Higher education pushes the high-tech envelope

New Jersey Business, Jun 01, 2005 by Sheridan, Sharon

When it comes to high technology in New Jersey, institutions of higher education play a central role. They are hubs of pure and applied research, incubators for new businesses and consumers of high-tech equipment and techniques. Here are some examples.

Rutgers University, New Brunswick

"We've got a big and rich research base going on here at Rutgers," says Michael Breton, Ph.D., associate vice president for research. As a public institution, he notes, Rutgers has a public mission of economic development as well as of education. "So we feel very responsible for getting these technologies out and [for] working well with the businesses."

The life sciences represent the school's biggest research area, with the National Institute of Health (followed by the National Science Foundation), providing the most funding, Breton says. Rutgers receives $257 million in funding for research, sponsored programs and contracts - including nearly $160 million in federal funding and $15.5 million in corporate contracts.

About 170 patent disclosures come into the university's technology transfer office annually, and Rutgers issues 30 to 35 patents a year. Since 1980, universities have had patent rights to inventions made under federal grants, Breton says. That means they then can license patented technologies. At Rutgers, technology transfers bring in about $5 million each year.

Rutgers also plays a role in company startups through the technology transfer office. Polymerix, one such startup, used a patented technology to create "plastic aspirin," a polymerized chemical relative of aspirin, Breton says. It is inactive in the polymer state, but becomes active as it breaks down in the body. Boston Scientific, a strategic and investment partner, is interested in coating coronary stents with the new drug to cut the level of inflammation and rate of restenosis, or reclogging of arteries.

"They've gotten about $15 million in financing since we started them about five years ago," Breton says. "There's quite a number of drugs that could be polymerized using the methods we have patented."

Rutgers also is opening 25,000 square feet of space contiguous to the Economic Development Authoritys Technology Centre of New Jersey, North Brunswick, to house university projects. These include Provid, a small molecule drug discovery and development company; an energy storage research group; and WINLAB, a wireless communications group.

WINLAB received a $5-million NSF grant to create a nextgeneration, wireless Internet test bed, Breton says. "Companies will be placing in their equipment there for nationwide, perhaps global testing."

Rutgers Camden Business Incubator

In Camden, Rutgers places special emphasis on aiding fledgling businesses.

"We're skewed towards technology, but because it's Camden, we're also welcon-ting any company that appears to have some growth potential in terms of employment," says Executive Director Frank Keith, president of the New Jersey Business Incubation Network.

The incubator provides startup companies with low-cost, flexible office space on a monthly lease; a common area with a fax machine, printer and copier; high-speed Internet access; 'round-the-clock access to their facilities, conference rooms; and mentoring.

"The idea," Keith says, "is that we nurture them and they grow in what I call a sheltered environment, and eventually hopefully sooner rather than later - they will graduate ... and get normal commercial space and hire a lot of people."

Three companies have graduated since November 2002. Cerionx, which had its technology used by two major pharmaceutical companies, received $3.3 million in venture capital. On Garde!, an IT security company, and VisionLine Media - met at the incubator and combined resources to form a third high-tech company, M2E, focusing on an employee productivity monitoring system called Monitor My Employees.

Since 2002, the incubator has operated in 20,000 square feet of leased space in a former hospital about three miles from campus. Late this year or early in 2006, it will move into 40,000 square feet in the first building of the planned sixbuilding Waterfront Technology Park. "We will be within walking distance [of the Rutgers campus], so we expect to have a lot more interplay both between the faculty and the student body," Keith says.

The new facility will include space for about 18 wet labs, letting the incubator begin accommodating life-sciences or biotech companies. Such labs are not readily available in the region, so that should prove a draw, not only in South Jersey, but also in eastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware, Keith notes.

New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) houses a hightech business incubator - one of the most successful in the country. Since 1988, the incubator, known formally as the Enterprise Development Center (EDC), has helped hightech innovators commercialize their ideas. The center provides office and lab space, financial help, as well as business and technical services to high-tech start-up firms. Participation in the incubator is open to for-profit enterprises, based in state, that have been operating less than four years and which have a new technology as a significant source of revenue.