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Barry Johnson Named Chair of Spinner Technologies
Spinner Technologies (Press Release) – June 24, 2009
Full story
Barry Johnson has been elected to the position of Chairman of Spinner Technologies. Currently Barry W. Johnson is Senior Associate Dean and Associate Dean for Research in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia. In addition, he is the L. A. Lacy Distinguished Professor of Engineering. He is founder and director of the University of Virginia Center for Safety-Critical Systems. In 1998 he was a founder of Privaris, Inc., a biometric security company.

PluroGel™ Burn Treatment
ABC HOI-19 News (Creve Coeur, Ill.) – September 30, 2008
http://www.hoinews.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=199623
Researchers at the University of Virginia have developed PluroGel™, a topical wound gel containing an antimicrobial agent. PluroGel is only available at the University of Virginia. Although doctors there have been using it for a few years, the gel is awaiting FDA approval. Researchers hope to start clinical trials so it can eventually be used at hospitals around the country.

Students Hope Business + Engineering = $$
C-Ville Weekly – September 30, 2008
http://c-ville.com/index.php?cat=141404064432695&ShowArticle_ID=11802909084011131
A few years ago, the Patent Foundation, in an effort to help faculty inventors fund their own companies, created The Jefferson Corner Group, an angel fund designed to invest in new technologies. MacWright says the fund had to be created to increase the flow of capital locally. “I’m happy to say that the fund has invested in two faculty inventions so far,” he says, and considers it a success, given the current Wall Street panic.

Biotech Breakthrough
Charlottesville Daily Progress, Va. – August 6, 2008
http://www.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/article/biotech_breakthrough/25825/
Local drug developer Adenosine Therapeutics was acquired Monday by Clinical Data, a global biotechnology company, in a deal that could be worth up to $66.2 million. ... The deal is one of the largest offers for a University of Virginia spinoff company — one developed as a result of research at U.Va. — according to Robert MacWright, executive director and CEO of the U.Va. Patent Foundation. ... Adenosine Therapeutics, started in 1999 by U.Va. professor and researcher Joel Linden and entrepreneur Robert Capon, researches the uses of the molecule adenosine to treat diabetes, sepsis, asthma, Parkinson’s disease, sickle cell anemia and other illnesses.


U.Va. Spin-off PluroGen is a Burning Success
U.Va. Research News - May 17, 2007
http://oscar.virginia.edu/researchnews/x10880.xml
Rodeheaver and Katz began by patenting and licensing the technology with the U.Va. Patent Foundation. Then they looked to Spinner Technologies—a for-profit branch of the Patent Foundation that exists to encourage faculty start-up companies. Through the help of Spinner, and with the aid of a Darden M.B.A. student, they completed a business plan and named their company PluroGen Therapeutics.


Patent Foundation Licenses Silver Nanoparticle Technology
U.Va. Research News – April 14, 2008
http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=4939
U.Va.’s Patent Foundation has licensed innovative silver nanoparticle technology, co-developed by U.Va. professor Lakshmi S. Nair, to U.Va. start-up PluroGen Therapeutics Inc. for use as an enhanced anti-microbial agent to fight infection and promote wound-healing.

U.Va. Addiction Research Featured in HBO Addiction Film
U.Va. Health System Press Release – March 7, 2007
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/news/archives07/HBO_addiction.cfm?&&
HBO Films is premiering its latest documentary, Addiction, which features U.Va. Health System Prof. Bankole Johnson, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., and patients. Prof. Johnson, chairman of the UVa Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Science, is featured for his work with topiramate, a promising compound that he and team members have used as a way to block the dopamine pathway in the brain, a pleasure pathway that mediates the urge to drink alcohol.

U.Va. Researcher’s Sperm-Check Home Test Gets FDA OK
U.Va. Today (press release) – March 5, 2008
http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=4397
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved SpermCheck Vasectomy, a home test that confirms men’s post-vasectomy sterility and is based on discoveries made at U.Va.

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Success Stories: Cellular Materials International Inc.
Dawnbreaker - Summer 2006
http://www.dawnbreaker.com/success/stories.php?sID=35&aID=&
Cellular Materials International, Inc. (CMI) develops and manufactures proprietary structural materials based on periodic cellular material (PCM) to satisfy commercial and military requirements for lightweight, multi-functional structures that are cost-effective, safe and efficient. Using funding from the Navy's SBIR program, CMI recently developed a lightweight, high strength sandwich panel to help provide protection to Navy and Marine Corps manned platforms from explosively generated impulses.

Spinner Technologies moves to new location in Charlottesville (June 10, 2005)
The new Spinner Technologies office is conveniently located only 0.8 miles from the University of Virginia campus, in the Lewis & Clark building, near the Historic Downtown area. It is only six minutes by car from "Grounds", and a quick ride on the Charlottesville Trolley (free local bus service). For detailed directions from "Grounds", the Charlotessville Airport, Northern Virginia, and the Richmond airport, please click on this link (Directions).

Founder of Spinner Technologies, Inc. Presents at International Conference on Business Incubation (April 28, 2004)
Local Executive Presents Session at International Conference on Business Incubation. Andrea Alms, General Manager of Spinner Technologies, presented a session entitled “Encouraging Faculty Entrepreneurs” as a guest speaker at the 18th International Conference on Business Incubation, April 25-28, in Atlanta.

A Governor's Guide to Strengthening State Entrepreneurship Policy (April 22, 2004)
A Governor's Guide to Strengthening State Entrepreneurship Policy describes in detail entrepreneurial policy, the ideal relationship between entrepreneurs and the state, and strategies for supporting entrepreneurship.  The guide also names colleges and universities _(p.22-23) with entrepreneurship centers, as well as names some helpful resources.

Adenosine Therapeutics Receives $1.38 Million NIH Grant (April 22, 2004)
The REGION & STATE press release announces the $1.38 million grant intended to fund research in Diabetes.  The substance being researched, Compound ATL-618, has potential in becoming an oral diabetes treatment.

Spinner Technologies Inc. Secures Lab Space For Faculty
The UVA Patent Foundation and Spinner Technologies sign a deal to acquire lab space at North Fork Research Park to help nurture the growth of UVA faculty entrepreneur-owned companies.

Technology Access Top 15 Report
Check this Technology Access Report to view the University of Virginia's success in the licensing and start-up arenas.

Father of Chemical Genetics to Start New Program at U.Va.
Inside U.Va. - August 9, 2002
http://www.virginia.edu/insideuva/2002/24/geysen.html
With $10 million worth of state-of-the-art technology and equipment from Glaxo, Geysen will attempt to create a working inventory of small molecules on the second floor of the chemistry building. Three graduate researchers will become the first of Geysen’s team, occupying four renovated labs. Only Harvard University has undertaken a comparable task, but on a scale that Geysen says “leaves a lot to be desired.”

Growing a Biotech Industry to Central Va. (March 17, 2002)
Check out what the Daily Progress has to say about  biotech in Central Va.