Education  May 11, 2007

UNC uses state grant to advance bioscience

GREELEY – When transfers of technology from university researchers to commercial applications are discussed, schools mentioned usually include Colorado State University or the University of Colorado. Now the University of Northern Colorado is ready to join those ranks as well.

Last summer, UNC quietly launched a technology transfer office, headed by the school’s assistant vice president for research, Robbyn Wacker.

“We have a new research outcome opportunity on this campus that we’ve never really talked about before,” she said.

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Wacker said that great research has been under way at UNC for a long time, but there has never been a concentrated effort to move those technologies into commercialization.

“We’ve been doing the research all along,” she said. “The next step is to make the connection (with the business world).”

The link might come in the form of commercial applications for discoveries that biology professor and snake expert Steve Mackessy makes in his laboratory, where he identifies previously unknown compounds in snake venom.

Last year’s House Bill 1360 acted as a trigger to move UNC toward a technology transfer program. The bill provided $2 million from limited-stakes gaming funds for a grant program to improve and expand bioscience discoveries at Colorado research institutions and bridge the gap between research and commercialization.

The program, administered by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, provides matching funds of up to $150,000 for proof-of-concept work on technologies that show promise of commercialization.

The grants were awarded in early January. CSU has landed more than $440,000 for five bioscience projects and CU received the most grant money, with just over $1 million going to 13 projects.

UNC received $53,260 for a single project, the only one the school submitted for the grant.

“We could have thrown everything against the wall and see what sticks,” Wacker said, but instead the university decided to take a conservative approach.

Wacker said that the university sought the assistance of UNC alumni currently working in the biotechnology field to select a single project to submit for the grant.

“We thought Steve’s research was the best in that regard,” Wacker said.

New uses for snake venom

Mackessy is gearing up to begin experiments, based on a career of research, that will seek to find medical and biological applications for compounds that he extracts from snake venom.

“I’ve been looking at snakes and snake venom for a long time,” he said. “Research has shown (venoms) are a novel source of some biochemical compounds,” he said.

Mackessy’s interest in snakes began sometime in high school. Early in his college career, Mackessy focused on the biology of snakes, but his later studies focused more on chemistry, biochemistry and pharmacology. Combining biology with chemistry, Mackessy is focused on identifying the effect that compounds in snake venom could have on cancer cells.

The use of snake venom to develop disease treatments is not a new field. Captopril, a drug used to treat high blood pressure, was derived after analyzing the venom of the South African pit viper. Aggrastat, used to treat chest pains by preventing blood clots, was developed from a peptide in the venom of an African viper.

Mackessy said that while the venom of many species has been researched, an in-depth analysis has been done on only a few. He explained that even related species of snakes have small differences in their venom – their own unique twist on the compounds.

“That’s where our interest lies,” he said.

Mackessy is about to start his experiments, having received the funding, equipment and necessary approvals. He will start with monitoring growth rates and cell survival of three lines of cancer cells exposed to unknown compounds from snake venom. Mackessy selected colon cancer, melanoma and breast cancer cells to focus on.

He hopes to have some early results by the end of summer and will have finished this phase of the research by next spring. The results are not too far off because Mackessy is building on years and years of previous research made possible by international collaborations.

Tech transfer office helpful

Of course, this stage of the research would not have been possible without the funding the grant supplied. Mackessy feels that the tech transfer office will help to highlight all of the work that has been happening at UNC.

“We have a number of people in biological science here that are very active in research, and people seem to be surprised by that,” he said.

So far, the tech transfer office has only been able to advance Mackessy’s research, but that will likely change soon. Assuming that the state bioscience grant is available again next year, Wacker said that UNC will likely submit two proposals.

Wacker added that UNC is committed to grow its technology transfer efforts in a way that makes sense for UNC.

“It’s not like we’re trying to be something we’re not,” she said.

In the near term, the tech transfer office will launch a Web site that will showcase the research. The launch is slated for early June.

As part of an ongoing effort Wacker said she is meeting with faculty members on a one-on-one basis to determine where cross-discipline collaboration opportunities exist.

GREELEY – When transfers of technology from university researchers to commercial applications are discussed, schools mentioned usually include Colorado State University or the University of Colorado. Now the University of Northern Colorado is ready to join those ranks as well.

Last summer, UNC quietly launched a technology transfer office, headed by the school’s assistant vice president for research, Robbyn Wacker.

“We have a new research outcome opportunity on this campus that we’ve never really talked about before,” she said.

Wacker said that great research has been under way at UNC for a long time, but there has never been a concentrated effort…

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