Silicon Hills News

The Central Texas Life Sciences Industry is Booming

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eVido BioDevices, a startup in Austin, recreates bodyparts with 3-D printers using human cells.

iTraumaCare in San Antonio has created a life-saving clamp that quickly and easily prevents blood loss. WiseWear, based in both San Antonio and Austin, has created a patch-like fitness device to track vital signs and more while working out. Those are just a few of the biotech startups you will read about in this first annual issue of Silicon Hills News focused on the life sciences industry in Central Texas. This is Silicon Hills News’ second print magazine. The first, a field guide to Silicon Hills, debuted at South by Southwest Interactive in March and our Kickstarter backers made it possible. This issue is possible thanks to our advertisers: BioMed SA, the Texas State University Small Business Development Center, bankSNB, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, Texans for Economic Progress, the World Stem Cell Summit, Geekdom and the University of Texas at San Antonio. Our next issue is on technology startups and will be published in October. And thank you to the writers for this issue: Susan Lahey, Jonathan Gutierrez. Tim Green and Leslie Anne Jones. It’s an amazing time to be in the healthcare and biosciences industry with all the innovation going on in treatments, drug development, medical devices and more. In Austin, the life sciences industry generates more than $1 billion in economic activity, according to a recent report from the Austin Technology Council. Its strengths are in pharmaceutical manufacturing, research and development in physical, engineering and life sciences, research and development in biotechnology, surgical appliance and supplies manufacturing and biological product manufacturing. The industry is expected to grow with the new Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. The building is under construction now, and the school is expected to admit its first class in 2016.

A university-backed health science center can serve as a catalyst for a thriving healthcare and biotechnology industry in a city. Look no further than San Antonio to see the impact of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio on the city. The Health Science Center serves as one of the cornerstones and catalysts of San Antonio’s bustling biosciences and healthcare industry, which employs more than one in every six jobs in San Antonio and has an overall economic impact of more than $29 billion, according to BioMed SA. The Health Science Center has more than 3,000 students enrolled in five schools, which award 69 health-related degree specialties and preand post-baccalaureate certification programs. Research organizations, private sector companies and the U.S. military drive the bioscience industry growth in San Antonio, according to BioMed SA. In addition to the Health Science Center, other major contributors to San Antonio’s industry include the University of Texas at San Antonio, InCube Labs Texas, the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, the Texas Research Park, Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, Cancer Therapy and Research Center, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio Army Medical Center, South Texas Accelerated Research Therapeutics and the National Trauma Institute. Central Texas is a powerful region. When both communities collaborate and cooperate the region grows stronger and even more powerful. Cities no longer compete against each other. Austin, San Antonio and San Marcos are all thriving. The region competes globally for the best talent, resources, companies and institutions. And it has become a global hotspot for innovation in the life sciences industry with a cluster of universities, research and development institutions, medical technology startups and established companies.

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1 2 3&4 5 6&7 8 9 & 10 12

– Introduction to Central Texas’ Booming Life Sciences Industry – Index

18 – InCube Labs 19 & 20 – Interview with the University

of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio President Dr. William L. Henrich

– TeVido Biodevices

21 & 22 – Interview with Dell Medical

– WiseWear

School Dean Dr. Clay Johnston

– Leto Solutions – 7 Facts about San Antonio’s Life Sciences Industry – Spot on Sciences

23 – Geekdom 24 – ENTVantage 25 & 26 – Texas Biomedical Research Center

– 7 Facts about Austin’s Life Sciences Industry

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– iTraumaCare

14 & 15 – Interview with Ann Stevens, President of BioMed SA

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Printing the Human Body By Leslie Anne Jones

(Photos courtesy of UTEP News Service – by Aurelio Hernandez)

“Our first product will be the nipple,” says Laura Bosworth. And the CEO and co-founder of TeVido BioDevices isn’t talking about a silicon attachment for a baby bottle, her startup aims to 3-D print human tissue. It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but making it a reality may not be far off: Bosworth estimated that if TeVido secured the necessary funding ($7-8 million), the company could be ready for clinical trials in as little as two years. Bosworth started TeVido with Dr. Thomas Boland, who is one of the foremost researchers of live-cell tissue printing. Boland is the inventor of a patent for inkjet tissue printing. He first tried to modify an inkjet printer to print with human cells in 2000, when he was working at Clemson University. He is now director of biomedical engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso. Bosworth retired in 2008 after spending a decade each at Dell and IBM. An engineer by training, Bosworth worked in manufacturing engineering, corporate strategy, product development and marketing over the course of her career. Finding that the leisure life was not for her, Bosworth began working with startups in 2009 at the suggestion of one of her old mentors from Dell. The dean of engineering at UTEP called on her to advise their commercialization office.Volunteering at the university is how Bosworth met Boland and learned about his work. She was immediately enthralled.

“This is so amazing and has the potential to change certain aspects of medicine,” she said. Bosworth volunteered to take on the CEO role and help bring bioprinting to market. TeVido was founded in 2011. After going through a couple different ideas and investigating the market, they decided to focus on nipple-areola reconstruction. Structurally, nipples are fairly small and simple, comprised mainly of fat and skin cells. The trick with bioprinting anything thicker than .1mm layer of skin is that it needs a vascular structure to deliver oxygen to the tissue. Otherwise it will die. Bosworth says their technology is unique in that it has the capability to deliver that capillary structure. In 2012, TeVido brought on serial entrepreneur Scott Collins, who has a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering to be chief technology officer. Boland remains based at UTEP, while Collins overseesthe company’s ongoing research and development. From July forward, TeVido is targeted to move into the Texas Life Sciences Collaboration Center in Georgetown, though the relocation depends on securing funding. Collins says one of his goals is to someday bioprint a human heart.But it’s not only the relative simplicity of nipples that make them a good starting point, but also, there’s a clear need for better solutions in post-cancer breast reconstruction. “The plastic surgeons we’ve talked to see the need for this,” Collins said.

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Inkjet Printer

Presently, there are several imperfect options for approximating a nipple in reconstruction surgery. A common one is to create the protrusion by sewing the skin together and tattooing it for color, but this solution very often does not last. Bosworth recounted interviewing one woman who’d had 15 surgeries over seven years. “They don’t look great,” the woman told her, and as for the nipples, “flattened and faded.” There is a substantial amount of research about the trauma and distress of losing nipples to cancer.For many women, reconstructed nipples are an important part of the psychological healing process. Presently, funding is a major challenge. TeVido has received less than $1 million to date, mostly through government grants, and Bosworth has heard a lot of “you’re too early” and “it’s too risky.” “People don’t want to fund you until you’re in human tests,” she said, but there is a lot of expensive work to be done before reaching that stage. In the best-case scenario, their product could be on the market in five years, but it may take much longer. TeVido applied for a $750,000 National Science Foundation grant in January. If they get it, they’ll have the opportunity to apply for further funding. One of the reasons 3-D printing human tissues makes sense is that the source cells will come from the patient, and the printing process will be tailored to her precise dimensions. How TeVido’s printing will likely work is the plastic surgeon who is performing breast reconstruction will take a sample of skin and fat from the patient and send it to TeVido’s labs. The doctor will coordinate his surgery, scheduling with TeVido so that the nipple is printed and delivered at the right time. Since TeVido will be using the patient’s own cells, they are optimistic about the longevity of their product, especially in comparison to the 4

nipple reconstructions that are on the market now. Perhaps in a couple decades, printers like TeVido’s will be producing full, complex human organs and save some people from lingering on a lengthy list awaiting organ donors. Bioprinting solutions may one day supersede mechanical ones because bioprinted human tissues will grow with the patient, unlike synthetic solutions, which sometimes need to be replaced as the patient’s body grows and changes. If TeVido is successful, it could clear a path for other 3-D printed, human-tissue products. “Sometimes people say, ‘why did you pick something so hard?’” Bosworth says. “I tell them, ‘it picked me.’”

Dr. Thomas Boland with skin in dish

WISEWEAR Creates a Tiny Platform to Analyze Your Body’s Data By SUSAN LAHEY, Reporter with Silicon Hills News

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earable companies all over the world are racing to create devices that tell you what’s going on in your body. They’re on sports bras, wristwatches, necklaces and even cocktail rings. They can be stuck on wounded areas to measure pain. And then there’s WiseWear, whose tiny platform promises to “See Inside” the body and “collect contextually aware data that is automated and derived from multiple sources.” WiseWear’s tiny sensor platform monitors heart rate, movement—including what your exercise regime is producing--and dehydration, and its Bluetooth device lets it communicate with other devices to monitor health. “Sensor technology empowers individuals to live a happy, healthy and productive life,” said CEO and Founder Jerry Wilmink. “This lets you really see everything that happens in the body. The first generation of wearables only measured one or two things and in many cases it was highly inaccurate. This is a platform and there are several use cases ranging from a patch to a watch version…. It’s highly accurate monitoring captures and gives you a really good pulse on what’s happening inside your body.” WiseWear plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign in August for pre-sales of its first wearable device, called “Evolve,” according to a company press release. The device “adheres directly to the user’s chest with ultrathin, ultra soft, transfer-printed micro-circuitry and sensors.” The device collects biometric data that is then transmitted wirelessly to a smartphone or tablet for data analysis.

Wilmink’s Background Wilmink got his bachelor’s and master’s in biochemical engineering at Vanderbilt then, he said “Snuck into the Ph.D. program.” When he graduated, he was a research associate with the National Academy of Sciences and then moved to the Department of Defense where he founded the first Terahertz bioeffects research laboratory where he began to develop WiseWear. “I hand picked the talent and grew it from nothing to a pretty big laboratory. We were connecting the dots, being creative, finding the talent, building a rock star team with tremendous potential.” For the first time, he said, he wasn’t competing on pure IQ but on creativity. That became his prime criteria for teammates. Wilmink also received his Executive MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, class of 2014.

Creating WiseWear His interest in biotechnology, Wilmink said, came from growing up with his grandparents. Once his grandfather—a Sicilian with a black Cadillac who smoked cigars and listened to Sinatra—fell. He seemed fine on Thanksgiving and ended up dying the day after Christmas. The fall, it turns out, was because of a change in his grandfather’s gait, which is an indication of dehydration. “If we had noticed he had changes in his gait, we could have prevented him from falling,” Wilmink said. “Our initial product was a line sensor system to pick up when a senior was dehydrated and his gait was changing. Fifty percent of seniors over the age of 65 who fall end up passing away in the next six months. And that’s not connected to the severity of the fall.” Keeping track of what’s going on inside the body before it manifests in a negative way is a big step toward prevention, according to WiseWear advisor, Dr. David KatzHead of Yale Health & Preventative Medicine. “WiseWear is designed to … provide personalized, real-time feedback about an individual’s daily activities fully integrated with accurate heart rate, respiration, hydration, and by providing direction, motivation, and even a kind of oversight and accountability. This kind of feedback is known to encourage healthy behaviors- and now you can get it from something that’s practically a part of you.” “This allows a user to take a proactive kind of action to treat health and wellness rather than treat disease,” Wilmink said. And running this company, after his long journey is “all, absolutely exhilarating.” Founded in March of 2013, WiseWear is based in both San Antonio and Austin. The company recently moved into Geekdom, a coworking space and technology incubator in downtown San Antonio. Wilmink has raised more than $1 million in seed stage funding, and the company plans to raise a Series A round of funding next year. Wilmink has put together a team of experts including Ph.Ds, MBAs, C-Level executives and others. The company has also licensed its intellectual property from the University of Texas, according to a company release. WiseWear plans to release its consumer products and then pursue clinical trials and FDA approval for a line of medical products. The company has plans for a device called WiseDoctorto accurately record a patient’s vital signs, hydration and activity in a hospital setting. Future products will be targeted atmonitoring babies, seniors, diabetics and even pets.

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Leto Solutions Team Members Gary Walters, Becky Ariana and Justin Stultz

Leto Solutions

By Laura Lorek, Founder of Silicon Hills News All photos courtesy of Leto Solutions

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hile the South Texas heat makes most people sweat, the heat and sweat can be particularly unbearable and dangerous for amputees with prosthetic limbs. “Amputees everywhere have heat related issues,” said Kirk Simendinger, a prosthetist with Bulow Orthotic & Prosthetic Solutions in San Antonio. “When skin reaches elevated temperatures and perspires, that trapped sweat between the limb and the prosthetic device can cause tissue to soften and break down and become susceptible to friction damage, blisters, skin ulcers and infections,” Simendinger said. “There’s nothing out there on the market right now that combats the overall temperature inside a socket environment,” he said. Healthcare workers often tell amputees to use antiperspirant, talcum powder and absorbent socks to solve the problem. But Leto Solutions, an early-stage startup spun out of the University of Texas at San Antonio, has the high-tech solution to solve the problem for countless amputees, said Becky Ariana, the company’s CEO. Leto’s team of four engineers created the Aquilonix Prosthesis Cooling System. Leto’s lightweight thermoelectric cooling device fits into the socket of the prosthetic limb and runs on a five-hour battery which can be turned on or off by the wearer.

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“There is a real need for this that has not been tackled until now,” Simendinger said. Leto Solutions created a prototype of the Aquilonix Prosthesis Cooling System and is currently raising a $2.5 million seed stage round to take the product to market, Ariana said. The company is also launching an IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign in August. Ariana joined Leto Solutions in January of 2013 after serving as the company’s mentor at UTSA. Ariana previously worked at Vidacare Corp., which created and manufactured the EZ-IO, a drill-like device to provide medical professionals the ability to quickly access the vascular system to deliver medicine, blood and intravenous fluids. Ariana served as Vice President at Vidacare, with responsibility for the OnControl Bone Marrow Biopsy System, which won the 2012 Wall Street Journal’s Technology Innovations Award. Teleflex Inc. bought Vidacare last year for $285 million. “I’ve always been fortunate in being involved in products that make a difference for patients,” Ariana said. “This is certainly one of those products. It’s hard to believe that up until now no one has addressed this problem for amputees.” The initial funding will allow Leto to get through the Food and Drug Administration clearance process for its class one medical device and to commercialize the first product, Ariana said. It will also help to fund the development of its second product for above the knee amputees, she said.

Leto plans to contract for manufacturing locally with Coastal Life Technologies, the same company that manufactured Vidacare’s device. Already, Leto Solutions has met with success. The startup and its eight-member student team won the UTSA Center for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship 100K Student Venture Competition in 2013. Earlier this year, ABC News ran a story for their “Second Tour” series, which featured the company and one of its founders. In February, the Texas Life Science Forum honored Leto as one of ten Rice Alliance Life Science Companies for having the best business opportunity and promise for high-value commercialization. Leto solutions identified a problem in the marketplace and came up with a solution that is needed, said Anita Leffel, assistant director of the Center for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship. Those are the best kind of startups, she said. Gary Walters, a retired U.S. Army Sergeant, came up with the idea for the product. Walters lost his lower right leg duringa roadside bomb explosion in Iraq. He now wears a prosthetic limb. But he suffered from intense heat and sweat build-up at the point where his limb met the socket interface for his prosthetic limb. The problem became extremely uncomfortable when he did chores outside or played with his daughter. The pain and discomfort from heat and sweat build up interfered with his

ability to lead an active life. So he challenged his team to design a system that would resolve the problem. They came up with the Aquilonix System and Walters has tested the product with great results so far, Ariana said. “At a time when so many advances are being made with bionic arms and other prosthetics, it’s amazing someone has not addressed this problem,” Ariana said. Leto’s device is going to be very sought out, Simendinger said. “I think that people who wear prosthesis nowadays are showing others they can do anything they want to do – they can run, hike, ride a bike,” Simendinger said. “This device is going to take that to a new level really.”

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San Antonio’s healthcare and biosciences industry has an annual economic impact of more than $29 billion with key strengths in the diabetes and metabolic disease area, trauma, wound healing and regenerative medicine, infectious diseases, neurologic disorders and cancer.

Dr. Julio Palmaz with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio invented the Palmaz stent. He received a patent on the device in 1988. His stent was the world’s first vascular stent. It has saved countless lives and it has changed the worldwide standard care in cardiology and peripheral vascular medicine. The World Stem Cell Summit is scheduled for Dec. 3-5 at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter in San Antonio. The World Stem Cell Summit is the largest interdisciplinary stem cell meeting, featuring more than 170 prominent scientists, business leaders, regulators, policymakers, economic development officers and others. The event is expected to attract more than 1,500 people from 40 nations.

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The San Antonio Military Medical Center, which opened in 2011, is the Defense Department’s largest inpatient hospital. It replaced the Brooke General Hospital. It is also home to the Army Burn Center.

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The Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio has the only privately owned Biosafety level 4 laboratory in the U.S., developing ways to combat incurable infectious diseases and bioterrorism. The Texas Research Park and Technology Foundation, created in the late ‘80s with donated land at the former Pawel Ranch, is a center for studying cancer, aging and infectious diseases. The 1,200acre park is home to the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, opened in 2005, operated by the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. The Institute of Biotechnology, opened in 1990, and is home to the Health Science Center’s department of molecular medicine.

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“The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio ranks in the top three percent of all institutions worldwide receiving National Institutes of Health funding. Last year, the Health Science Center attracted research awards and sponsored program activity, such as research supported by private gifts, totaled $164.5 million,” according to the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Sources: UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas Research Park and Technology Foundation, World Stem Cell Summit and BioMed SA

SPOT ON SCIENCES MAKES TAKING BLOOD SAMPLES EASY

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he most remarkable thing to Dr. Jeanette Hill about the evolution of her company, Spot on Sciences, is the myriad ways her blood collection device, HemaSpot, is being used. It has proven invaluable in research being done in Spain that shows taking blood pressure medication at night rather than in the morning can mean the difference between life and death. It is being used to collect blood samples from Himalayan snow leopards, to check blood among people with diabetes in the Scottish Isles and for AIDS testing in remote parts of Africa. While Hill’s team is focused on the device itself, making it as practical and responsive to researcher’s needs as possible, scientists all over the world are discoveringHemaSpot and asking whether they can use the device in their research. “I’m almost weekly surprised by someone wanting to use it for medical research, different tests that are taking place all around the world,” Hill said. “It’s surprising and exhilarating.” Taking blood samples has always been messy and fraught with potential for contamination. It also creates a big problem for people like Hill’s mother who lives 20 miles from the nearest clinic. “It’s such a burden for her to go in and get her blood tested,” Hill said. “It’s such a hassle to drive all that way…then the labs are only open during certain hours, and she feels lousy for days afterward. I thought isn’t there a better way to do this?” For decades, hospitals have used dried blood sampling to collect blood from newborns requiring only a small stick in the heel and then preserving blood on filter paper. Hill wondered whether she could use the same

By SUSAN LAHEY, Reporter with Silicon Hills News

technique for adults. But that presented problems. Even with trained nurses taking the samples, there was a 20 percent rejection rate. It took hours for the sample to dry—longer if the weather was rainy. And while the paper was exposed to the air it was also exposed to numerous contaminants. Hill began to work on HemaSpot, a small, plastic container in which sits a “flower” made of filter paper. The device comes with a lancet and alcohol wipes for cleaning the finger for a blood sample. The device only needs three drops of blood. Once the blood dries, researchers can perform up to 50 different experiments just by taking a tiny punch from the paper. Hill is a rare combination of a research scientist and businesswoman. She received her Ph.D. in bio-organic chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis and did post-doctoral research in auto-immune diseases at Washington Medical Center. While in grad school, she founded Biochemical Resources, an Internet database source for research products and chemicals. It lasted a couple years and was beginning to get traction until the World Wide Web and companies such as Lycos and Yahoo came along and “did it a lot better.” Afterward, she worked as a director for various small

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such as cortisol, at different times of day. But what else was going on in the interactions between the medications and changes in the blood over a 24-hour period? With HemaSpot, they can get patients with hypertension to take their blood at three-hour intervals from home to look at all the factors. companies. She loved the variety and “chaos” of working for a small company, but when her last employer was bought by a larger company, she decided that was the time to go out on her own. “We started in February of 2010 with just an idea,” Hill said. “By the end of that year, we had a prototype and some models. It took us another year to get our manufacturer.” Every time they ran up against a problem, like uneven blood flow over the filter paper, which would alter test results, Hill said, they thought “We can fix that.” “That’s kind of cool,” she said. “This is an opportunity for us to make that a lot better….how can we make that very easy to use, a simple device where you understand immediately how to use it?” They’ve been through a dozen iterations. Her biggest breakthrough, she said, was creating a design with eight blades fanning out so that the blood would flow evenly to all parts of the paper. With HemaSpot, each part of the paper has identical amounts of blood. “Whenever you get a roadblock you either go around it or pivot and go the other direction, sometimes a couple times a day.” Hill said. “It’s my personality do a lot of different things…I don’t like where there’s a very narrow path and have to get permission to do things, and sometimes many layers of permission.” Ironically though, with any medical device, there are many layers of permission. Currently, the device is only approved for medical research through laboratories. Hill would love to see it available on the shelves for people like her mother, but getting devices approved as diagnostic tools in the U.S. is a lengthy process. It’s moving faster in Europe. In the meantime, HemaSpot is enabling scientific breakthroughs. Dr. Michael Smolensky is one of the world’s foremost experts in chronobiology—natural physiological rhythms such as circadian rhythms--and always wanted to understand better how to apply them to medical conditions. “I’ve been frustrated because I know that certain constituents of the blood that are important inaccurate medical diagnoses show very great predictability. They reach peak levels or lowest levels at times when appointments can’t be scheduled, and blood can’t be withdrawn. There was not means of getting blood samples from patients at those particular times of the day or night when they would be most valuable in getting accurate determination of the value of medical interventions.” Smolensky has been working with Dr. Ramon Herrera, Director of Bioengineering & Chronobiology Laboratories at the University of Vigo, Spain. They discovered that patients who take their blood pressure medication at night are five times less likely to suffer a heart attack than those who take it in the morning. But they weren’t able to isolate why. They knew there was a change in some levels,

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“One of (Hill’s) strengths is that she is very open minded to criticism about her product designs and development, unlike many other that companies just want to get on the market and see financial flow,” Smolensky said. “She’s just very inquisitive and open minded, not a typical business personality. She certainly has the business acumen, but she’s also very science oriented.” And as a person, he said, Hill is “just delightful.” Most of Spot on Science’s funding has come from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Small Business Innovation Research Program. Their phase II grant was for $1.5 million, and they recently received an additional $750,000. Hill has been pitching—and winning pitch competitions—since she joined Avinde accelerator for women entrepreneurs building scalable businesses. “I had done a lot of talks but scientific talks,” Hill said. “The very first time I got up to pitch I was so nervous. It wasn’t a very good talk at all. I had just developed the company and came up with a name for it which was Spot on Biosciences. Someone said ‘You’re going to want to shorten that name. For one thing, it’s too long. For another, you don’t want to bethe S.O.B. company.” Hill did a lot of things right from the beginning, said Terry Chase Hazell, director of emerging tech at Avinde. “She made a clean break from her employer, protecting her IP, built a great team, she’s fully participating in the entrepreneurship scene and most importantly she picked a business model that could scale.” Right now, Hill said, HemaSpot is being used in pilot studies but they’ll need to hit a certain critical mass to scale up. A study starts with a few patients. Once it’s determined that the device works, a research project increases that to 100 patients, 1,000 patients, 10,000… once it hits 100,000, Hill said, it will be time to scale up. She’s building relationships now to determine who would be a good investment partner for Spot on Sciences. But what brings her to work every day, Hill said, isn’t growing the company. “We can see that this can make a difference in the world. This is going to change the way we do blood tests. This is going to advance clinical science. That’s what I love to hear.”

Ten Years in Tech MAJOR MILESTONES POINT TOWARDS A FASTER FUTURE

It’s easy to take tech for granted. We want to be instantly connected 24/7 from wherever we are to whatever we want. So in order to appreciate this massive move to all things digital, we’ve thrown a little timeline together for you.

2004

2007

2009

2010

2012

2014

Facebook founded

iPhone introduced

The “pound sign” becomes a hashtag

iPad introduced

1B smartphones sold worldwide

1st move to an all digital network

Oh and by the way, YouTube used more bandwidth in 2010 than the entire Internet did in 2000.

We can get used to this level of innovation, as

transition to an all-digital network. That means

long as we have the infrastructure to support it.

instead of spending almost $14 billion a year on

This requires a careful conversation between tech

maintaining outdated technology, carriers could

and government, and we’re starting to see some

then invest that capital into the broadband

good news on this front. Congress is starting to

networks consumers want and dedicate that

consider how our laws can be modernized and in

money to modernizing our communications

2014, the FCC announced trials for a nationwide

infrastructure.

Contact us to learn more, get involved and connect.

ADVANCE TECHNOLOGY l ADVANCE TEXAS

www.TexasProgress.com @Tx4EconProgress

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HEALTHCARE AND BIOSCIENCES INDUSTRY in Austin

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The life sciences sector represents 206 establishments and adds $1 billion to the regional economy and 6,000 jobs with an average annual wage of $75,000, according to a report from the Austin Technology Council. Research and development in the life sciences represents $380 million in regional economic impact and more than 3,400 jobs.

BioAustin is a nonprofit organization to promote the life sciences industry in the five-county Austin region. It was recently spun off from the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

Austin’s life sciences industry is comprised of 40 percent medical device and diagnostic companies, 20 percent biologics and biotech companies, 20 percent contract research organizations, 10 percent pharmaceuticals and 10 percent other areas, according to the Austin Technology Council report.

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In April, construction kicked off on the new Dell Medical School. The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation have donated $50 million for the school. Last year, the UT System Board of Regents committed $334 million for the construction. And the Seton Healthcare Family has committed $295 million to build a new 210 bed teaching hospital. The Dell Medical School is scheduled to accept its first class of students in 2016.

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At the University of Texas’ Cockrell School of Engineering, researchers have created the smallest, fastest and longest running tiny synthetic motor to date. The nanomotor could help researchers create miniature machines that could enter and move through the body to provide insulin to diabetics or target and treat cancer cells, according to the University of Texas.

Austin-San Marcos is one of the top 12 biotech and health and life science centers in the country because of the clustering effect of multiple startup companies in the biotech industry, according to a report from the Milken Institute. Sources: University of Texas at Austin, BioAustin, the Austin Technology Council, Milken Institute and the Dell Medical School.

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Ours is a story of hope. Compassion and joy. Commitment, vision and inspiration. We engage our minds and talents, and give from our hearts, to help and heal. We touch the lives of thousands, to serve those in need, here and around the world. And, through it all, we work to make lives better. Thank you for all you do to make our story so remarkable. You’re the reason we’re able to write the next chapter.

uthscsa.edu

with Ann Stevens of BioMed SA

By LAURA LOREK, Founder of Silicon Hills News

nn Stevens has served as BioMed SA’s president since its inception in 2005. She has helped to grow and promote San Antonio’s healthcare and bioscience industry. She recently answered some questions about BioMed SA and the role the nonprofit organization plays in the city’s booming healthcare and bioscience industry.

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SHN: Why was BioMedSA created? AS: BioMed SA was founded in 2005 by former Mayor Henry Cisneros and the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce to organize and promote the community’s substantial biomedical assets and raise the visibility of San Antonio as a City of Science and Health. Our mission is to accelerate the growth of what is already San Antonio’s leading industry, healthcare and bioscience, to create economic benefit for the region and contribute to improving global health.

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and companies like Medtronic, InCube Labs, and Innovative Trauma Care from outside the region. At the same time, we’ve helped develop a local “innovation eco-system” to foster the growth of homegrown companies and talent. In addition to raising awareness of the sector overall, BioMed SA spearheaded a strategic initiative to identify San Antonio’s leading biomedical assets and leverage them for the collective benefit. The attraction of the World Stem Cell Summit to San Antonio Dec. 3-5, 2014 is testament to the potential of this strategy. SHN: How does BioMedSA work with San Antonio’s life sciences companies and institutions? AS: Joining BioMed SA enables companies and institutions to collaborate in growing and promoting this dynamic sector. Members benefit from strategic introductions, visibility raising initiatives, information updates, and getting to know local economic developers. They can participate in industry-specific work groups and events to advance sector growth and can submit nominations for BioMed SA’s annual Julio Palmaz Award for Innovation in Healthcare and the Biosciences. Members can also take advantage of a national costsavings program that provides discounts on valuable products and services.

SHN: What have been BioMedSA’s major accomplishments since its founding in 2005?

SHN: What are the strengths of San Antonio’s Life Sciences industry?

AS: Having an industry cluster organization like BioMed SA in place, along with a cohesive industry growth strategy, has helped San Antonio raise its biomedical profile to attract industry professionals

AS: In addition to being a regional hub for medical care and health professions education, San Antonio is increasingly recognized as a national leader in bioscience research and commercialization.

Our vibrant biomedical community is bringing new therapies and solutions to market for some of mankind’s most complex diseases, with recognized strengths in diabetes, wound healing and regenerative medicine, infectious diseases, neurologic disorders, and cancer. We are also the “Home of US Military Medicine” with the nation’s largest military medical treatment complex and allied health training campus. The city’s biomedical assets are supported by an innovation ecosystem consisting of multiple tech transfer generators, incubators and accelerator initiatives; commercialization and entrepreneurship programs; research and technology parks with available land and flexible office space; supportive local government officials; and organizations that bring people together to exchange ideas and collaborate. SHN: Which areas will generate growth? AS: We believe all five of the disease areas identified above are ones that San Antonio can build on as it brings its biomedical expertise and assets to bear and as the word begins to spread. We’ve already seen several examples of companies relocating or expanding into San Antonio because of our critical mass of expertise in these areas. SHN: What are San Antonio’s competitive advantages in the Life Sciences industry? AS: Healthcare and bioscience is the city’s leading industry, employing more than one of every six people in the local workforce, with an annual economic impact of $30 billion. It is also one of the target industries in the community’s SA2020 vision and economic development strategic plan. Having a cohesive strategy and cluster organization in place to bring the industry segments together is key. Research is the fuel that drives the life sciences industry, and in San Antonio it springs from three distinct, yet collaborative, sources: research organizations, private sector companies, and the U.S. military. Some of these entities have been operating in San Antonio for more than 70 years and are recognized leaders in their fields. The willingness of these organizations to collaborate with each other has been an important advantage for us. SHN: What problems does San Antonio need to address to expand its Life Sciences industry? AS: It is important for San Antonio to continue raising awareness of its exceptional biomedical assets and strengths since we have historically been better known for other industries. At the same time, we must focus on expanding the availability of venture capital to translate discoveries made in our research labs into innovative solutions for physicians and patients with unmet medical needs. San Antonio’s biomedical sector is a resource to the world, and local breakthroughs can have global impact when sufficiently funded and promoted.

SHN: We live in an increasingly global world, how does San Antonio compete and collaborate with other countries in the life sciences industry? AS: Our vision for this industry is for San Antonio to be recognized as a global leader in healthcare and bioscience, so getting the word out about our extensive biomedical assets and strengths is very important. BioMed SA exhibits at international industry conferences and participates in foreign economic missions to open doors and forge relationships with biomedical entities around the world. Over the years, we have traveled to Canada, Mexico, Japan, China, India, and Israel to build awareness and facilitate collaboration with interested companies and institutions. SHN: How important is the commercialization of new technology spinning out of local universities to the city’s Life Sciences industry? AS: San Antonio is increasingly recognized as a biomedical hub with unique assets in place and a track record of life-saving medical innovations. The stent invented in the 1980s by Dr. Julio Palmaz of the UT Health Science Center San Antonio revolutionized cardiac care and was named one of “Ten Patents that Changed the World.” Both the Health Science Center and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) have spun off a number of biomedical companies to commercialize medical discoveries made here. SHN: How will the new Dell Medical School at the University of Texas in Austin affect San Antonio’s Life Sciences industry? AS: A good medical school is the foundation for developing a life sciences industry in any region. That has certainly been the case here in San Antonio with the UT Health Science Center and its five professional schools, and we would expect that to be the case in other regions as well. At the same time, San Antonio will soon be getting a new School of Osteopathic Medicine, being developed by the University of the Incarnate Word, which will further strengthen our capabilities. In addition, San Antonio’s expertise in key disease areas continues to distinguish it from other regions. We are also known for being highly collaborative and open to exploring possibilities that leverage our strengths. By understanding what our strengths are and consciously building on them and promoting them, San Antonio is well-positioned for continued momentum. SHN: What do you think San Antonio’s Life Sciences industry will be like in ten years? AS: With continued focus and investment, I believe San Antonio will be recognized as a global leader in healthcare and bioscience, capitalizing on the strong foundationwe already have in place and the vibrant growth that is currently under way. Much like our 5-time NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs,by continuing to work together and consciously building on our strengths, we have the opportunity to go from “good to great” and make major contributions to the health of the nation and world.

SHN: Is there enough venture capital available to fuel the startup of new medical device, drug and other life science ventures? AS: Capital availability has been a limiting factor for us in the past but has improved significantly in the last few years. We now have two homegrown VC funds focused largely on the life sciences, and we have begun to attract increasing interest from investors around the nation.

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INCUBE LABS IS THRIVING IN TEXAS By Jonathan Gutierrez, Reporter for Silicon Hills News

an Antonio has fostered innovative medical practices for decades. In June 2010, InCube Labs announced its plan to open a branch facility in San Antonio. InCube Labs originated in Silicon Valley and saw San Antonio as an attractive location to establish a branch.

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“We could attract people here,” said Mir Imran, InCube Labs’ chairman and CEO. “One of the challenges for California is the cost of living is so high. It’s very hard to attract people from outside the state. We found in San Antonio it’s such a beautiful city to live in, and the cost of living is very low and manageable. From a family standpoint, there are also a number of attractions.” InCube Labs is a multi-disciplinary research center for medical practices in therapeutic areas, drug delivery, and medical devices. Imran has created 20 companies with InCube in the past 25 years, and he plans to help establish more. Phillip Morgan, Ph.D, vice president for InCube Labs in Texas, said InCube wants to make a major difference in areas of unmet clinical needs for patients. “The way we approach it is we try and understand the problem and we view technology agnostically,” Morgan said. “The process we use is if you really understand the problem, then the solution will come out of the problem.” When InCube identifies a medical area it can improve, it begins the process of developing new approaches such as targeted drug delivery or interventional devices to solve clinical problems. InCube’s research focuses on innovative solutions from basic research through pre-clinical development to clinical trials. The solutions it is developing include a unique mix of traditional device technologies such as electronics, software, mechanical engineering and material science, as well as pharmaceuticals, protein chemistry and cell biology.

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Morgan said it’s great for InCube Texas to be based in a place where there is a lot of support. “One of the major factors in us coming to San Antonio is that there was a lot of support within the community ranging from the mayor, Julian Castro, and the city manager, Sheryl Sculley,” he said. “Both of them made trips to San Jose where InCube is based, and persuaded us to come to San Antonio.” In addition to the city council support InCube has received, local universities have also committed to helping grow the life sciences sector in the city. “If you look historically at where incubators are located, they’re nearly always located near academic institutions,” Morgan said. “I think it’s a major advantage being so close to the Health Sciences Center, UTSA and some of the other colleges around. They’ve been instrumental in helping us progress.” In terms of investing in InCube either directly or indirectly, the city of San Antonio, the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, USAA, and UTSA have all made significant contributions for the development of InCube’s companies, Morgan said. InCube Ventures, one of InCube’s venture arms, is a specialized fund focusing on breakthrough innovations in medicine. Just like InCube Labs, its venture arm aims to grow and nurture companies with potential to dramatically improve patient outcomes. Imran said the next move for InCube Texas is to expand its operations to include manufacturing.

When InCube Labs branched into Texas, the state invested $9.2 million from its Texas Emerging Technology fund into a trio of InCube’s spin-off companies.

“We also run a manufacturing company in California,” he said. “We will bring a branch of that to (San Antonio). We’d like to get to the point where we’re establishing two companies a year. But, it requires a lot of infrastructure to support that many companies.”

The three companies – Corhythm Inc., Fe3 Medical Inc., and Neurolink Inc. – received this money to assist in the development and commercialization of their respective products.

One thing missing in San Antonio is the lack of significant venture capital, Imran said.

Corhythm focuses on developing devices to detect atrial fibrillation and chronic heart failure, Fe3 Medical develops drug delivery technology to aid people with iron-deficiency anemia, and Neurolink develops an implantable device that predicts seizures and treats the underlying disease through intracranial drug delivery.

“The challenge has nothing to do with San Antonio,” he said. “Since the 2008 crash, the recovery has been slow. What that does to (startup companies)is it impacts the availability of equity dollars from other sources of venture capital. We’re hoping the companies we are building will attract new investors to come and take a serious look at San Antonio.”

By Laura Lorek, Founder of Silicon Hills News All photos courtesy of the Health Science Center

Dr. William Henrich, president of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, recently sat down with Silicon Hills News to talk about all of the innovation happening at the institution he oversees. Dr. Henrich joined the Health Science Center in 2006 as dean of the School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs. He became president in 2009. At the Health Science Center, Dr. Henrich oversees a $765 million budget, 6,000 employees and projects like the construction of the $106 million Medical Arts and Research Center, which opened in 2009; the $150 million South Texas Research Facility, which opened in 2011; and the $96.5 million Center for Oral Health Care and Research, scheduled to open in 2015. SHN: What do you think are the strengths of the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio? WH: There are many. I think neurosciences is one – about a third of our extramural grants come in support of the neurosciences. We have outstanding work in multiple sclerosis and dementia and psychiatric neurosciences such as schizophrenia. I’ll mention our pain scientist Dr. Ken Hargreaves, a neuroscientist whose team has discovered a new class of non-addictive painkillers. In other areas, diabetesis a major strength because of the work of Dr. Ralph DeFronzo and his team. (Dr. DeFronzo leads the University Health System’s Texas Diabetes Institute, which has developed new treatments for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.) We always mention healthy aging through an institute called the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and

Aging Studies. That’s a real treasure for Texas and it’s a real jewel for San Antonio. And it’s certainly something we’re extremely proud of. It’s the leading aging center, in terms of extramural funding, in Texas. And it is growing. I guess the last thing to mention that is an asset for us is we have a very strong partnership with the military and we have many programs that we share with the military. And I think it’s a natural bond to form between the Health Science Center and the many attributes of the military system in San Antonio. If you’re talking about more general assets, I’d be remiss in not mentioning the fine educational programs we have here in medicine, dentistry, nursing and the health professions. Our students are very successful and compete well nationally for positions after they finish here. I’d say we have a very strong and very competent management team – individuals who understand the mission of advancing discovery and education in healthcare. So I’m very proud of that. SHN: How does the UTHealth Science Center at San Antonio fit with the overall life sciences industry in San Antonio? You mentioned the collaboration with the military. Are there programs you work on together? WH: I could start by mentioning the educational programs. At last count, we had 18 programs where we send trainees to the San Antonio Military Medical Center and they send trainees back to our Health Science Center. And the trainees get the benefit of training at both places. We both also have tremendously developed interest in post-traumatic stress disorder, which afflicts approximately 15 percent of returning veterans from theater. It’s now more of a public health problem as it affects somewhere between 5 percent and 7 percent of adults in the civilian population. Our relationship with the military and specifically with the Department of Defense led to acquisition of a major grant here in the diagnosis and better treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. SHN: How does the creation of the Dell Medical School affect the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio? Is it considered competition? Is it considered collaboration? Does it make you stronger? Does it impact you in getting funds?

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WH: It is likely a combination of all the things you mentioned, not just one. It offers a set of new opportunities for collaboration. Enrolling patients in clinical trials could be a place where the new institution could partner with the old institution, to enroll critical numbers of patients much more quickly than if we didn’t collaborate. Secondly, I’d say there is more competition. There will be some discussion and some evolution that will occur on how the clinical practices will interact in this new space. There will be competition for faculty and that will be a two-way street. You could consider that as a negative, but I don’t because that is the kind of competition in which we already participate. We are in competition with other institutions not just in Texas but also around the country for federal grant dollars, as one example. I think there will be increased competition from this medical school in Austin but also from the new medical school in South Texas, which we are basically creating from our Health Science Center. SHN: Are these new institutions needed and will they add to the amelioration of the physician shortage and healthcare professional shortage in Texas? WH: Yes they are. Texas ranks very low in the grand spectrum of states in which we look at the per capita number of physicians per population. And these new medical schools will help with that. All the medical schools in the state are doing a good job of expanding their classes. The lesion in the pipeline is that we need more graduate medical education because we don’t have enough physicians as interns and residents to accommodate the increase in the number of medical students. So what I’m saying is there is an uncoupling of growing the medical student graduation class but not growing the graduate medical education in proportion. Hence, more and more students who graduate from Texas medical schools will have to leave the state to go find training opportunities elsewhere. And the reason that should catch attention is because there is a 60 percent to 70 percent chance that where you train you will stay. Certainly, even if you don’t stay in San Antonio but you trained here, you’re likely to stay in Texas somewhere. It costs a lot of money to educate the medical students and then we’re a net exporter of them to other states that are glad to get them. And then invariably not all of them come back. I would say we’re doing a good job of expanding medical school student size. The real key to changing the scoreboard in terms of number of physicians in the state is to grow the graduate medical education. SHN: What have been some of the major successes of the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio since the first class was admitted in 1966? WH: I’d say that among the big accomplishments, we now have upward of 30,000 alumni. If you go to a doctor or see a nurse or go to a dentist or have someone treat you for physical therapy in San Antonio, the odds are high that the person who sees you in this professional capacity either went to school here or trained here. So I think one of the major contributions from the Health Science Center is this incredibly talented

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workforce that has gone on to populate our city and the rest of Texas in addition to the United States and world. If I can be a bit of drum pounder, it is known that the biggest economy in San Antonio today is the life sciences. That’s a book of business that now exceeds $30 billion. What I would say about the Health Science Center’s role in this wonderful success is that it isn’t that the Health Science Center is responsible for $30 billion of business. It’s a small fraction of that. But it’s true to say the Health Science Center is at the hub of this growth. It’s hard to imagine any city having this kind of phenomenal growth in the health sciences without having an academic Health Science Center at the core. This is because the Health Science Center is partners with everybody. We’re partners with theTexas Biomedical Research Institute, the military, The University of Texas at San Antonio, with everybody. And I think it’s accurate to say the growth and the success of this sector of the city’s business would not have been either as fast or as successful without having 1,800 Health Science Center faculty, a $200 million research budget and the ability to collaborate along so many discipline levels. It creates a sense of excitement that is hard to replicate without having a wonderful university Health Science Center there. I don’t think there is a better example, and my colleagues around the country agree with this, of the value of what a Health Science Center has done for its city than San Antonio, Texas. I know when I network with people around the country they say, “When you look at what an academic Health Science Center brings to a city, you look no further than San Antonio.” In 40 short years, this industry has outstripped the tourism industry and the manufacturing industry in San Antonio. It’s not because the Health Science Center was responsible for every brick laid or every laboratory that was built, but it was an asset to the city. And hence Austin really wanted a medical school. Phoenix wanted a medical school. Charlotte wanted a medical school. These great cities in our country, which are growing and thriving, as a case study would look at San Antonio and say maybe we can have some of that kind of success. SHN: How does the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio work to commercialize technology coming out of the lab to create new ventures? WH: We’re expanding our tech-transfer operation and our efforts to bring, to company acquisition or formation, inventions of our faculty – new drugs, new therapies, new devices, etc. We’re the home of one of the most important innovations of the 21st century – the Palmaz Stent, invented by Health Science Center radiologist Dr. Julio Palmaz. SHN: What are the plans for expansion at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio? WH: In San Antonio, we are growing tremendously our School of Dentistry and our dental practice with a new building that is coming online. We are expanding our teaching space with a new state-ofthe-art learning and teaching center. We hope to renovate a large percentage of our older lab space and convert that into modern lab space. We’re always in the business of recruiting new faculty. That will be a major effort for us. On the clinical side, we have plans to grow our clinical business substantially in cooperation with a number of our hospital partners. It’s a very busy time despite the financial austerity that exists. All of it is devoted to getting resources to our wonderful faculty so they can be successful. We need to put resources into the hands of the people who are doing the work here.

Rending of the Dell Medical School as Viewed from Waller-Creek, courtesy of the University of Texas.

DELL MEDICAL SCHOOL DEAN EXPECTS OPPORTUNITIES FOR AUSTIN TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES By TIM GREEN, Reporter with Silicon Hills News

If the Dell Medical School were a startup, it would have cleared some important milestones. It’s funded. Construction has started on its campus. And it’s got a leader in Clay Johnston. Before being named dean of Dell Medical School,Johnston had been the associate vice president for research at the University of CaliforniaSan Francisco, one of the country’s top ranked medical schools.

SHN: What’s your pitch for hiringto staff a brand new medical school? CJ: It’s actually a pretty easy sales pitch. We’re really interested in people who see a better way forward, who see an opportunity to better provide health care, to provide better education in health care, to meet the innovation method of improving health more efficiently. Those are people who are often have been working hard to be creative or even transformative in their own institutions but are frustrated by the difficulty in making progress. So the opportunity in starting from the ground up is that you really can have much more control.

His roles at UCSF included developing programs to help get discoveries from research laboratories to the marketplace as director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

And it’s more than just an opportunity. It’s almost a responsibility. Academic medicine is pretty stodgy, slow to change and is fully engaged in some of the dysfunction of the current healthcare delivery system.We have a responsibility to take advantage of our newness to test out different ways of doing things that could become models for the rest of the country.

He’s also been involved with a couple of startups. One has been backed by Rock Health, a digital health technology accelerator in San Francisco.

That is an exciting startup to be a part of. It appears to be drawing the right type people, people who really want to make a difference.

On the job since March 1, Johnston has started work on a range of priorities: hiring, developing curriculum, getting the school accredited and supervising construction. All of which must be done by the time the school welcomes its first class of 50 students in fall 2016.

SHN: Have you had interactions with the tech community in San Francisco that helps getting the medical school started?

Beyond those issues, Johnston told Silicon Hills News,in an interview earlier this year, that he wants the school to play a role in the Central Texas economy. SiliconHillsNews: You’re leading what could be the biggest startup in Austin. Clay Johnston: It is definitely a startup, with the same sorts of issues and the same sorts of opportunities. The one nice thing is that it’s a startup that’s already through Series B funding in spite of just being a handful of employees right now. We’ll fix that pretty quickly.

CJ: I’ve been involved with a couple of startups myself. One of which died before it was funded and one that’s still struggling; that came through Rock Health. At UCSF, we set up systems to try to support people who had ideas for health products to get them to the startup stage. Sometimes to outlicensing stages and that included anything from biotech to technology devices, diagnostics, the whole range. I don’t have any personal stake in those but in creating the system to support them. This was a big part of my last job and I hope will be in important part of what the medical school does in Austin.

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The system we created at UCSF ended up working quite well, creating a nice community that brought together a variety of folks from various industries that impact the startup world including entrepreneurs but others as well. And then brought them together with clinicians and also with laboratory-based scientists. And again it worked well. SHN: What is an area of opportunity in health and medicine? CJ: For me a huge area of opportunity that no one has claimed yet is in digital health; in particular health technology companies from big data-type companies to personal sensor-type companies to clinician tools to assistants to clinicians and provision of care. That has been a rapidly growing are for venture capital, but no place has really assumed dominance. The Bay Area is probably in the best position to do so because of the venture capital here but Austin could really take a leadership position in that space. SHN: What does a medical school bring to the mix that helps bring ideas from the lab to the marketplace? CJ: There are a couple of ways that can happen. The ideas can come from the academic medical center and out into the community. That’s the traditional model for how this stuff happens. Basic science discovery that works its way out into a biotech company. That will definitely be an important role for the medical school over time, but it will be a while before we have even 100 faculty. And although we are clearly going to draw faculty that are more entrepreneurial and, I’m sure, of more technology focus because that’s a major focus of the school. It will still bea while before their ideas that they originate move out from the medical school. What we would like to do is think about the Dell Medical School being a bridge to the community where an entrepreneur may have an idea about a new digital health application and then we can help assess whether that’s a viable idea in the current health care system and help modify it to increase the likelihood that it’s successful. And potentially create the environment in which to test it and demonstrate its value. That’s similar to what we have done at UCSF and was really helpful. It’s more about creating these teams as opposed to creating the ideas. It’s assuring that you have the right expertise and laboratory in which to evaluate these interventions. That’s what we’re hoping to build at Dell Medical School. SHN: Have you been able to identify areas of research strength at UT Austin in places like the Department of Biomedical Engineering or College of Natural Sciences? CJ: It’s too early to say specifically, but I’ll just say there is a tremendous amount of opportunity in the schools you just mentioned and in others. In the computer science arena it’s just so ready to look for practical applications

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on the more clinical end of the spectrum. All the right tools are in place other than clinical informatics which needs to be developed at UT, but isn’t going to be a natural part of the medical school. In Natural Sciences, too, and in many other areas in the university there have been through the years fabulous discoveries, fabulous scientists and they are clamoring for translational medicine that’s going to allow them to move their discoveries out to become health improvements. That’s been a major part of my job at UCSF and is easy for me to imagine how we can create those supporting systems for UT. So I think there’s huge opportunity there and we will definitely take that on. SHN: How was the process of commercializing research conducted at UCSF? CJ: We created the UCSF Catalyst program. That program’s been going on for about three years. The return on investment in just research dollars alone gained from the program was on the order of tenfold so it’s been a highly successful program. We encourage ideas. Now we do it for the community but first it was just for UCSF core health products. They could be drugs, diagnostics, devices or digital health, in any of those spaces. And then we have the ideas vetted by experts on those areas. Venture capitalists, biotech CEOs, digital health company CEOs, IP attorneys who form these of review panels for us. They would judge not the science, but how promising the discovery was and how promising the idea for a health product was. Then a subset of those received consultational awards, we called them. Basically we would form a team around the proposer to figure out how best to move it forward. That team would work the proposer to optimize the idea. I can give you can example. There was a guy working on a drug for Kaposi sarcoma and the drug also worked for other herpes viruses. It was just that he had started on Kaposi sarcoma and the group had him do some projects to demonstrate that it could work HSV-1 (herpes simplex virus-1) and that changed an idea that was probably going to go nowhere because it didn’t have an adequate market potential to one that has tremendous market potential. He has gone on to get funding and move it forward. That was a simple but really important change that happened through the advice of that team. It has worked really well and also worked to change the culture both on the academic side and the community side. There are now 120 consultants who volunteer as part of the program. They’re getting value because they can see cutting edge science coming from the university but also because they’re networking with each other. And that’s definitely valuable to them. So it’s been a big win-win program. You could imagine that would work well in Austin, particularly around the digital health area but also in other areas.

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Founded in 2011, Geekdom moved into its own headquarters in the historic Rand building at 110 Houston St. this year. It occupies the seventh and sixth floors with plans to eventually take over the entire building. The new offices have bike racks, showers, lockers, and mailboxes, changing rooms, a nap room, kitchen and more.

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The Techstars Cloud program returns to Geekdom in early 2015 headed up by Blake Yeager. The program will begin accepting applications this fall.

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WiseWear featured in this issue operates out of Geekdom. Other startups at Geekdom include WP Engine, Pressable, Promoter.io, Storific, CodeUp, TrueAbility, Remote Garage, Monk’s Toolbox, VentureLab and Health eDesigns.

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Geekdom membership costs $50 per month or $200 monthly for a dedicated “tech startup desk” in an office.

Geekdom hosts events daily, weekly and monthly including San Antonio Startup Grind, 3Day Startup, SA New Tech, Startup Weekend, hackathons, Health 2.0, OpenStack meetups, Ruby Rebels, Agile Meetup, CodeUp Teens, Geekdom Game Night, the Crowning Moment and more.

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Geekdom last year opened another Geekdom location in San Francisco.

The first HeroX Challenge, an offshoot of the X-Prize, officially launched in San Antonio earlier this year. The two-year San Antonio MX Challenge is headed up by Jesus Salas at Geekdom and funded by Graham Weston and his 80/20 Foundation. The organization will award $500,000 to the person or group that bests fosters entrepreneurship between San Antonio and Mexico.

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Lorenzo Gomez is the director of Geekdom. Nick Longo and Graham Weston founded Geekdom.

The Geekdom Fund provides capital to early-stage entrepreneurs based at Geekdom.

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Geekdom members are required to give back one hour of their time every week to help someone else.

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ENTVANTAGE AIMS TO CURB ANTIBIOTICS WITH BETTER DIAGNOSTICS By Leslie Anne Jones, Reporter with Silicon Hills From left to right: Rick Hawkins, Dr. Subinoy Das, Joseph Skraba, photo by Leslie Anne Jones

Most sinus infections are viral and don’t require antibiotics. But how can a patient and doctor be sure? Presently,a family doctor can’t quickly diagnose his patient’s sinus infection as viral or bacterial. ENTvantage Diagnostics aims to change that with an in-office nose swab that will give results to physicians and patients within 15 minutes. Too often unnecessary drugs are prescribed to put the patient’s mind at rest, and to cover the doctor from liability on the small chance the infection is in fact bacterial. However, mistreatment can cause chronic sinus problems for patients, and antibiotic over prescription contributes to the growing threat of drugresistant bacteria worldwide. In April, the World Health Organization released a report on antibiotic resistance. The survey found that treatment resistance for common infections was increasingly common in many regions, resulting in people remaining sick longer, with an increased likelihood of death. ENTvantagewants to secure $1 million in funding. Once received, chief medical officer Dr. Subinoy Das estimates the venture will be able to finish engineering the diagnostic swab and be ready for clinical trials in 18-24 months. Das, an Ohio-based researcher and one of the nation’s top sinus surgeons, has been working toward a diagnostic solution for about five years. In some ways his scientific quest is personal: Das used to play baseball and was hit in the face with a line drive that gave him sinus problems. As a teen, he attended prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, which allowed him to intern with the Department of Defense at a laboratory developing battlefield diagnostics. This gave him experience translating existing scientific knowledge to practical use. In his undergrad, Das was exposed to pure scientific research, after which he went on to attend medical school. “I joined a relatively unique career-path of people known as clinicianscientists,” Das said, explaining that the medical field typically produces researchers who lack clinical experience and doctors with little research background.Because of his combined education, when Das began his career as a rhinologist, he made it his goal to find a practical solution for the most pressing

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problem in the field, which he believed to be that doctors don’t know if their patients have bacterial or viral sinus infections. It’s not just the systemic problem of antibiotic over-prescription that makes this a pressing issue. Improper treatment of sinus infections can lead to chronic problems that might one day require surgery. Sinus surgery is highly invasive, it involves peeling the face down and cracking open the skull, and since the sinuses are so close to the eyes and brain, there is risk of injury. “Our diagnostics will give patients and doctors more confidence to withhold antibiotics when they aren’t needed,” Das said. The diagnostic kit Das has been developing works by identifying bacterial proteins present in the nose that indicate the cause of infection. In the lab at Ohio State University, the test proved highly effective on chinchillas, which have immune systems similar to humans because they hail from the Andes Mountains where there’s little exposure to bacteria. Austin-based serial entrepreneur and CEO of LumosPharma Rick Hawkins attended a presentation by Das at the university and was impressed. “The technology solves a really critical problem,” he said. Hawkins is part of ENTvantage’s board of directors. The venture’s president is Joseph Skraba, who has been bringing medical devices to market for 30 years. Presently, the company is finalizing a licensing deal with Ohio State University. The company will be based in Austin, where both Hawkins and Skraba are located. Once funding is secured, ENTvantage will hire employees and also engage development partners. The company already has a prototype with some basic engineering, but it needs to be refined. If the product makes it to market, Skraba for one is optimistic about adoption. He cited strep throat as a relevant example: Before rapid strep tests were available, antibiotics for strep throat were prescribed with much greater frequency, though only about 30 percent of people who visit doctors with sore throats have the infection. With sinusitis, it’s only about 10 percent of cases that have a true bacterial infection. Each year, about 30 million people in the United States are diagnosed with sinusitis, so the potential for ENTvantage to cut down on the superfluous use of antibiotics is huge.

TEXAS BIOMED EXPANDS IN SAN ANTONIO By Jonathan Gutierrez, Reporter with Silicon Hills News (All photos courtesy of the Texas Biomedical Research Institute)

When Thomas B. Slick Jr. founded the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in 1941, San Antonio was a ranching and oil town. The city didn’t have a medical school or graduate program for biomedical sciences. Slick Jr. envisioned a “city of science” in south Texas that could be a “great center for human progress through scientific research.” “(Slick Jr.) was an extraordinary visionary,” said Kenneth Trevett, former president and CEO of the Texas Biomedical Research Institute. “Now, San Antonio has a medical school, healthcare systems, and significant research organizations.” What makes Texas Biomed particularly special is the combination of scientific research programs it has. Texas Biomed has a nationally designated non-human primate research center and is also the only private institution to own a biosafety level 4 maximum containment center to study deadly pathogens which have no known treatment or vaccine.

In addition, Texas Biomed has its department of genetics, which works to advance human health through biomedical research with animal and human populations. This team works to figure out how individual genes influence a given disease and try to develop cures and methods for disease prevention. The group particularly focuses on the influence of genetic and environmental factors on heart disease, obesity, diabetes, psychiatric disease, parasitic infections, and osteoporosis. Texas Biomed’s employees include a doctoral staff of 85, a technical support staff of more than 120 and 200 general and administrative support employees. The institute just completed one goal of expanding its facilities. It recently opened a 70,000 square foot laboratory and scientific support building, which will serve as the face of the 200-acre campus. The building provides eight new laboratories for the institute’s primate research center and has allowed the institute to grow its research into stem cell use. Another goal the institute has is to interact more with the .armaceutical and biotechnology industries. “We want to not only transfer some of our technology from the

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laboratory into the commercial marketplace, but also, we’re looking for diversified basis support,” Trevett said. “Industry relations and interacting with clinical research organizations is important.” Robert W. Gracy, Ph.D, was recently named Texas Biomed’s interim president and CEO. A few years ago, he was on the governor’s commission to determine what Texas needed to become competitive in the biotechnology industry. He said he began to help develop centers in Houston and Dallas before his work moved him to San Antonio. “The San Antonio and Austin area is one of the major places for biotech development,” Gracy said. “It’s moving along very fast. We also have additional partners with the military who have an interest in biotechnologies from the medical standpoint.” Bernard Arulanandam, Ph.D, assistant vice president of research support at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said Texas Biomed has always been collaborative with UTSA. “They’re the foundation that does high-quality research in genetics, infectious diseases, and virology,” he said. “Most of the investigators at Texas Biomed work very closely with the (UTSA) Health Science Center and at UTSA they also provide a training ground for all of our students to actually partake in daily research they do. Texas Biomed promotes biomedical research while working closely with both of the UT components in San Antonio.” The institute is home to the largest baboon colony, which the scientists at the institute have kept genetic and medical histories for seven generations. This colony’s history dates back 40 years and serves as an integral part in the institute’s genetic research endeavors. In addition to baboons, the institute also has a colony of chimpanzees and opossums.

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Jean L. Patterson, Ph.D, chair for the virology and immunology department at Texas Biomed, said her department works on projects some other organizations would rather not do. “We work with high containment as well as animals and the community is supportive of that,” Patterson said. “We’ve been very fortunate to stay funded at a time when other organizations are suffering from a drop in federal funds.” Texas Biomed operates on an annual fund of nearly $55 million. Competitive, peer-reviewed grants from the National Institutes of Health and other funding agencies funds two-thirds of its budget. Another 11 percent comes from contracts with biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms. The contributions of foundations, corporations, and earnings from the institute’s permanent endowments provide for the remaining expenses. The institute’s major contributors who help advance its mission are The Argyle, a stately southern mansion and prestigious private club devoted to supporting Texas Biomed, as well as partners in the San Antonio community who donate funds and help raise awareness of the institute through participation with the Golden Circle, Benefactor Circle, President’s Circle, Chairman’s Circle, Founder’s Council, and the Forum.

iTraumaCare’s Clamp Stems Bleeding and Saves Lives By Laura Lorek, Founder of Silicon Hills News One of the leading causes of death among trauma patients is the failure to control bleeding. Innovative Trauma Care, known as iTraumaCare, a medical device maker with its U.S. headquarters in San Antonio and also based in Edmonton, Canada, has come up with a solution. It makes the iTClamp50, a clamp that grips the skin and creates a seal that allows blood to clot rapidly beneath the skin where it is applied to stop the bleeding. “In a matter of seconds you’ve sealed off the wound,” said Phil Faris, iTraumaCare’s CEO and Chairman of the Board. The iTClamp50 has already received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for use on the arms and legs, the axilla, the groin area and the scalp, Faris said. “This is a technology that can be deployed with frontline medical personnel both in the hospital and in the field,” Faris said. “We feel if this technology is deployed properly, it can make a significant impact on patient outcomes and in many instances may be life saving.” iTraumaCare began selling the device last October. The product is being used in the U.S. and Canada. Also, iTraumaCare is selling the device in Europe and the Middle East. “We’re in 26 countries right now,” Faris said. The one-time use sterilized device costs $79 per clamp and covers a two-inch wound. They can be stacked together to cover a larger wound.. It’s just being deployed to ambulances and E.M.S. vehicles and fire equipment. San Antonio is one of the cities planning on using the device, Faris said. Some Special Forces medics in the military are also using it, Faris said. It’s being evaluated by the military for the first aid kit that the soldiers carry into the battlefield, he said. “It’s very simple when you look at it but that simplicity can make it widely adopted and deployed,” Faris said. The iTClamp50 covers an estimated 50 percent to 60 percent of the wounds a medic would normally encounter in trauma situations, Faris said. Dr. Dennis Filips and Dr. Ian Atkinson founded the company in 2010. Filips, previously served as a trauma surgeon with the Canadian forces and saw the need for a device to quickly and effectively stop bleeding in trauma situations. He came up with the clamp, which replaced gauze pads and pressure applied by combat medics in the field. It also replaces the immediate need for suturing. After his last tour of duty in Afghanistan, Filips worked with the Institute

Dr. Ian Atkinson, Dr. Dennis Filips, co-founders of Innovative Trauma Care and Phil Faris, CEO and Chairman of the Board.

for Surgical Research in San Antonio, but he couldn’t train the medics to do what needed to be done under fire. After Filips’ last tour of duty in Afghanistan, he worked to train medics in the field that were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan, but he found the training to be difficult. He wanted to create a product that could be used on the front lines, Faris said. He came up with the clamp, which replaced gauze pads and pressure applied by combat medics in the field. It also replaces the immediate need for suturing. “This is the device that came from that experience,” he said. Last November, iTraumaCare closed on a Series B round of funding and has raised $13.5 million to date, according to Crunchbase. Targeted Technology is the lead investor in iTraumaCare. The rest of the investment has come from high net worth individuals in San Antonio, Faris said. iTraumaCare has 23 employees. The Edmonton office has just five employees the rest are employed by the San Antonio based company, Faris said. Faris expects to hire ten employees over the next year. “We will continue to hire as we scale up,” he said. The iTClamp is based on a medical platform technology with a whole series of devices coming behind it to manage bleeding, Faris said. Faris previously served as CEO of Vidacare, a medical device company in San Antonio. He knows how to take a product to market and grow its sales into the millions. That’s one of the key reasons iTraumaCare located in San Antonio. In the past, the two things missing in San Antonio were key executive talent and money. Now because of the successes of companies like Osteobiologics, ENTrigue Surgical and Vidacare, the talent pool is stronger here. And the capital is flowing more into medical technology startups, Faris said. “Most of us are driven by improving patient outcomes,” Faris said. “That’s why we get into a business that is as hard, as being in the healthcare side of the world, as opposed to doing websites. We’re trying to make a difference in patient care.”

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ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES TODAY for a Healthier Tomorrow Thanks to the Austin Chamber’s Innovate Austin initiative, we are creating a region of both established and emerging companies that are changing the face of healthcare today for a healthier tomorrow. To learn more about how Innovate Austin is supporting the growth of Austin’s life science cluster and to get involved in this game changing innovation evolution, go to austinchamber.com/innovation and sign up for our innovation & entrepreneurship newsletter.

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BioMed SA is a non-profit, membership-based organization, supported in part by the City of San Antonio.

History is created by those fighting for a brighter future. San Antonio has a rich history of courage and innovation. Driven by visionaries seeking to improve the human condition. People like Dr. Julio Palmaz of the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, who invented the first commercially successful intravascular stent, recognized as one of “Ten Patents that Changed the World.” Thanks to people like Dr. Palmaz, San Antonio has gained a worldwide reputation for life-saving innovation. Join us for the 9th Annual Julio Palmaz Award Dinner in San Antonio on September 18, honoring innovation in healthcare and the biosciences. Come see who will be writing the next chapter in our stirring history.

Discover the City of Science and Health at biomedsa.org

BioMed SA is a non-profit, membership-based organization, supported in part by the City of San Antonio.

HEROES CHAMPIONED SAN ANTONIO. THEY STILL DO. San Antonio was founded by larger than life heroes who gave their lives for something bigger than themselves. Today as America’s 7th largest city, San Antonio is a leader in trauma care, wound healing and regenerative medicine to benefit the nation’s wounded warriors and civilians alike. Through our collaborative spirit, we are combining a diversity of talent and unique research assets that are making a global impact on science, health and life itself. Which is why innovations that save lives around the world are being developed here.

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