, but there's still little clinical data about its effectiveness, which makes collecting reimbursements from insurers more difficult.

David Noel, vice president of finance and chief financial officer for Anulex, said the funding will allow the company to continue a two-year clinical study it started in 2009, as well as further commercialization and product development efforts.

About 10 percent of herniated disks require a surgery called a diskectomy that involves removing the part of the disc that's coming in contact with nerves. The soft, outer layer of the disc typically isn't sewn up after the procedure because it's difficult to reach.

"It's been very, very difficult to get down there and suture that defect. Our product allows the surgeon to go in there and in approximate and bring that tissue together," Noel said. "We believe that if you're able to do that you're going to have a better result, and that's what our clinical study is intended to prove."

The 750 patients enrolled in the study will have a one-year follow-up in August and a more intensive two-year check-in next year. The company hopes the results will assist in with both marketing and establishing an insurance reimbursement code.

Source: David Noel, Anulex
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Doris Taylor earned international acclaim in 2008 when she and her team at the University of Minnesota grew a living, beating rat's heart from stem cells in a jar.

Now, the state is betting that a Minneapolis biotech startup can grow that technology into a successful company.

The state Agricultural and Economic Development Board announced an agreement last week to loan $250,000 in seed capital to Miromatrix Medical, a six-month old U of M spinoff. Under the terms, the state's loan is to be matched by private investors.

Miromatrix has an exclusive licensing agreement with the university to commercialize the technology, which might one day be used to grow human replacement organs.

Miromatrix CEO Robert Cohen said in an e-mail that he is pleased with the state's support, but that as a "matter of corporate policy" stopped commenting publicly several months ago.

"Our preference is to let the ultimate success of our products speak for itself," Cohen said.

Cohen and Taylor did speak with MedCity News in January, when they commented on the incredibly high expectations many have for the company and its significance to the state's biotech industry.

The Ag Board has traditionally funded the expansion of manufacturing firms but its scope is broadening to include emerging high-tech businesses, according to the Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Source: Department of Employment and Economic Development
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Minnesota researchers may have a brighter future thanks to a new cross-border compact.

The BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota signed an agreement last month giving members improved access to the Canadian Light Source synchrotron facility at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada.

The synchrotron is a giant X-ray microscope that lets scientists see what's going on inside cells at the atomic-particle level. The device works by accelerating electrons around a football-field-sized racetrack, then focusing them into a light beam brighter than the sun and sending it through the material being studied.

Only a handful of synchrotrons exist around the world because they are so expensive to build. Canada completed its $174-million national synchrotron facility in 2004.

Canadian researchers have always had preferential pricing and access to the synchrotron, but under the new agreement with the BioBusiness Alliance, "they're in effect treating us as through we're Canadians," said Dale Wahlstrom, CEO of the BioBusiness Alliance.

Wahlstrom said many university and larger companies already use synchrotrons for research, but many other companies aren't aware of the potential applications. The BioBusiness Alliance's next step is educating Minnesotans about the technology.

"It's very broadly applicable," Wahlstrom said, citing the life sciences, computer industry and materials sciences as a few areas where the light source could be used.

The hope is that giving Minnesota researchers better access to the facility will speed up the time it takes to develop products and get them to market, said Wahlstrom.

Source: Dale Wahlstrom, CEO, BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota
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