Area Business Leaders, Venture Capitalists Will Meet to Advise WNY Biotech Startups

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR) promotes the growth of businesses grounded in research developed at UB, with the aim of having a positive impact on the Western New York economy.

As part of that effort, STOR will host a May 18 meeting of the BioNetwork, a group of entrepreneurs, business leaders and venture capitalists, all former Western New Yorkers, who have worked together for the past eight years to energize the region's life sciences industry.

At the annual meeting, BioNetwork members again will offer their collective expertise to selected early- to mid-stage start-up companies in upstate New York working with protein delivery, stem cells, and the delivery of peptide therapeutics to help them make a successful leap to commercialization and create jobs and investment.

The meeting will be held at the UB Technology Incubator, Baird Research Park, 1576 Sweet Home Rd., Amherst, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Attendance is by invitation only.

For nearly a decade, the BioNetwork has worked with inventions and technologies developed from both university and community-based research. The group serves as a sounding board for new ventures, asking pertinent questions, offering suggestions, contacts and possibilities for investment, helping to create an environment in which life sciences companies can thrive.

STOR spokesman Jeff Dunbar says the meeting will open with a welcome by UB Interim Provost Harvey Stenger, followed by a presentation by STOR of three technologies developed at UB and discussion about their commercial viability and opportunities for seed stage investment. The first technology is a lipid-based nanoparticle used to deliver protein therapeutics. The primary validation work was done with Factor VIII, a protein used to treat hemophilia. The second technology is a modified form of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC), a type of adult stem cell with exciting research and clinical potential. The modified MSC, called MSC-Universal, can be grown continuously in culture while retaining the ability to differentiate into various types of cells.

The third technology is a new method for stabilizing and delivering peptide therapeutics with the use of a chemical "staple," which protects the peptide from enzymatic degradation. Technologies developed at the University of Rochester will be presented in the afternoon.

The BioNetwork was co-founded by Gina Fedele, public affairs manager for People, Inc., and Lancaster native Terry McGuire, managing general partner of Polaris Venture Partners, a $3 billion Boston-based venture fund with offices in Boston and Seattle that helps develop life sciences and information technology companies.

A high-school classmate of McGuire's, Fedele learned about his success in the life science field in 2000 and asked him to share his network and knowledge with the region's life science innovators.

"He accepted the request graciously," she says, "and along the way has enlisted others that he felt would have a similar passion for the success of upstate New York. My role has been one of trying to corral an incredibly busy group of advisors and bring them to upstate New York in a venue of their preference, small and intimate," she added.

Fedele says Debora K. LaBudde, managing general partner of Envoi Ventures joined the network about four years ago "and has been enormously helpful as both a sounding board and partner in the initiative as well as in the vetting of companies for the network.

"In establishing the Bionetwork," she says, "we felt we would be a success if, over the course of 10 years, we could spur the commercialization of at least one life science innovation. The group has met that goal and looks forward to surpassing it."

Fedele points out that early support for the group was provided by the late Bruce A. Holm, PhD, executive director of the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences at UB. The Bruce A. Holm Memorial Fund was established to help develop promising UB technologies into commercialization opportunities.

BioNetwork members attending the May 18 meeting will include founding members McGuire; Alan Crane, general partner, Polaris Venture Partners; Peter Barton Hutt, senior counsel, Covington & Burling, LLP, Washington DC; Robert T. Brady, chair and CEO of Moog, Inc., and Thomas P. Stewart, MD, vice president of clinical affairs for Stryker Medical.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.