May 18, 2010 | The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) recently unveiled 22 of its most commercially promising start-ups and research to venture capitalists from coast to coast.

The May 13 and 14 UAMS Private Equity Roundtable, hosted by UAMS BioVentures, was the fourth and largest since 2005.

The event, held at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, drew about 100 invited guests, 25 of whom were potential investors.
Venture capitalists from Arkansas, California, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas Massachusetts, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Utah heard brief presentations on the technologies and discoveries during the two-day event.

Michael Douglas, Ph.D., director of BioVentures, noted that the forum brought a nice mix of investors from the risk capital community seed and venture funds looking for opportunities. This private investor forum has a unique format in that the investors get the opportunity to prescreen the companies they want to see, he said.

“This is essentially an intense information exchange exercise that involves investors, technology entrepreneurs and university inventors,” Douglas said. “They’re engaged and it has allowed us to validate the high quality of technologies being developed right here at UAMS.”

The event’s format facilitates discussion of each company or technology, and when it’s over, both the venture capitalists and companies fully understand where the opportunities are available, he said.

Those attending the roundtable included Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn, M.D., Jay Chesshir, president and CEO of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, Lawrence Cornett, Ph.D., UAMS vice chancellor for research, and John Ahlen, president of the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority.

The BioVentures companies and research groups presenting (in chronological order) were:

• Tears for Life – Larry Suva, Ph.D., and Suzanne Klimberg, M.D.
• In vivo Photoacoustic Flow Cytometry – Vladimir Zharov, Ph.D.
• DCV Technologies/Target Peptides for Ovarian Cancer Immunotherapy – Martin Cannon, Ph.D.
• ContourMed Inc. – Susan Cassidy, M.D.
• Unityware – Brian Stack
• eDoc America, LLC – Robbie Linn
• Acetaminophen Toxicity Diagnostics, LLC – Dean Roberts, Ph.D.
• Metabolic Profiling Methods and Compositions for Warfarin therapy – Jeff Moran, Ph.D.
• EZRA Innovations, LLC – Michael Geranen
• The BiliSuit – Mitesh Patel
• Safe Foods Corp. – Rush Deacon
• Neruopsycholpharmacology Research Consortium, LLC – Bill Massey, Ph.D.
• Anti-nuclease Protection – Alexi Basnakian, Ph.D.
• Micro Bubble Nanostructures – Michael Borrelli, Ph.D.
• Small Molecule Cancer Therapeutics – Matt McIntosh, Ph.D.
• Stage I Diagnostics, Inc. – Robbie Linn, Tim O’Brien, Ph.D.
• IntraTherm, LLC – Gal Shafirstein, Ph.D.
• Omnibalm / Balm Innovations, LLC – Lydia Carson
• Infinite Enzymes, LLC – Elizabeth Hood, Ph.D.
• InterveXion Therapeutics – Brooks Gentry, M.D.
• BiologicsMD – Misty Ward Stevens, Ph.D., M.B.A.
• RxResults, LLC – Tery Baskin, Pharm.D.

Formed in 1997, UAMS BioVentures assists researchers with patent applications, licensing of new technologies and business start-ups.