Bridging the Gap

Have you ever been prescribed a drug or therapy that didn’t seem to agree with your system?  Or diligently taken your medicine but experienced no improvement in your condition?  I’ve certainly dealt with this before, and after I finish feeling annoyed with my doctor, I wonder why on earth someone hasn’t figured this out yet!

In fact, many people ARE figuring this out – it’s called companion diagnostics.  And lucky for us, the folks at bioMONTR, a start-up in RTP’s Park Research Center, are making progress in our backyard.

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Meet Marvin: Not your typical RTP worker

RTP's Marvin

In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a series of books by Douglas Adams, Marvin, one of the series’ major characters, is a robot who has a “brain the size of a planet” and struggles to find ways to engage his vast intellect. RTP has its own “Marvin” who until he was shipped off to compete in the next First Robotics Competition called Park Research Center his home. (For those of you that aren’t familiar with Park Research Center or “PRC,” you can read more about it in this post).

RTP’s Marvin is the creation of a talented group of high-school students known as Team 2059 or “The Hitchhikers.” While I can’t speak for Marvin, from what I’ve seen, the Hitchhikers team has no problem putting their intellectual capacity to use.

(in center, Team Co-Leader Alex Surette)

Since October 2010, the group has been using Park Research Center as its launching grounds. They began building Marvin in January from a standard “kit of parts” and a common set of rules. They had six weeks to create a robot that can hang inner tubes on to pegs hung at different heights. Once the tubes are arranged to form the First Robotics logo (how’s that for branding???), the robot must then deploy minibots, small electro-mechanical assemblies that are independent of the host robot, onto vertical poles and attempt to “climb” 10 feet.  Check out the video at the bottom of this post of Marvin in action!

In addition to being a great group of people who are passionate, enthusiastic, and incredibly smart, the Hitchhikers are a great example of why STEM education is so important – and how it can be fun. (See some great stats on the importance of STEM from RTP’s own NC STEM Collaborative)

In preparing for the game and building Marvin, they learned about design-build engineering, CAD programming and imagery & animation. They also learned key concepts of running a business from marketing and fundraising (they had to raise their own sponsorships) to creating an organizational structure to ensure all tasks get done. Mix in project management, decision making and problem solving skills and they’ve got the leadership skills that will serve them well as they leave high school. (I don’t know about you, but the concept sure beats the random science and math team competitions I participated in as a teenager!)

RTP has been honored to join the other sponsors of the Hitchhiker’s team and looks forward to cheering them on to victory at the NC Regionals April 8-9 at the NC State Fairgrounds in Dorton Arena! See you there.

RTP firm Aerie Pharmaceuticals raises $30 million

Ever cringe when you have your eye examined and the doctor puffs air at your eye? It makes my eye twitch just thinking about it. That puff of air tests for glaucoma symptoms. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of visual disability and blindness in the world. It wasn’t until my mom was diagnosed with glaucoma that I took notice.

Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Duke University spinoff developing a treatment for glaucoma, has raised $30 million in a series B round of venture-capital financing.  With R&D operations located in Alexandria Innovation Center, one of the The Research Triangle Park’s five incubators, Aerie Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of medical innovations in ophthalmology.

Clarus Ventures and Sofinnova Ventures co-led the round, with participation from Osage University Partners, and existing investors Alta Partners and TPG Biotech.

Aerie expects to use proceeds from this financing to fund continued development of Aerie’s broad product portfolio in glaucoma and advance the company’s lead product, AR-12286, a first-in-class selective Rho-kinase inhibitor, into Phase 3 trials by the end of 2011.

“We are excited about the potential for Aerie’s compounds to offer multiple, improved and differentiated treatment options for millions of patients suffering from this widespread, degenerative disease,” said Tom van Haarlem, MD, President and CEO of Aerie.

The company is also pursuing several other pipeline programs also aimed at glaucoma therapy.

“Despite the fact that glaucoma is a progressive disease, there has not been a drug with a new mechanism of action approved in the glaucoma field since the mid-nineties,” said Dr. Anand Mehra of Sofinnova. “Patients often need several drugs to control their disease, and physicians have limited options with these older mechanisms. We believe that AR-12286′s new MOA, strong efficacy, excellent tolerability, and once daily dosing can provide real value to patients at risk of losing their vision.”

RTP is proud to be home to incubators such as Alexandria Innovation Center that provide the wet lab space that allows R&D start-ups such as Aerie to thrive.  We are even more proud that Aerie Pharmaceuticals is a home grown company, spun out of Duke University, that RTP helped to nuture in order to commercialize its medical innovations.  What a great success story that proves that RTP truly is, “the future of great ideas.”

Park Research Center: Ideas for the Future

Move over Silicon Valley, the Research Triangle region is the new hot-spot for entrepreneurs. If the recent ranking by Forbes as the #2 Brain Magnet wasn’t enough, then the Obama administration’s decision to host the Startup America kickoff here in the Research Triangle Park on Thursday should convince you.  

While it is well known that RTP is home to numerous well-established, multi-national firms including GlaxoSmithKline and IBM, many don’t realize that RTP is also brimming with entrepreneurs that appreciate the Park’s unique environment that allows for easy collaboration with local universities and the large companies.  In fact, 34% of RTP companies are start-ups and 52% of RTP companies have fewer than 10 employees.  The entrepreneurial ecosystem that exists in RTP consists of five incubators and business accelerators, where more than 80 start-up companies are nurtured. A large part of what attracts these entrepreneurs to RTP is flexible, inexpensive leases and the presence of a critical mass of cutting-edge R&D operations that has the potential to allow smaller, spin-out companies to serve as both vendors and suppliers for the larger entities. Increasingly, the larger companies in the Park and region look to form partnerships with agile start-ups and/or look to purchase their intellectual property. And clearly it is working. Over the years, the Park’s incubator facilities have been the start-up locations to more than 250 companies, with many, such as Invitrox, Precision Biosciences, Liquidia Technologies and Nextreme Thermal, still flourishing in RTP and the region. 

One of the incubator’s that we here at the Research Triangle Foundation take great pride in is Park Research Center (PRC).  Originally home to the National Institute of Environmental Sciences, PRC was used as overflow space for park companies after NIEHS moved into their permanent campus in the mid-1990s  and the Foundation took over its management. In hopes of attracting some of the university research activity and providing another amenity for our university partners, the Foundation began offering up PRC as flexible lab space for any university spin-out. PRC provides a cost-effective location for the spin-outs with flexible lease terms that are at or below the market average. With start-ups ranging from various drug discovery and development companies to providers of advanced electronics, PRC’s tenants embody the spirit of innovation that continues to drive the success of the Research Triangle Park.

Stay tuned as we are beginning a blog series on the various tenants of PRC and the impressive innovations that continue to emerge out of this incubator beginning with a fascinating group of students (yes…kids!) ages that are a working on building a robot for the FIRST Robotics Competition.

Calling All Triangle Entrepreneurs!

Do you have an idea that could turn into the next Facebook, Sham Wow or Snuggie? Do you want expert help shaping your idea and finding out how viable it might be? Come join us for our next RTP Idea Lab meeting on January 26th at 8:00 AM at RTP Headquarters at 12 Davis Drive. Space is limited to the first 100, so go online to register and submit ideas at www.rtpidealab.org to request participation.

During the event, you will have the opportunity to present your idea to a group of experienced and successful entrepreneurs and get feedback and advice that can help turn your idea into reality.

Our format is:

Whether you have an idea to share, expertise to offer or are just curious, participation is encouraged so please RSVP at www.rtpidealab.org. We hope to see you on the 26th.

For more information contact us at info@rtpidealab.org.

Launching Durham

Calling all Triangle Entrepreneurs, Venture Capitalists and Startup Junkies!

You are invited to attend and participate in the first-ever Launch Days Durham. Launch Days Durham will be an inspiration-packed day where rising new business models are presented and an audience of learned peers offer constructive, collaborative input and vision. Attendees can expect to spark creativity and to ignite a shared passion for entrepreneurship.

Launch Days Durham is intended to highlight the community of catalysts and progressive risk takers thriving in the Triangle. The event is for professionals with an action plan, a business model, an idea and for veterans who have built businesses from a successful launch to a listing in the Inc. 5000.

Expect a day of discovery, constructive critique and unbridled spirit which champions great rewards from great risk.

The TechJournalSouth wrote a great article on the program in anticipation of today’s event. As of this morning, almost 100 people have registered. Join them here.