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UB Promotes Development Efforts at Partners Day

By Stephen T. Watson

NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER

Published:

June 4, 2011, 12:00 AM

The University at Buffalo on Friday touted the benefits of its partnerships with local businesses and agencies and previewed upcoming projects in the life sciences and other high-tech fields.

The school celebrated up-and-coming companies such as Empire Genomics and gave a progress report on a joint $291 million UB-Kaleida Health vascular care and medical research facility now under construction.

This promotion of the university’s economic-development efforts was the centerpiece of UB’s annual Partners Day, held in the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center.

“This whole bench-to-bedside, lab-to-marketplace [concept], that’s what we’re all about,” said Marnie LaVigne, director of business development for UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.

The event included 15 workshops, a large exhibit area and awards honoring UB’s off-campus partners and the entrepreneurial successes of its faculty.

One notable workshop featured companies that received financial aid and guidance through two UB offices with lengthy names: the bioinformatics center and Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology, or CAT.

More than 150 life sciences companies in Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties employ 6,000 workers, LaVigne said.

A number have received assistance through UB’s CAT, one of 15 centers across the state that provide assistance to help scientific innovations reach the commercial marketplace.

UB’s CAT, one of three centers in New York focusing on the life sciences, gave $460,000 in state funding to 25 projects over the past 12 months, La- Vigne said.

Empire Genomics, which uses genetic tools to develop better, non-invasive tests for cancer and conditions such as autism, has won annual CAT awards and grown to 10 employees, said CEO Anthony Johnson.

“It really helped us to build a critical mass,” said Rob Anstey, CEO of Graphene Devices, a five-employee advanced materials company that opened shop in fall 2009, when he said it was very hard to find start-up funds.

In another workshop, UB Medical School officials discussed how a new Clinical and Translational Research Center will help recruit faculty, improve medical care in the region and encourage commercialization of scientific research.

The $118 million center will occupy 170,000 square feet on five floors in the joint UB-Kaleida facility now being built at Ellicott and Goodrich streets.

The 31 UB researchers who will work in the center beginning in April, many recruited from out of town, each will hire five technicians, post-doctoral students and other employees, said Dr. Timothy F. Murphy, senior associate dean for clinical and translational research.

“It’s an exciting time to be in Buffalo, and I’m glad I’m here,” said Dr. Anne B. Curtis, chairwoman of UB’s department of medicine, who came in September from the University of South Florida.

Also Friday:

• M&T Bank received the school’s Vital Partner Award.

• Thenkurussi Kesavadas and Dr. Khurshid A. Guru, founders of Simulated Surgical Systems, received the UB Faculty Entrepreneur Award.

• Jericho Road Ministries and Laurene Tumiel-Berhalter shared the University Community Partners Award.

• Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of Empire State Development, gave the keynote address.