"In just two years, 18 companies have been formed around Penn State technology, and several are hiring employees and generating revenue," says Donald McCandless, Ben Franklin program director.
He cites Ascent Bio-Nano Technologies LLC as an example of one that is already gaining a foothold in the market. Ascent Bio-Nano formed around the bionanotechnology research of Tony Jun Huang, professor of engineering science and mechanics and an affiliate of Penn State's Huck Institutes for the Life Sciences. The Ascent Bio-Nano team, which includes company CEO Lin Wang, successfully developed a technology that uses acoustic waves to sort cells on a chip. By changing the frequency of the waves, a researcher can alter the path of the cells and sort them into several channels. The chips can produce three-dimensional focusing of a stream of cells, thus making it possible for inexpensive portable devices to rapidly screen cells for diseases such as leukemia or HIV. Using sound waves for cell sorting is much less likely to cause damage to the cells than other techniques and will not produce gases that require extra handling precautions.
To date the Ascent Bio-Nano principals have filed for seven U.S. patents and been awarded two invention disclosures. Not only has the company received a National Science Foundation grant, but it also has signed R&D contracts with two industry partners and is negotiating a potential license agreement.
"That type of activity and attention for an emerging startup is amazing, but for the graduates of Ben Franklin's TechCelerator Boot Camps, it's becoming the norm," says McCandless, who offers additional examples of success.
A California-based foundation, Vodafone Americas, made an award to Zhiwen Liu, associate professor of electrical engineering, and Perry Edwards, CEO of Atoptix, who jointly developed an affordable, high-performance optical spectrometer. Their innovation -- the G-Fresnel Cell-Phone Spectrometer -- is not only compact and affordable, but has a broad range of applications, such as breast cancer detection, monitoring surgical wounds and color analysis for assisting people with color blindness.
Nina Jenkins and her business partner, Giovani Bellicanta, both researchers in Penn State's Department of Entomology, developed a patent-pending, non-toxic bio-pesticide aimed at a market that is estimated at about $11 billion. Jenkins and Bellicanta are in discussions with a large pest control organization. Their company, Conidiotec, has an option signed for manufacturing space in Centre County and has its first investors lined up.
In June 2014, Ben Franklin's TechCelerator graduated another class, and among companies sharing in the prize money was Trans Cell Conversion Technology, which has patent-pending technology that effectively treats brain injuries and neuro-degenerative disorders. Trans Cell was formed by Gong Chen, who holds the Verne M. Willaman Chair in Life Sciences in the Department of Biology. The company's gene and small-molecule therapy regenerates specific sub-types of neurons in order to target a variety of disorders including Alzheimer's disease and the effects of a stroke.
"The dozens of Penn State researchers, faculty members and students -- as well as potential entrepreneurs from the local community -- who came to any of Ben Franklin's TechCelerator programs and seminars in the past two years, should receive a hearty round of applause," says Brawley. "It takes guts to put your ideas out for criticism, even when it is constructive."
Boot Camp participants had research and business interests ranging from the development of diagnostic tools, to pesticides, to gene therapy, and innovative farming equipment. Regardless of the spectrum of industries represented and the myriad backgrounds of the potential entrepreneurs, the graduates came away with one thing in common -- they all have gone from Research to Startup.
About Ben Franklin's TechCelerator
Located in the Technology Center at 200 Innovation Boulevard in State College, the BF TechCelerator @ State College is a partnership among several of the area's premier business service providers that offers budding entrepreneurs loan and investment programs, one-on-one business mentoring, designated workspace and entrepreneurial training all housed in one location. For more information, visit www.techceleratorstatecollege.org