Featured Speakers & Guests:

Michael P. Kurek, Ph.D., MBA

Partner, Biotechnology Business Consultants (BBC)

After earning a Ph.D. in Genetics and completing six years of postdoctoral research inmolecular and cancer biology, and immunology, Mike entered the bioscience industry. He spent three years at Millipore Corporation inmarket development and product management and thereafter worked for four early-stage biotechnology companies, two of which completed successful IPOs. Three of the companies, RepliGen, BioPolymers, and Genomic Solutions, were venture-backed, raising a combined $150 million in equity investment. His responsibilities at the companies included sales, marketing, business development and technical project management. In total Mike managed the introduction of seventeen new products to the life science market.

Dr. Kurek was also Vice President of Business Development at the Michigan Center for High Technology, where he was responsible for the business incubator program that served over 50 start-up technology companies.

Over his career, Dr. Kurek has demonstrated success on an international scale in defining new product opportunities, developing sales and marketing strategies, and recruiting and managing teams to deliver growth. Since joining BBC in 2002, Mike has consulted to more than eighty entrepreneurs and early-stage companies on various aspects of business development.

BBC is nationally recognized for its work in the federal SBIR/STTR programs.

Over the past ten years through its training programs and one-on-one assistance BBC has helped hundreds of companies secure more than $90 million in R&D grants and contracts.

www.bioconsultants.com

michael@bioconsultants.com
734.930.9741

Vesta Brue

Founder/Chairman, MedSignals Corp.
Research Director, TeleHealth Holdings LLC
Director, VitalSignals Enterprises Inc.

Now totals 18 SBIR grant awards, over $9-million in 11 years. Win rate is slightly under 50%. Proudest moment: getting an 18 score on a recent SBIR submission. Has brought 3 products to commercial success in last 6 years two are category leaders. Works collaboratively with academics; MedSignals and VitalSignals products now in 20 university clinical trials under other scientists' grants.

Invented and developed a family of electronic, communicating medication management devices to improve medication compliance—MedSignals®. The first of these, a 4-drug handheld model, was released in 2008 and serves as reminder, usage monitor and reporter to key care providers. Authored and won 9 NIH grants totaling $6-M to fund its development and clinical trials among HIV patients, children, and elders. One patent awarded, two pending. Product sells as a data collection tool in drug clinical trials, a home health monitor for home healthcare agencies, and telephone companies marketing mhealth devices.

Invented, developed, and brought to market a smart cigarette case— SmokeSignals®—that helps smokers quit with effectiveness rates twice those of traditional methods at half the cost. Released to market in 2005. Wrote and won $2.7M in 6 NIH grants to fund its development. Two patents.

Recently won 3 more Phase I awards for 1) a post-bariatric surgery and obesity program to promote and monitor behavioral support; 2) a sleep apnea program, and 3) a medication monitor that handles non-pill drug forms. Two of these are entering clinical trials at UTHSC in collaboration with 7 local scientists.

Won Startech's Technology Superstar award in 2008.

Named Small Business Leader of Year 2007 in Business Innovation category, sponsored by North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

Resides with business partner, Jerome Hahn, in a historic building on Alamo Plaza, San Antonio.

Dr. John Bruno

Vice President & Chief Technology Officer
Pronucleotein - OTC Biotech
San Antonio, Texas

Dr. Bruno receiving Small Business Administration SBIR national recognition: 2011 Tibbetts Award Winner

 

SBIR National Recognition
Years of winning and executing Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts related to DNA aptamer assay development work were nationally recognized this year with a Tibbetts Award. The award is named for Roland Tibbetts, acknowledged as the father of the SBIR program, and is presented to companies that promote the goals of the SBIR program to stimulate technological innovation and meet federal research and development needs.

Dr. Bruno received both his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Microbiology and Immunology with a Chemistry minor from the University of Arizona in 1985 and 1991 respectively. He held a National Research Council Postdoctoral position at Brooks AFB, TX from 1991-93, then worked with the USAF and Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD from 1993-95 where he helped to field an ultrasensitive biosensor for biological weapons.

From 1995-97 he worked at Tyndall AFB, FL on environmental biosensors. From 1997-99 he held an Assistant Professorship as a Biochemist in the Radiology Dept. of the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. In 1999 he joined Systems and Processes Engineering Corp. (SPEC) in Austin as a Senior Research Scientist and later became the Vice President of Sensors and Biochemical Systems at SPEC where he brought in $4 M in federal funding.

Dr. Bruno joined Operational Technologies Corp. (OpTech) as a Senior Scientist in San Antonio, TX in 2003 where he has attracted $7 M in federal SBIR/STTR, BAA, and state R & D funding culminating in the 2011 SBA Tibbetts award for his group at OpTech. He is also the CTO of Pronucleotein Biotechnologies. Dr. Bruno has authored 57 peer-reviewed research journal articles, 2 book chapters, 6 patents and has 7 patents pending.

Phone: 210-731-0015, ext. 2228
E-mail: john.bruno@otcorp.com

Ann Beal Salamone

President of Rochal Industries LLP

Ann heads Rochal Industries, a private research company which develops new biomaterials for wound and burn care. She has 12 US patents with their foreign counterparts and is a co-founder of three scientifically-based companies. Polyonics invented and has provided polymeric materials for flexible and multi-layered integrated circuit manufacturing for 23 years.

Rochal Industries, Inc. invented and licensed a landmark class of materials for wound care which has been sold throughout the world in hospitals/nursing homes and over the counter for 18 years.  Rochal Industries LLP has licensed its initial invented material which is being sold in select countries and the USA for veterinary care.

Additionally, Ann served as President or Vice President of the Enterprise Development Corporation, a South Florida science and technology incubator.  During her tenure, EDC’s Clients increased aggregate revenues by more than $98 million, raised more than $74 million in outside funding, created 5,013 jobs, produced annual salaries of $109.5 million, and provided $5.6 million in annual sales tax revenues.

Ann was elected Chairman of the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Polymer Division (8,000 members) and has served in a variety of other roles within POLY.  She is a co-founder of the Intersociety Polymer Education Council, a joint effort of the ACS and the Society of Plastics Engineers which has provided hands-on in-services to over 200,000 K-12 science teachers since 1991.

She is an Inaugural Fellow of the ACS and a Fellow of AIMBE, the recipient of the 2002 Crystal Slipper Award “Executive Woman of the Year” and a recipient of the 2011 Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association LEAD Award.
 
 
www.rochalindustries.com
12719 Cranes Mill
San Antonio, TX
561.866.0930

Bill Rafferty

Manager, Process Improvement Engineering Section, Manufacturing Systems Department, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)

Mr. Rafferty also serves as the Director of the South Central Region of the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center (TMAC), a federal assisted program hosted by SwRI® to provide affordable technical assistance to Texas manufacturers. In this capacity he directs a staff of manufacturing professionals to serve organizations in the areas of process improvement, quality systems and product development.

Benefiting government, industry and the public through innovative science and technology, Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®), is one of the oldest and largest independent, nonprofit, applied research and development organizations in the United States.

swri.org
tmac.swri.org

wrafferty@swri.org
210.522.5865

Gregory M.L. Patterson, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Vice President for Research Operations, Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed)

Gregory's responsibilities include management of Texas Biomed's patent portfolio, technology transfer, and internal seed funding to stimulate development of new research programs. In addition to his responsibilities at Texas Biomed, Dr. Patterson is Treasurer of the Texas Society for Biomedical Research and President-Elect of the Association of Independent Research Institutes.

As one of the world's leading independent biomedical research institutions, Texas Biomedical Research Institute is dedicated to advancing the health of our global community through innovative biomedical research.

Prior to his arrival at Texas Biomed in 2000, Dr. Patterson was a member of the faculty of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, where he rose through the ranks to become a Professor (Researcher) in both the Departments of Chemistry and Microbiology. From 1995 to 2000, he was also Director of the drug discovery program at the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, an NCI-designated Cancer Center. Dr. Patterson is the author of more than one hundred peer-reviewed scientific publications and holds twelve U.S. patents. Dr. Patterson has served on NIH Cancer Drug Development and Therapeutics SBIR review panels since 2008 as a reviewer and as co-chair.

txbiomed.org

gpatters@txbiomed.org
210.258.9824

Jeffrey M. Anderson, Ph.D.

Assistant Vice President for Strategic Development,
The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA)

utsa.edu

jeffrey.anderson@utsa.edu
210.458.4714

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