The brains behind a company called VIPAAR Inc. envision a day when doctors in Alabama can use the firm's virtual technology system to assist surgeons treating wounded soldiers on an operating table in Afghanistan.
KOR Technologies, led by Paul Wolkowicz of UAB's Department of Cardiovascular Disease, is an early stage start-up company that aims to help pharmaceutical companies create drugs that help fight heart disease.
On Tuesday, representatives of VIPAAR and KOR Technologies and four other companies with ties to UAB made pitches to a panel of experts that included two venture capitalists from California, at the first UAB Spin-Out Company Forum.
The event, presented by the UAB Research Foundation with assistance from the Biotechnology Association of Alabama, was designed to help companies led by employees and students affiliated with UAB share their stories.
"We want to grow companies based here in Birmingham that can provide local jobs," said David Winwood, chief executive of the UAB Research Foundation.
Over the past two years, the UAB Research Foundation has assisted in developing 10 companies, including several that are located in the Innovation Depot, a downtown business incubator, said Leona Fitzmaurice, director of technology transfer for the foundation.
Tuesday's other participants were:
>> Endomimetics LLC, led by Dr. Brigitta Brott of the UAB Department of Cardiovascular Disease, which is developing coating technologies for medical devices used in the treatment of heart disease.
>> Soluble Therapeutics LLC, led by Chief Executive Joseph Garner and founded by Larry DeLucas of UAB's Center for Biophysical Science and Engineering and Bill Wilson, also with UAB. The company aims to accelerate the research and production of protein-based therapeutics and vaccines.
>> Acquifex Scientific LLC, founded by Michael Heaven, a graduate student in UAB's Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics. It is developing a method to help pharmaceutical companies research experimental drugs more efficiently.
>> Dr. Olaf Kutsch of UAB's Department of Medicine, who led a presentation on federally funded efforts by UAB to better treat HIV patients.
Each company was given 10 minutes to tell its story, then each did a 10-minute question-and-answer session with the panelists: Bryce Knight and Vinny Jindal of Los Angeles-based Bay Street Advisors, David Dodd of RiversEdge BioVentures LLC of Beaumont, S.C., and James Childs, a partner with the Bradley Arant Boult Cummings law firm in Birmingham.
VIPAAR -- which stands for Virtual Interactive Presence Technology -- uses a system developed by UAB surgeon Dr. Barton Guthrie, with assistance from a team of university engineers and doctors, that allows experts via video to interact with others in classroom instruction or real-life emergencies.
VIPAAR Chief Executive Drew Deaton is a former partner in MedMined, a UAB spin-off acquired by Cardinal Health in 2006. He said Tuesday's presentation was a big boost for participating companies.
"It was great of the UAB Research Foundation to feature technology companies in this event," said Deaton, chairman of TechBirmingham, a non-profit that assists budding technology firms. " We have a wide range of exceptional technology companies here in Birmingham."
Jindal, of Bay Street Advisors, said he was impressed with the quality of participants.
"I've been coming to Birmingham for years and am very impressed with the level of these companies," he said. "UAB is doing a great job. Alabama as a state must do more to help create a biology hub here with UAB."
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| UAB Spin-Out Company Forum |