Category: News & Events

For more than 13 years, Georgia Bio has organized and hosted Georgia’s premier bioscience and medtech conference. The Georgia Bio Innovation Summit welcomed over 600 CEOs, senior executives, scientists, and public policy officials from Georgia and across the nation to learn about exciting opportunities in Georgia, discuss current topics impacting the industry, and commiserate. The 2015 edition of the Summit took place on Monday, November 2nd at the Cobb Galleria, and the enthusiasm and excitement surrounding the Georgia life sciences community was electric in spite of the rainy weather. This year’s Summit had a decidedly “data” focus as both keynote addresses focused on harnessing big data in the healthcare sector and it’s potential to impact our industries. Emory and the OTT staff had the opportunity to participate, with our team representing the university in the exhibit hall, and a number of our startup companies presenting during the Georgia Bioscience Co. Showcase. This included Emory Startups, Metaclipse Therapeutics, Microbial Medical, Cambium Medical Technologies, and Accuitis (for more info on Emory startup companies see here). Since a number of our OTTers were in attendance, we’ve crowdsourced a number of takeaways and snippets to share for those who may not have had the

AUTM’s (the Association of University Technology Managers) Annual meeting in New Orleans, as others before it, was a whirlwind of non-stop education, networking, and partnering. AUTM 2015 was a busy meeting for the OTT team as members volunteered, attended sessions, spoke on panels, and participated in partnering sessions over the four day event. There was also the added “fun” of air travel during snow storms in Atlanta–real or imagined–which is painful and should be avoided! There were three previous posts that highlighted partnering and first AUTM meetings for staff and interns alike. As a final wrap-up, here are a number of highlights and overall observations from our group. Record Numbers: Attendance at the 2015 Annual AUTM Meeting was a record high since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008. This record is just another indicator that interest in this space has not waned, and instead demonstrates that technology transfer is, has been, and will continue to be a critical factor in driving innovation internationally. Change in Tech Transfer: The unofficial theme of this year’s meeting could have been “Change.” So many session topics could be traced back to change – patent protection, constrained resources, lean start-ups, and crowd

Many consider Atlanta, Georgia to be the business center of the South. In addition to being a business capital, Atlanta continues to grow as an epicenter for research and development of medical devices, health information technology, and bioscience. Emergence, a non-profit medical accelerator, is working to provide the resources needed to keep those innovations and the resulting companies in Georgia. Georgia’s first business accelerator for biomedical technologies, Emergence wants to help bridge the gap between innovative health technologies and the skills needed to take them to market. Startup companies often leave an area due to a lack of resources. Emergence hopes to prevent this occurrence in the Atlanta-metro area.  By partnering with local stakeholders, including corporations, universities, foundations, and business services, they are providing the tools necessary including education, mentoring, and capital for new MedTech or Health IT companies to thrive and create jobs in the area. Current program sponsors include Jackson Healthcare, McKesson, and Silicon Valley Bank. Emergence accepts applications from entrepreneurs located anywhere in the Southeast and willing to come to Atlanta for a twelve-week bootcamp. The 12-week program addresses key topics for startups, including Product and Market, Business Formation and Development, Raising Capital, and Professional Services. The

The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) is an organization comprised of people involved in all aspects of protecting, licensing and managing academic intellectual property. The AUTM Annual Meeting is an opportunity for education, networking, and partnering between universities, research organizations, companies, and service providers. Although I have been working in the technology transfer field for a few years, this was my first time attending the annual meeting; it was a pleasure to be in such a large environment with many like-minded individuals and meet people working towards a common goal. Here are my thoughts as a first time attendee: One thing that stood out to me was just how great a networking opportunity the AUTM Annual Meeting is. There are so many people who are willing to discuss issues, strategies and the crazy weather, not just in partnering meetings, but over a croissant or adult beverage. It is not every day that professionals from tech transfer offices, IP firms, and corporations around the world have the opportunity to relax and enjoy time together. Though they are not formal meetings, these informal interactions are opportunities to learn valuable information and build strong relationships; it truly fosters a feeling of community.

This month in Atlanta, SEBIO held their 16th annual conference and Southeast Investor & Partnering Forum. In addition to being a sponsor we were honored to have our own Todd Sherer, Executive Director, serve as conference co-chair. This year’s event at the beautiful W Hotel in midtown Atlanta had more than 300 attendees. The conference has a history of successfully showcasing promising companies and connecting them with investors and this year was no exception. More than 25 companies presented during the early stage shootout, emerging company presentations, and the BIO/Plan competition. Emory was privileged to have five companies presenting: Cambium Medical Technologies and Metaclipse Therapeutics in the early stage shoot out, Accuitis Pharmaceuticals in the emerging companies, and NovAb in the BIO/Plan competition. Emory also had a special participant QUE Oncology who earned an opportunity to present  at SEBIO by winning the Georgia BIO 2014 shark tank competition. Staying true to the character of the meeting, the startups were able to speak with venture capital firms and other potential investors. Emory OTT had three staff in attendance and below are some of their thoughts and take aways from the event. According to the venture capital panel,  technologies directed to increasing

For over 13 years, Georgia Bio has been bringing the Georgia Life Science’s community together at a summit in Atlanta. As part of that community we have always appreciated the opportunity to participate in this event and be an active part of Georgia’s expanding biotech universe. The 2014 edition of the Summit focused on innovation and brought together senior executives, scientists, and public policy officials from all over the state while showcasing Georgia’s leadership in innovation, from basic research to manufacturing, within the life sciences. Emory and OTT staff had the opportunity to participate as members of various panels focused on commercializing university innovations. Emory surgeon Felmont Eaves served as moderator for a panel focused on new models of asset development for University-based intellectual property. That panel also featured Jack Tillman, the Executive Director of Emory Innovations as well as George Painter, CEO of Emory’s unique drug development spinout – DRIVE. Our Executive Director, Todd Sherer, also moderated a panel addressing the top myths of academic collaboration, which featured the VPs of Research from Georgia’s largest research universities, including Emory’s VP of Research Administration, David Wynes. Lastly, three Emory start-ups, 4C Health, DiaSyst, and QUE Oncology participated in the Shark