The Newsletter of the MTTC for the Massachusetts
entrepreneur & tech transfer community
April 20, 2016
|
|
Welcome
|
Dear MATTO Members and Friends,
One of the MTTC's main activities is running small conferences and showcase meetings at which investors, companies and the community can meet emerging companies and researchers with inventions that could be the foundation for new start-ups. If you missed our Early Stage Life Sciences Conference you can now review the notebook on our website.
We will host a program focused on new food technologies on May 5 and our annual Mass Life Sciences Innovation Day on June 2. Finally with several international partners we will again present early stage cancer companies at BIO on June 6 in San Francisco.
We hope that you can join us at one or more of these programs to meet with the newest companies that are being built here in Massachusetts!
Best wishes,
The MTTC Team - Abi, Julia, Michele and Barbara
|
|
|
|
MTTC Update
|
MTTC events:
The New England Food Technology Forum 2016
Date:
May 5, 2016 11:30am-7pm
Location: The University of Massachusetts Club, One Beacon Street, 32nd Floor, Boston
New England is well known for its cod, lobster, clam chowder and Fluff... but the labs of the universities and hospitals of New England have always undertaken significant research into the creation of new foods, as well as food processing, storage and safety technologies. This Forum will showcase research discoveries and newly formed companies that are working on food and food related technologies.
We are pleased to announce pitch presenters
: Brandeis University; Canomiks; Cirkul; Enlivity; H2ORS.; KnipBio; Rite Taste; UMass Lowell; and Wyss Institute at Harvard.
To see more information about the conference and to register please visit
Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation Day 2016
Date:
June 2, 2016 8:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Location
: Harvard Club of Boston, 374 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
The 9th Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation (MALSI) Day
is the biggest day for life sciences startups and innovation in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This is a high-energy, hands-on event which brings together scientific leaders and business experts to mingle with scientists, post-docs, professors, entrepreneurs, innovators, and venture capitalists. The conference will feature Keynotes, Panels, Innovators' Marketplace, Networking Reception with leading life sciences CEO's , and Poster Competition.
Poster Session: Research & Start-up Showcase
About 30 posters from very early stage companies and from Massachusetts research institutions will be displayed during the entire day of the event.
There are no additional fees to present a poster but Poster Presenters must register for the full-day conference.
In order to present and exhibit, you must complete Poster Presenter Application_2016 and submit it to the MTTC to jgoldberg@umassp.edu by May 6, 2016
To see more information about the conference and to register please visit
Early-Stage Life Sciences Technology Conference XII took place on April 12, 2016
25 life sciences technologies developed at the universities, research institutions, and hospitals of Massachusetts and recently formed Massachusetts companies were presented to an audience of angel investors, venture capitalists and corporate investors.
State Officials Announce $595,000 in Funding for Water and Clean Energy Innovation
MassCEC announced the latest InnovateMass and Catalyst Awards - the latter program is managed by the MTTC.
Organizations and researchers receiving $40,000 grants under the Catalyst program:
- AquaFresco (Boston), Dr. Alina Rwei: A water filtration system, focused specifically on regenerating wastewater in the cleaning industry that contains detergents. The technology has the potential to save over 3 trillion gallons of water in the United States annually by allowing previously wasted water to be reused.
- Evaptainers (Somerville), Quang Truong: A mobile refrigeration system that runs without electricity, which is ideal for low-income and off-grid areas.
- MultiSensor Scientific (Somerville), Dr. Allen Waxman: An infrared imaging system capable of detecting methane emissions from natural gas leaks, which can be used to reduce energy losses.
- Northeastern University (Boston), Dr. Mahshid Amirabadi: An inverter for residential solar electricity systems, which increases the lifetime of the system, while reducing costs associated with it.
- SafvE (Scituate), Shirley Young: An environmentally-friendly, cost-effective polymer coating that treats and sanitizes water by reducing the amount of live bacteria to less than 0.001 percent of the original concentration.
- Sandymount Technologies (Cambridge), Dr. Ronan McGovern: A filtration technology that allows beverage makers, such as breweries, to remove water from beverages before shipping without affecting taste. Removing the water before shipment and rehydrating later reduces shipping costs and energy used during transport.
- Semlux Technologies (Bedford), Dr. Jagannathan Ravi: A process that reuses previously-wasted silicon to manufacture new solar cells, using 90 percent less energy than the current industry standard.
- Organizations receiving up to $150,000 in funding under the InnovateMass program are:
- Menon Laboratories, Inc. (Somerville): Aims to install and field-test a water filtration unit at the Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Testing Center in Barnstable County that will evaluate membrane performance for wastewater treatment.
- Resolute Marine Energy, Inc. (Amesbury): A seawater-compatible hydraulic pumping system, which will generate power to purify seawater.
- WindESCo (Boston): A software technology that is expected to improve performance of a large-scale wind farm in Cohocton, New York.
"As prior awardees have shown, this funding can be truly catalytic in helping to build entrepreneurial ventures in Massachusetts. These grants, while very small, enable inventors to take technologies from idea to early prototype to demonstrate that the technology works. The results of these grants then enable the inventors to raise additional commercialization funding," said Abigail Barrow, director of the MTTC.
|
Job Posting
|
Harvard University, Office of Technology Development: Business Development Associate
|
Spin-off and Start-up News
|
Atentiv Holdings, Inc. MassDevelopment has provided a $3 million working capital term loan from the Emerging Technology Fund to Atentiv Holdings, Inc. The Waltham-based company is using loan proceeds to help fuel its growth as it introduces the ATENTIVmynd™ Games to the medical, consumer and education market. The Emerging Technology Fund loan will support costs associated with manufacturing, molds and design prototypes of AV™ Headsets, finished inventories and new full-time personnel. Atentiv expects its growth will create about 94 new jobs. Read more
UMass $235,000 in Tech Development Awards
Marty Meehan, President of the University of Massachusetts, announced $235,000 in funding for a program that over the past 13 years has seen UMass invest $2,355,000 in faculty R&D projects, leading to $15 million in follow-on investment, generating numerous commercial licenses and patents and resulting in startup companies locating in Massachusetts.
This year's recipients of the $25,000 OTCV Tech Development Fund Awards:
- Matthew Bell, Ph.D., Engineering Department, UMass Boston "Practical Quantum Limited Amplifiers for Secure Communications and Quantum Information Processing"
- Sivappa Rasapalli, Ph.D., Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UMass Dartmouth "Developing Novel Antibiotics: Biomimetic Optimization of Marine Natural Product Inspired Leads for Dual Efflux pump-Biofilm Inhibition (DEBI)"
- Alfred Crosby, Ph.D., Department of Polymer Science & Engineering, UMass Amherst "CR Diagnostics: Measuring In Vivo, Soft Tissue Mechanics"
- Beth A. McCormick, Ph.D.; Regino Mercado-Lubo, MD, Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems, UMass Medical School "Development of SipA Adjuvant Chemotherapy Targeted to Multidrug Resistant Tumors"
- Akshay Kokil, Ph.D.; Daniel Schmidt, Ph.D., Department of Plastics Engineering, UMass Lowell "Vinyl hydroxyl Ether Resins (VHER): A New Family of Resins"
- Joey Mead, Ph.D., Carol Barry D. Eng., Artee Panwar, Ph.D., Tehila Nahum, Ph.D. student, Department of Plastics Engineering, UMass Lowell (with Hanna Dodiuk and Samuel Kenig from the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, Israel) "Commercialization of Corrosion Resistant Coatings with Improved Durability"
- Jie Song, Ph.D., Department of Orthopedics and Physical Rehabilitation, UMass Medical School "Injectable temporary surgical adhesion barriers"
- Gang Han, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, UMass Medical School "The Development of Near-infrared Persistent Luminescence Nanocrystals for Biomedical Applications"
Discretionary Awards:
- Alexey Tonyushkin, Ph.D., Physics Department, UMass Boston "Novel Design of FFL-based Magnetic Particle Imaging Devices," $5,000 award
- Kenneth Carter Ph.D. and Yinyong Li, Ph.D. student, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, UMass Amherst"FogKicker," $10,000 award
|
| Events of Interest |
Pepper Hamilton Life Sciences Speaker Series:
From Conception to Market: Perspectives on Drug Discovery & Development
When
: April 21, 2016 8:00 - 9:30 AM
Where
: 50 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02142
Identifying and moving a lead candidate from conception to the market is the biggest challenge a biotech or pharmaceutical company will undertake. Dr. Edward M. Scolnick, who presided over Merck & Co.'s research and development activities for almost 20 years helped develop and bring to market therapies that have helped millions of patients worldwide.
There is no fee to attend this seminar.
For more information and to register please visit the Event website
2016 World Medical Innovation Forum
When:
April 25 - April 27, 2016
Where: Westin Copley Place, 10 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA
The 2016 Forum will highlight state-of-the-art and emerging approaches to diagnose, treat and manage cancer including immunotherapy, epigenetics, checkpoint inhibitors, cell based therapies, combination therapies, OUS economics, pipeline strategy, oncology venture investing among other topics. In addition to examining the cutting-edge opportunities and needs in the field, the Forum will feature presentations from emerging cancer investigators, the Discovery Cafe with international clinical and research thought leaders, an extensive networking track, and the "Disruptive Dozen"-12 emerging technologies with the potential to revolutionize the cancer care during the next decade.
For more information and to register please visit the Event website
2016 Broad Institute Innovation & Intellectual Property Symposium
When:
Wednesday, April 27, 2016 at 1:00 PM - Friday, April 29, 2016 at 4:00 PM
Where:
The Broad Institute - 415 Main Street Auditorium, Cambridge, MA 02142
This free symposium will bring together Broad scientists, delegates from the European and US intellectual property systems, and global business and legal thought leaders to discuss and exchange information on innovation and intellectual property law topics of interest to the Cambridge and Boston scientific, business, and legal communities.
For more information and to register please visit the Event website
TCN: Idea Validation Workshop With The Meme Design Group & TCN
When
: April 27 at 8:30am - 11:30AM
Where
: Hatch Fenway, 401 Park Drive, 8th Floor East, Landmark Center, Boston
Even good ideas are often based on assumptions: assumptions that a product or service will match people's needs; that users will understand, engage with, and adopt them because it provides meaningful value and integrates with their lives.
The workshop is run in collaboration between TCN and The MEME Design, a group that helps create and validate good product ideas by testing those assumptions, and helping entrepreneurs refine and drive them to success.
Using the MEME's processes and expert tools, you will get a chance to learn key techniques to validate your own products and methods, with a select few even getting the opportunity to workshop their own product and service ideas in a group, with The MEME's expert help.
For more information and to register please visit
the Event Website
Grand Maritime Innovations Conference
When
: April 28, 2016 8am to 7pm
Where: 151 Martine Street, Fall River, MA 02723
Please join us the Second Annual Maritime Innovation: connecting, training and advancing conference. This event will bring together leading edge marine technology companies for a day of programming aimed at providing an overview of current trends in the industry, and a showcase of start up companies to discuss their new technologies.
For more information and to register please visit the Event Website
TCN: Understanding Angel & Venture Term Sheets: A Play In 3 Acts
When:
May 4 at 11:45 - 2:00pm
Where:
Morgan Lewis, 1 Federal St, Boston, MA 02110
Term sheets got you tearing your hair out? Come to Understanding Angel & Venture Term Sheets: A Play In 3 Acts where you will experience an in-depth discussion hosted by some of Boston's most experienced attorneys. Through re-enactment of negotiations, you'll understand how all parties: entrepreneurs, engineers and investors understand this process from their own perspectives. High growth investments are complex: but rest assured this workshop will cut through it all to help you understand what it means for you.
For more information and to register please visit the Event Website
1st Annual Catalysis in Chemistry Symposium
When
: Thursday, April 28, 2016 from 7:30 AM to 6:00 PM
Where
: Royal Sonesta Boston - 40 Edwin H Land Boulevard, Cambridge, MA 02142
Catalysis is an increasingly important tool for creating complex molecules across all sectors, from academic R&D to commercial production - whether the objective is to reduce costs, increase efficiency or to explore new synthetic possibilities.
Catalysis in Chemistry Symposium was launched to provide a forum for chemists to discuss new breakthroughs and powerful new applications in the field. Please join us in Cambridge, one of the World's great centers of scientific creativity and accomplishment, to learn from the leading innovators in the theory and practice of Catalysis in Chemistry.
Symposium will bring together one of the best catalysis groups from Pharma (Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, as well as Academia (Harvard, Scripps Research Institute, Boston College).
For more information and to register please visit the
Event Website
European Pitches and Pitchers
When
: May 16, 2016 5:30- 7:30 PM
Where
: CIC, 1 Broadway, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142
The kTeams Symposium is an event to introduce promising international companies in Kendall Square. Participating teams present their ideas and companies to the community, investors, and other innovators that make Kendall Square the densest entrepreneurial square kilometer in the world, and have a chance for 1:1 face-time with stakeholders and networking during a cocktail-poster reception.
This is a unique opportunity for international technology startups to become visible in the greater Boston ecosystem, and to make contacts with potential partners and investors.
For more information and to register please visit the Event Website
|
|
|
|
MTTC is based at UMass and facilitates technology transfer from all research institutions, public and private, in the Commonwealth. The Center is financially supported by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and MTDC. www.mttc.org MATTO is the Massachusetts Association of Technology Transfer Offices www.masstechtransfer.org
|
|
|
