TechConnect Summit Names Winners of 2006 TechConnect Emerging Technology Awards
June 12, 2006 09:00 AM US Eastern Timezone
The three 2006 TETA recipients offered disruptive technologies for medicine, energy and electronics.
TechConnect, the global technology outreach group focused on locating commercially-promising technologies and start-up firms, announced winners of its first annual TechConnect Emerging Technology Awards (TETAs) during the 2006 TechConnect Summit in Boston last month.
“TechConnect Summit provides an ideal forum for early-stage technology companies to showcase their technologies and market advantages to potential go-to-market partners,” said Matthew Laudon, PhD, co-producer of the TechConnect Summit.
The three (3) 2006 TETA recipients offered disruptive technologies for medicine, energy and electronics. TETA winners were ranked highest in three areas:
- strength of IP;
- value proposition; and
- market impact (size of market, practicality, etc.)
Evaluations were conducted by the TechConnect Advisory Board, which includes large corporations, investment and venture capital firms, and technology transfer offices. More than 120 submissions were considered for this award.
The 2006 TechConnect Emerging Technology Award (TETA) Winners
Details on the 2006 TETA award winners, and their technologies follow:
Life Sciences: (Health, Pharma, Personal Care, Biotech)
- Winner: Tufts-New England Medical Center (Boston, MA, US)
- Technology Project: Pepducin® Drug Compounds
- Description: Tufts “Pepducin” intra-cellular technology focuses on targeting biologically similar GPCR receptors to enable “cleaner,” more selective, and more efficacious new chemical entity (NCE) development. Tufts presented in vitro and in vivo data to show Pepducin can simultaneously inhibit multiple GPCR receptors of a similar family using single Pepducin-based drug candidates. The finding has strong implications for treatment of inflammatory diseases and cancer, “in light of pharmas’ poor experience with GPCRs of complex diseases,” Tufts stated.
- Participants: John Cosmopoulos, Tufts University; and Athan Kuliopulos, MD, PhD, Lidija Covic, PhD, Nicole Kaneider, MD, from Tufts-New England Medical Center
Physical Sciences: (Electronics, Sensors, Telecom, Instrumentation)
- Winner: MonoDrive, Inc. (Menlo Park, CA, US)
- Technology Project: Piezoelectric MEMS Microphones, Speakers, and High Temperature Sensors
- Description: MonoDrive’s MEMS microphone (acoustic sensing) solution offers a single diaphragm approach that does not require use of a charge pump. The design eliminates barriers to low voltage (<1.5V) operations, lowers inherence noise floor of other MEMS microphones, and allows development of smaller, cost-effective devices via its single on-chip integration with low-voltage CMOS-compatible processes.
- Participants: Scott Rader, PhD; Mhamed Ibnabdeljalil, PhD, MonoDrive, Inc.
Physical Sciences: (Energy, Materials, Chemicals, Agriculture)
- Winner UniQuest Pty Ltd (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)
- Technology Project: Pepfactants
- Description: Uniquest’s “Pepfactants” process controls emulsions or foams, particularly for the oil industry. The process, based on nano-emulsion principals, could improve efficiency of current water-driven oil extraction methods by allowing easy separation of the oil/water emulsion on the surface, and changing the viscosity of oil to increase the amount of oil extracted from each underground oil reserve.
- Participants include: Kyle Meetze, Anton Middelberg, PhD, BE, Annette Dexter, PhD, BSc, The University of Queensland
About The TechConnect Advisory Board
More than 30 individuals representing leading universities, companies and investment firms are members of the TechConnect Board, including:
| Boston University | Merck |
| Massachusetts TTC | Cisco Systems |
| University of California | Motorola |
| Rice University | DaimlerChrysler |
| Yale University | Goodrich |
| University of Minnesota | University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| University of Illinois | University of California San Diego |
| Northwestern University | Analog Devices, Inc. |
| IBM | Intel |
| Chevron | Imperial College-London |
| University of Geneva, CH | Ford Motor Company |
| Cabot Corporation | Georgia Tech |
| Novartis | BASF |
| Sanyo | ExxonMobil |
| Washington University | University of Florida |
| New York University | University of Michigan |
| Tufts University | Washington University |
| In-Q-Tel | Atomic Venture Partners |
| Honeywell | Genzyme |
TechConnect 2007 Summit Heads to California
The next TechConnect Summit will be held May 21-23, 2007 in Santa Clara, California. The Summit will co-locate again with the Nanotech conference at the Santa Clara Convention Center.
“Based on the success of this year’s event in Boston, we believe TechConnect Summit in Silicon Valley will fill a massive void in the marketplace by creating a venue where innovators and early stage companies can meet face-to-face with investors and enterprises looking to find tomorrow’s technology opportunities,” said TechConnect Executive Director Matthew Laudon.
Visit the TechConnect Summit home page for more information, including how to submit a proposal for review and to join the TechConnect community: http://www.techconnect.org/Summit2007/.
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