2008
Collaborative Cancer Research Initiative (CCRI), Kansas City, Kansas
The KBA will fund 10 to 15 awards totaling up to $2.5 million for cancer researchers across the country who partner with Kansas researchers on projects that leverage the state’s expertise and facilities. The initiative will enhance cancer research excellence in Kansas and nationally by introducing investigators to the state’s research facilities and strong expertise in drug discovery, delivery, and development. Academic, federal, and non-profit researchers will collaborate with Kansas scientists at the University of Kansas Cancer Center and elsewhere to perform cancer research not possible at their home institutions.
(6/5/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: Additional private and federal research spending.
ImmunoGenetix Therapeutics, Lenexa, Kansas
The KBA awarded a $420,000 convertible note to ImmunoGenetix to support the development of its therapeutic vaccine for HIV designed to inhibit viral replication by enhancing antibody and cellular immune response. The company’s approach has the potential to reduce dependency on anti-HIV drug cocktails and diminish the emergence of drug-resistant HIV strains.
(6/5/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: $420,000 in private investment capital.
OsteoGeneX, Kansas City, Kansas
The KBA awarded $375,000 for the further development of a groundbreaking treatment to stop the advance of osteoporosis and related bone disorders. This grant, which is a partial match of a federal NIH/NIAMS Small Business Innovation Research grant, is OsteoGeneX’s second award from the KBA, following a $130,000 grant last year that resulted in the identification of several bone-building small molecules.
(6/5/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: $995,000 in federal research funding.
TVAX Biomedical, Lenexa, Kansas
The KBA awarded $187,622 to TVAX Biomedical for a clinical trial of a unique cancer treatment that uses a patient’s own immune cells to fight the disease.
(6/5/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: Progress in the FDA approval process.
Ventria Bioscience, Junction City, Kansas
The KBA awarded a $3.75 million convertible note as part of a $7.5 million financing plan to expand operations, including an increase in employment and expanded production capacity in Kansas. The financing will help the company prepare for the commercial launch of its pediatric health product, which was clinically shown to shorten the duration of acute childhood diarrhea, the second leading killer of children under the age of 5, claiming 2 million lives annually on a global basis. The company’s patented protein expression technology, ExpressTec, is highly efficient and uses rice as a biological factory to produce protein-based products for human health and nutrition.
(6/5/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: $3.75 million in private investment and 19 full-time jobs and seven part-time jobs.
Vince and Associates Clinical Research, Overland Park, Kansas
The KBA awarded $200,000 to expand the company’s pharmaceutical clinical research trials capacity to meet significant increases in the demand for clinical studies. The expansion doubles floor space with a dedicated 50-bed clinical research facility for Phase I trials.
(6/5/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: More than $1 million in private capital investment and 38 full- and part-time employees over the next three years.
BioMedical Entrepreneurial Research Incubator Renovation Project, Kansas City, Kansas
The KBA awarded $2 million to partially match a $3 million grant awarded by the federal government to create new wet-lab incubator space at KU Medical Center’s Breidenthal Research Building. The addition will help area start-up companies grow and stay in Kansas as they develop new drugs and medical devices that will not only help improve human health but expand the state’s economy.
(4/8/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: $4 million in additional capital investment and a projected 136 new jobs and 26 companies, with 16 of the companies graduating from the incubator into other space, generating $40 million in revenue plus $10 million annually going forward.
Via Christi Health System and Wichita State University Eminent Scholar, Wichita, Kansas
The KBA awarded up to $911,954 over five years to attract eminent scholar Dr. Paul Wooley to Kansas to create an orthopedic immunogenetic laboratory to study the biocompatibility of composite implants, with the goal of developing alternatives to the metal joints used today in knee and hip replacements, which weaken bone mass and often require additional replacements over time. Dr. Wooley’s specialties include the pathology and treatment of connective tissue diseases, biocompatibility, tissue engineering, and gene therapy. He will serve as director of research at Via Christi’s Orthopaedic Research Institute and research professor at Wichita State University.
(4/8/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: Approximately $5 million in research funding over a five-year period and additional investment of $6.48 million.
Biosecurity Research Institute Training and Education Enhancement, Manhattan, Kansas
The KBA awarded $1,548,000 to implement technologies at the Biosecurity Research Institute (BRI) at Kansas State University and enhance the ability to offer distance educational programming via satellite or over the Internet. The BRI’s integrated training suite (ITS) is a combined modern classroom and fully functional laboratory with all the equipment common to a biosafety level 3 research laboratory. With additional technologies, the ITS will become a functioning educational studio permitting the BRI learning experience to include the production of professional-level DVDs of training programs. The BRI training and education DVDs will be offered for national and international distribution, further demonstrating leadership in this arena and greatly extending the impact of K-State. This leadership in biosecurity education and training will serve as a national resource for training the staff that will occupy the proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility.
(2/26/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: Enhance the BRI as an attractor for the NBAF, for new bio-businesses, and additional research programs for the BRI. At just 27 percent occupancy, the ITS could generate $564,300 per year in revenue, and, with training and education programs in the lecture hall at a 57 percent occupancy rate, there is a potential to generate $945,000 per year in funding.
Kansas Bioscience Innovation Center for Advanced Plant Design, Manhattan, Kansas
The KBA awarded a $200,000 planning grant for the Kansas Innovation Center for Advanced Plant Design. Proposed by the Kansas Wheat Commission, the center will focus on the emerging commercial opportunities for wheat, sorghum, small grains, and native plants and grasses. It will accelerate scientific discoveries and innovation in plant bioscience such as commercialization of sustainable, drought-tolerant, high-yielding varieties; foods with reduced allergenicity; new food products that are rich in anti-oxidants and cancer-fighting components; plant-derived medicines; and high bio-mass plants optimized for cellulosic bio-fuel production. Facilities for the center will be headquartered at Kansas State University in Manhattan, collaborating with existing research programs at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
(1/16/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: A business plan to create a center of innovation for plant sciences.
Kansas Bioscience Innovation Center in Drug Delivery, Lawrence, Kansas
The KBA awarded a $180,000 planning grant for the proposed Kansas Bioscience Innovation Center in Drug Delivery (KBICDD) to transform outstanding drug-delivery capabilities at the University of Kansas into a completely integrated, high-performance, world-class drug-delivery organization. It is anticipated that the KBICDD will be a subsidiary of the Kansas University Center for Research, and KU plans to form the KBICDD based on a core concept of industry collaboration. The KBICDD also has secured the support and participation during the planning grant phase of virtually every drug discovery institution in the region, including both public and private research institutes; a wide range of biotechnology, biopharmaceutical, and drug specialty companies; contract research organizations; and animal health companies.
(1/16/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: A business plan to create a center of innovation for drug delivery.
Kansas Center for Biomaterials Innovation and Design, Wichita, Kansas
The KBA awarded a $200,000 planning grant for a proposed Kansas Center for Biomaterials Innovation and Design (KCBID) to establish a premier Kansas-based institution for biomaterials research and education and commercialization of the research into innovative medical devices. The lead applicants of this planning grant proposal are the University of Kansas and Wichita State University, in collaboration with Pittsburg State University’s Polymer Research Institute, the Research Centers of Via Christi Health System, and over 20 other private industries, educational institutions, and public organizations. The technology platforms in which KCBID will focus are development of biomaterials and medical devices for the dental and orthopedic (including spine) fields, with a secondary complementary focus on medical imaging, tissue engineering and combination products.
(1/16/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: A business plan to create a center of innovation for biomaterials.
Kansas State University Eminent Scholar, Manhattan, Kansas
The KBA awarded up to $2,055,000 over five years to establish Dr. Juergen Richt (DVM, PhD) as a Regents distinguished professor at Kansas State University. Dr. Richt will have a primary faculty appointment in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, an academic unit of the College of Veterinary Medicine. He is expected to be a campus and statewide asset, providing animal health research leadership with investigators in the College of Veterinary Medicine, the university and the state. Dr. Richt’s infectious disease work requires a combination of BSL-3/BSL-3Ag biocontainment to be conducted in the Biosecurity Research Institute at K-State. He has been a lead scientist at the National Animal Disease Center (in the Virus and Prion Diseases of Livestock Research Unit) and a professor at Iowa State University. He is involved in cutting-edge research in two high-impact areas, prion diseases and influenza, and has established a strong reputation in the basic science of borna viruses and vaccines and diagnostics for other key viral diseases.
(1/16/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: Approximately $4 million in research funding over five years.
Pinnacle Technology, Lawrence, Kansas
The KBA awarded up to $375,000 to Pinnacle Technologies, a Lawrence-based company that specializes in wireless, Web-enabled sensor conditioning, data acquisition, and biotechnology products, to develop real-time wireless monitoring and data acquisition systems for use in studying the brain activity of mice and rats. This technology will provide researchers with new tools to use in understanding the effects of degenerative brain disorders and developing cures for those disorders.
(1/16/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: Nine new employees and $879,290 in federal research funding
University of Kansas Eminent Scholar, Lawrence, Kansas
The KBA awarded $5 million over five years to attract Dr. Blake Peterson to a tenured position in the KU School of Pharmacy. He will teach at both the professional and graduate level in the department of medicinal chemistry; develop and maintain an active research program; train graduate, undergraduate and postdoctoral students; and develop research collaborations across different disciplines within KU. Dr. Peterson is important to KU’s cancer drug discovery program, which is the heart of KU’s strategy for gaining National Cancer Institute designation as a cancer center. KBA funds would be used to assist in providing lab space, along with assistance from the KU Cancer Center. Dr. Peterson also has a high interest in technology transfer and commercialization. He is the founder of Indigo Biosciences, a preclinical contract research organization servicing clients involved in pharmaceutical R&D, biotechnology, and related sectors. Dr. Peterson has filed for 12 patent disclosures and been awarded over $7.2 million in NCI funding.
(1/16/2008).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: An estimated $22 million in research funding over 10 years.
Edenspace Systems Corporation, Junction City, Kansas
The KBA awarded $40,000 to support Edenspace’s breakthroughs in lowering processing costs and increasing yields of biofuels from sorghum, corn, and switchgrass. The KBA funding will serve as a 50 percent match to a Small Business Innovation Research grant the company has been awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
(11/26/2007).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: $80,000 in federal research funding.
Edenspace Systems Corporation, Junction City, Kansas
The KBA awarded $50,000 to support Edenspace’s breakthroughs in lowering processing costs and increasing yields of biofuels from sorghum, corn, and switchgrass. The KBA funding will serve as a 50 percent match to a Small Business Innovation Research grant the company has been awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
(11/26/2007).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: 50 percent match
Collaborative Biosecurity Research Initiative, Manhattan, Kansas
The KBA has launched a $2.5 million Collaborative Biosecurity Research Initiative (CBRI) to bring together researchers nationwide to create products that protect Americans from the intentional use of animal-borne diseases to disrupt the national economy or to infect humans. The goal of the CBRI is to support inter-institutional research to: 1) develop counter-measures for foreign-animal diseases; 2) provide advanced test and evaluation capability for threat detection, vulnerability, and countermeasure assessment for animal and zoonotic diseases; 3) support licensure of vaccine countermeasures through essential animal-model testing and evaluation; and 4) strengthen biosecurity capabilities of institutions serving certain regions and populations.
(9/28/2007).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: The CBRI will introduce the unique biosecurity research capabilities and facilities at Kansas State University to investigators nationally and develop strategic alliances to promptly confront animal- and public-health threats by leveraging multi-disciplinary expertise.
CritiTech, Lawrence, Kansas
The KBA awarded $264,048 under the Bioscience Tax Investment Incentive Program to support CritiTech’s manufacture of fine-particle pharmaceuticals through a process known as precipitation with compressed antisolvent. The company is pursuing an investigational new drug application for its new product Nanotax.
(9/28/2007).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: 25 to 30 new employees, $750,000 in private investment, and $400,000 in federal research funding.
Kansas Environmental Management Associates, Topeka, Kansas
The KBA awarded a $312,500 research and development voucher to Kansas Environmental Management Associates (KEMA) for a collaboration with the Advanced Manufacturing Institute to develop, construct, and operate a farm-scale phosphorous recovery system to remove up to 75 percent of the phosphorous from cattle feedlot lagoon water. KEMA has been leading an effort in conjunction with the AMI of Kansas State University to address the growing concern of excess nutrient level accumulation on farmland, specifically, phosphorous accumulation.
(9/28/2007).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: 26 new employees and $65,000 in research funding.
KansasBIO, Kansas
Assistance supports Kansas’ outreach and attraction activities at the annual BIO International Convention, the preeminent gathering of tens of thousands of bioscientists and business and a key Kansas marketing opportunity.
(9/28/2007).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: Outreach and Attraction Activities
Thermo Fisher Scientific / Remel, Lenexa, Kansas
The KBA awarded $1.25 million to Thermo Fisher Scientific for the expansion of its Lenexa operations, which manufactures and distributes Remel products. The company is a global manufacturer of a wide range of high-quality microbiology products used in clinical, industrial, research, and academic laboratories.
(9/28/2007).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: 90 to 180 new employees and $7 to $12 million in capital expenditures.
City of Emporia, Kansas / Renewable Energy Group, Emporia, Kansas
The KBA awarded $300,000 over 10 years to the City of Emporia to support the attraction of Renewable Energy Group, the nation’s leader in biodiesel marketing, which plans to build a commercial-scale, multiple feedstock biodiesel production facility in Emporia. When the facility opens, Renewable Energy Group’s biodiesel network is slated to market more than 310 million gallons of biodiesel a year.
(7/10/2007).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: Approximately 30 new employees and $65 million in capital expenditures.
Fort Dodge Animal Health, Overland Park, Kansas
The KBA awarded $3.5 million and 30 acres of land in the Kansas Bioscience Park to Fort Dodge Animal Health for the expansion of its North American research and development laboratories in Olathe, Kansas.
(7/10/2007).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: 215 new employees and approximately $39 million in capital expenditures.
Innovia Medical, Lenexa, Kansas
The KBA awarded $300,000 equity investment to Innovia, plus up to an additional $350,000 if matched by Kansas private equity investors, to commercialize an FDA-approved product called EarCheck, which utilizes the only technology for the rapid detection of middle ear fluid, a key indication of ear infections (7/10/07).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: Three new employees in addition to $100,000 in capital expenditures and $3.1 million in investment capital.
(7/10/2007).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: $100,000 in federal research funding.
KC BioMediX, Shawnee, Kansas
The KBA awarded KC BioMediX a $150,000 convertible debenture to help commercialize technologies developed at the University of Kansas for the care and treatment of infants born prematurely, particularly assisting with the problem of non-nutritive sucking. KC BioMediX has licensed the sole rights to commercialize the technologies and devices described in two patent applications.
(7/10/2007).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: Approximately 99 new employees $607,000 in capital expenditures, and $1.45 million in investment capital.
OsteoGeneX, Kansas City, Kansas
The KBA awarded $130,000 to OsteoGeneX for the development of a small molecule inhibitor of the new bone anabolic target sclerostin (SOST) for the treatment of osteoporosis and related bone disorders. Through genomic approaches, sclerostin was identified as a master regulator of bone mass affecting men and women. Using proteomic approaches, OsteoGeneX discovered and patented sclerostin’s mechanism of action. Since then, the work was awarded a NIH Phase I SBIR proof-of-concept grant to screen a small molecule library for compounds blocking SOST function.
(7/10/2007).
Expected or Realized Outcomes: Collaboration with the University of Kansas to identify the dosing of authenticated lead candidates and begin animal and clinical trials; approximately eight new employees; and $134,000 in federal research funding.