Category: Business/Technology

Madison, Wis. – Just six weeks after taking the helm at the WiCell Research Institute, Beth Donley has resigned to pursue opportunities in the private sector, the organization announced.

Wisconsin should put James Thomson on a pedestal.
Again.

Thomson, a UW-Madison professor, is already admired for his scientific achievement. He led the UW-Madison team that in 1998 first isolated embryonic stem cells, opening wondrous opportunities for medical advancements that are today being worked on at UW-Madison and all over the world.

A federal review of Wisconsin’s embryonic stem-cell patents won’t question what everyone concedes: that UW-Madison scientist James Thomson was the first to grow a colony of the cells from humans in a lab.
Instead, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s review of three patents held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation will ask if Thomson’s accomplishment in 1998 was “obvious” because other scientists had done similar work in species such as mice and pigs.

The state invests public dollars in one thing or another every day. But last week, it invested $1 million in its future.

Like any other investment, this one may not pan out. But if it does, it could yield huge dividends, both in economic development and in healing.

This investment is in a small Madison company called Stem Cell Products Inc., founded by embryonic stem cell pioneer James Thomson and two of his University of Wisconsin-Madison colleagues. Being in the right place at the right time can mean everything in business, and Stem Cell Products may soon find itself in that enviable position.

Long known for its state-of-the art research facilities, the University of Wisconsin has historically made a place for itself in addressing worldwide issues. Continuing in that tradition, three top UW researchers addressed alumni who have since become CEOs around the nation Saturday at the Fluno Center.

ââ?¬Å?We heard from people today that are attacking some of the biggest problems we have, in industry and society,ââ?¬Â Chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation Keith D. Nosbusch said at Saturdayââ?¬â?¢s summit. ââ?¬Å?What theyââ?¬â?¢re working on here at Wisconsin has a direct connection to the future.ââ?¬Â

Patents are big business and big philanthropy at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which helps keep UW-Madison in the top tier of research universities.

Since its founding in 1925, WARF, which manages all intellectual property for the university, has donated approximately $800 million to UW-Madison from income on licensing university-based patents, said Jill Ladwig, senior writer for WARF.

A broad-based initiative to spur commercialization in Toronto, whether Wisconsin can compete with alternative fuels and China’s market for biotechnology products are just three of the topics to be covered this week at a conference in Waukesha.

Former Wisconsin Public Service Commission chairman Ave Bie and representatives from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Agri-Service Association and BEST Energies Inc. will discuss whether Wisconsin has the tools to lead in the new economy being created from transforming substances like corn and soybeans into fuel.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s patenting and licensing arm is creating a new position to help create more start-up companies from the school’s technological innovations.

Outlining some of the remaining challenges for stem cell researchers, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor James Thomson took the opportunity to inject some realism into the stem cell expectations game before UW-educated executives at a CEO Summit convened by John Morgridge, chairman and former CEO of Cisco Systems.

Issues of supply, security and ecology demand the production of alternative sources of fuel, said the British ambassador to the U.S. in an address at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sir David Manning was in town to hear from a panel of UW-Madison scientists at a private luncheon Friday before giving a public address on “energy security and climate security.”

“If we can find alternative sources of energy that are clean sources of energy, we reduce our dependence on unstable parts of the world,” Manning said. If companies do this, “they will be in the forefront of the new energy technology. They will make a lot of money for it.”

The U.S. Army is giving Madison biotech ConjuGon a $730,000 grant to keep working on a treatment for bacterial infections that haven’t been cured by antibiotics up to now.
Established in 2002 and based on UW-Madison research, ConjuGon has developed genetically engineered, harmless bacteria that have been proven successful in animal tests, said Sal Braico, chief operating officer.

The Legislature’s failure to require most gasoline in Wisconsin to contain 10 percent ethanol remains a glaring void in an otherwise flourishing effort to develop a homegrown biofuels industry.

Patents are big business and big philanthropy at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which helps keep UW-Madison in the top tier of research universities.

Gov. Jim Doyle promised once again this week to propose the state spend $2.5 million for biomedical research in southeastern Wisconsin. Now, what about the Legislature?

Whoever is elected governor this fall should push to fund this key initiative for southeastern Wisconsin in the next state budget, and the Legislature should set aside stem cell politics and approve it without the strings that some legislators will undoubtedly want to attach.

The Milken Institute, an economic think tank, has issued a series of
new rankings of universities on biotechnology publications, patents and technology transfer. In biotechnology research, Harvard University leads the way, followed by the University of Tokyo and the University of London. California universities hold 5 of the top 25 slots, and British and Japanese univeristies hold 3 each.

Read the report here: http://www.milkeninstitute.org/publications/m2m.html

The University of Wisconsin System ranks among the top 10 universities worldwide in biotechnology patents but falls behind several other Big Ten universities in transferring that technology to commercial uses, according to a study released today by the Milken Institute of Santa Monica, Calif.