Life Sciences Venture Firm Emergent Technologies, Inc. Selects UT Dallas and UT Southwestern Researchers Gnade and Cadeddu to Receive Opportunity Texas Proof-of-Concept Award

Business Wire, June 18, 2008

$25,000 Award Goes to UT Dallas for Development of Kidney Stone Magnetic Retrieval System

AUSTIN, Texas -- Emergent Technologies, Inc. (ETI), life sciences venture firm, announced today that the firm's first Opportunity Texas Proof of Concept Award will be bestowed on The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), with co-principal investigators Bruce Gnade, Ph.D. (UT Dallas) and Jeffrey Cadeddu, M.D. of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (UT Southwestern), for their StoneMag System Kidney Stone Magnetic Retrieval System. The award consists of a $25,000 check and another $25,000 worth of technology commercialization management services that ETI will provide to the UT researchers. The business services will include strategic planning for both technology and business implementation pathways for the StoneMag System invention.

ETI President and CEO Thomas A. Harlan said, "We have established the Opportunity Texas Award as part of our ongoing collaboration with the UT campuses and to help raise the profile of UT research and of the state of Texas in the life sciences. We received multiple award applications from most of the UT campuses and the technology from UT Dallas was very competitive among the field."

An important aspect of the Opportunity Texas Award selection criteria was market potential for the technology. The UT Dallas StoneMag System is a urology device and the 2008 urology device market is estimated to be more than $1 billion per year worldwide. The market is growing at a rate of 20%, largely driven by an aging population and an increased incidence of age-related complications. Overall treatment costs for kidney stones is estimated to be more than $5 billion per year in the US alone(1).

Runner-ups for the Award include several additional technologies from UT Dallas and UT Southwestern, as well as technologies from UT Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB), UT Austin, and UT Arlington. The submitted technologies ranged from MRI contrast agents and biodegradable nanoparticles for cancer diagnostics and therapies to biodegradable stents for cardiovascular therapy.

""The Opportunity Texas Award recognizes the important work being done by Dr. Gnade and Dr. Cadeddu and is testimony to the success of the extraordinary scientific environments that exist on University of Texas campuses," said UT System Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology Transfer Dr. Keith McDowell.

UT Dallas researcher, Dr. Bruce Gnade, added, "We very much appreciate this award from ETI for the StoneMag System, as it further validates our technology. Part of the award funds will be used to build prototype retrieval instruments as well as to design modifications of existing kidney stone retrieval tools to expedite commercialization of our technology. Our relationship with expert urologist, Dr. Jeffrey Caddedu (UT Southwestern) coupled with ETI's commercialization expertise should put us on the right track for a successful product development to address a key market need."

About The University of Texas at Dallas

The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor[R], enrolls more than 14,500 students. The school's freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UT Dallas, please visit the university's web site at www.utdallas.edu.

About The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas UT Southwestern Medical Center, one of the premier medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. Its more than 1,500 full-time faculty members - including four active Nobel Prize winners, more than any other medical school in the world - are responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and are committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern researchers undertake more than 3,500 research projects annually, totaling more than $361 million.

UT Southwestern physicians provide medical care in 40 specialties to nearly 92,000 hospitalized patients and oversee 1.7 million outpatient visits a year. The physician faculty of UT Southwestern offers patient care at UT Southwestern University Hospitals, Parkland Health & Hospital System, Children's Medical Center Dallas, VA North Texas Health Care System, and other affiliated hospitals and clinics in Dallas and Fort Worth. Three degree-granting institutions - UT Southwestern Medical School, UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and UT Southwestern Allied Health Sciences School - train more than 4,200 students, residents and fellows each year.

About the University of Texas System

The UT System is one of the nation's largest higher education systems, with nine academic campuses and six health institutions. The UT System has an annual operating budget of $10.7 billion (FY 2008) including $2.3 billion in research funded by federal, state, local and private sources. Student enrollment exceeded 194,000 in the 2007 academic year. The UT System confers more than one-third of the state's undergraduate degrees and educates nearly three-fourths of the state's health care professionals annually. With more than 81,000 employees, the UT System is one of the largest employers in the state.