Interns make strides in real world entrepreneurship
by Julianna Parker
The Norman Transcript
April 27, 2008

A drug that treats kidney disease, a drug that prevents blindness and nanotechnology that makes fabric repel water.

What do these three products have in common? Each was assigned this spring to an intern team with the University of Oklahoma's Center for Creation of Economic Wealth.

The groups of four or five interns spent the past semester developing the products, which were invented by an OU faculty member. The student interns submitted a grant proposal, located other funding, visited a fabric mill and talked to industry leaders.

The students got real-world experience as they helped move a new technology forward.

The interns outlined what they did this semester and their recommendations for the future of the product Tuesday evening at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.

The Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth was established almost two years ago. Student intern teams are selected each semester to create new start-up companies from new OU technologies. The interns work with mentors in the industry and with the inventor to move the product forward.

Daniel Pullin, associate vice president and CCEW executive director, said the program is selective -- there are usually three times the number of applicants to the program as spots available. He praised the interns' work.

"They're very bright in the classroom but they have street smarts, horse sense," he said.

They're doing jobs in the real world, "very uncommon experiences for most 18-24-year-olds," Pullin said.

He said this round of interns is one of CCEW's most remarkable.

"Just the amount of creativity that runs through these 13 individuals is something I'll never forget," he said.

After Pullin opened the event Tuesday evening, the three intern teams presented their semester work through PowerPoint. The 13 student interns, from all parts of the country and nearly every discipline, dressed professionally. As they spoke about their projects, one almost forgot they weren't professional entrepreneurs -- but then their excitement betrayed them.

"We are proud of our work, we're excited to have shared it with you tonight," intern Kristin Weed said.

Weed's team focused this semester on Nantiox, a drug that could prevent age-related blindness. The technology, invented by James McGinnis, professor in the Departments of Cell Biology and Ophthalmology at OU Health Sciences Center, proposes the use of cerium oxide nanoparticles that would protect retinal cells from being damaged by reactive oxygen species.

The intern team of Weed, Michael Harrison, Robert Hefner and Michael Sarchet started talks with the FDA to make sure their development was on track. They developed a toxicology test model that would include 756 tests. The team also applied for a Small Business Technology Transfer Grant.

Some of the team members are going to visit the Small Pharmaceutical Business Assistant Educational Forum Tuesday in Dallas.

They followed up with some of the work the previous semester's intern team did with the product.

Another team that followed a CCEW team billed themselves as "Team Cotton." They worked with Synthesized Nano Coatings, which uses nanotechnology to coat fabric, making it repel liquids. The product coats each individual fiber, which lets the fabric maintain its original feel.

The product was invented by Edgar O'Rear III, Francis W. Winn professor of chemical, biological and materials engineering and director of the OU Bioengineering Center.

Before the evening began, team member Laleh Chafi asked each guest to feel two different fabrics and say if they could tell which one was coated with the liquid-repellent coating and which was uncoated. Most people said they couldn't tell the difference, and the others were about evenly split between the two fabrics.

This semester, the team of Chafi, Tyler Bolton, Michael Linville and Steven Watts met with industry leaders to develop a business model. They also identified a toll manufacturer for the product.

A new product for CCEW this year was a kidney disease treatment. The drug Renephron focuses on a synthetic Vitamin A retinoid compound and could be a treatment for polycystic kidney disease.

The drug was invented by Doris Benbrook, professor and director of research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the OU Health Sciences Center.

There is no treatment for polycystic kidney disease, even though it's the largest genetic disease in the U.S. Right now, the only option is to wait until one's kidneys go into end-stage renal failure, then either have a kidney transplant or undergo dialysis.

The interns, Matthew Brown, Adam Croom, Amber Edwards, Julie French and Sam Galoob, started from scratch with this project.

They researched the market for the drug and projected the possible revenue opportunities. They started a dialogue between the inventor and the head of OUHSC. They developed a research plan and evaluated possible grants.

Nantiox and the water-repellent compound have been CCEW projects for several semesters. Interns have taken the products from mere patents to legitimate start-up companies on the road to success.

This was the last semester interns will work with those two companies. The mentors-in-residence for the projects spoke briefly at the end of the evening.

Dr. Lloyd Hildebrand, co-founder and president/CEO of Inoveon Corporation, worked with the interns on Nantiox.

He said he always tells people the great thing about the interns is they're too young to know what they can't do, so they go ahead and do things others wouldn't expect.

"They managed to exceed my expectations in almost every round," he said.

Source Article:
http://www.normantranscript.com/commerce/local_story_118002118?start:int=0

The Norman Transcript, 2008

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