Celebrating invention: Annual reception to honor UB’s innovators, entrepreneurs

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The University at Buffalo will honor some of Western New York’s most inventive minds and companies at the annual UB Inventors and Entrepreneurs Reception, which takes place on March 25 at UB’s Clinical and Translational Research Center.

Award recipients will include UB faculty inventors who created technologies like a skills trainer for robotic surgery, or who discovered and developed health care breakthroughs like a peptide from spider venom that could one day help children with muscular dystrophy live longer.

Of particular note, former UB postdoctoral researcher Laurent Levy will receive the UB Entrepreneurship Award for founding Nanobiotix, a Paris, France-based nanomedicine company that licenses UB technology and raised more than $18 million in an initial public offering (IPO) last fall.

Media are welcome to attend this invitation-only event. To make arrangements, please contact Charlotte Hsu at 716-645-4655 or chsu22@buffalo.edu.

What: Annual UB Inventors and Entrepreneurs Reception

When: 4 to 6 p.m. on Monday, March 25. (Formal program begins at 4:30 p.m.)

Where: Fifth floor, UB Clinical and Translational Research Center, 875 Ellicott St., Buffalo. This is the first time the annual reception will take place in this new downtown facility.

Opening Remarks: UB President Satish K. Tripathi; UB Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Charles F. Zukoski; and UB Vice Provost Robert J. Genco, who oversees UB’s Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach, which helps UB inventors commercialize their discoveries.

Closing Remarks: UB Vice President for Research and Economic Development Alexander N. Cartwright.

Why: This event recognizes thinkers and entrepreneurs who are helping to build Western New York’s high-tech economy. The program, including a list of honorees, is available at http://bit.ly/1639i05. Those recognized will include:

• 10 teams of UB researchers named on U.S. patents issued in 2012.
• Nine teams of visionary innovators who developed technologies UB licensed to industrial partners in 2012.
• Companies that joined or graduated from UB’s business incubator program in 2012.
• SUNY Distinguished Professor Vladimir Mitin, Department of Electrical Engineering, who will receive the UB Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, given each year to faculty members who found startups. Mitin is founder of OptoElectronics Nanodevices, which develops and commercializes novel optoelectronic nanomaterials to enhance the efficiency of devices such as solar cells and photodetectors.
• Former UB postdoctoral researcher Laurent Levy, who founded French nanomedicine company Nanobiotix and will receive the UB Entrepreneurship Award.

While working in UB’s Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics in the 1990s, Levy partnered with UB and Roswell Park Cancer Institute colleagues to create two nanomedicine technologies: magnetic nanoparticles for treatment and diagnosis of cancer (nanoMag), and laser-activated nanoparticles for cancer treatment (nanoPDT).

Levy then went on to found Nanobiotix, which was incorporated in Paris in 2003 and has been primarily funded by European venture capital firms. Nanobiotix was listed on the NYSE Euronext market last fall following an IPO that raised gross proceeds of more than $18 million (14.2 million euros). Since its creation, total financing of the company is about 40 million euros. The company's licensing agreement for nanoMag and nanoPDT has brought UB revenues including royalties that the university uses to enhance its research programs.

On Tuesday, March 26, in a separate event, Levy will speak to students in UB’s Entrepreneurship Academy about the founding of Nanobiotix. His talk, which is free and open to the public, will explain what Nanobiotix is and tell the story behind its success: What was done well, what was done wrong, and what was unexpected and fun along the way.