2007 Alumni
1st Place ($100,000) - Ocumedic (Auburn University)
OcuMedic is an ophthalmic drug delivery company with a proprietary, patent-pending technology that creates a new architecture in polymeric films to enable enhanced drug loading and delayed drug release for eye treatments including eye comfort, allergy, infection, and inflammation – a new drug delivery system via contact lenses.
Most ocular drugs are delivered via eye drops which are marginally effective because of poor patient compliance, high and/or insufficient dosages, irritation, side effects, and the fact that patients cannot wear contact lenses with medical eye drops. OcuMedic’s products can deliver medication more effectively and more conveniently versus current treatments. The company is led by Dr. Mark Byrne, an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Auburn University.
Since the competition, OcuMedic used the prize money to expand its intellectual property portfolio, including filing for international patent protection. The company has begun animal testing of the lenses at the Auburn University College of Veterinary Sciences.
2nd Place ($50,000) - Halo Monitoring (UAH)
Halo Monitoring (formerly Halo Research) is a medical device company focused on developing wearable biomedical systems for health and lifestyle monitoring. Halo’s first product, MyHalo, is positioned to address healthcare concerns for a large and growing population of independently living elderly adults. Unlike the majority of competing products which require users to manually press a panic button, Halo’s integrated system can automatically detect serious health concerns – even a user falling – without any active participation from the user, and remotely notify designated caregivers. The system includes wearable wireless technology for monitoring physiological signals, a wireless gateway for encrypting and transmitting physiological data to a secure health server, and a web-based interface to facilitate continuous and remote monitoring from anywhere in the world, anytime of day. The CEO of Halo Monitoring is Chris Otto, a recent graduate of the Master of Computer Science program at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Since the competition, the company was successful in raising $2.5 million of investment capital from the Huntsville Angel Network, Greer Capital Advisors and Jemison Investments Company. The system is now available in 17 states and is offered through a local dealer network of roughly 130 dealers. Halo has also entered into a partership with Senior Helpers, a leading national in-home senior care provider.
Halo Monitoring is currently incubated at BizTech and has 13 employees. Visit the company's website.
3rd Place ($25,000) - InQ Biosciences Corporation (UAH)
InQ Biosciences Corporation (formerly IntelCell, formerly Prodigy Biosystems) has developed a revolutionary cell culture lab instrument that overcomes the limitations of current Petri dish-and-incubator equipment. For scientists whose research depends on live cell culture, the InQ offers a compact, precision, cell culture system that increases experimental control, improves sterility, provides digitization of data and methods, and reduces human error and labor costs through Internet connectivity and remote viewing and control.
Since the competition in June 2007, InQbio has raised $1.2 million in a 2008 first round from the Huntsville Angel Network, and $1.5 million in a 2010 2nd round. As of July 2010, the company has nine employees. According to CEO Dick Reeves, "the InQ will go to beta testers in September 2010, and market launch of the InQ system will come at the November Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego."
InQ Biosciences is currently incubated at BizTech. Please visit their website for more information.
Other Finalists
AT Biosciences, LLC (UAH)
Team is led by Dr. Jason Feng, a research professor in the Department of Biological Science. AT Biosciences has developed molecular biomarkers for academic research and clinical diagnosis using a new patent-pending technology.
Distributed Carpet Nylon Recycling (Auburn)
Team is led by Dr. Paul Swamidass, a Professor of Management at the College of Business. The company has developed a patented chemical process for recovery and recycling of nylon from waste carpet.
Facilitaire (UAB)
Team is led by Ron Baldwin, a 2005 graduate of the Master of Science in Electrical Engineering Program. Facilitaire uses prototyped tools for improving communications between IT professionals and business managers using a pay-for-use online platform. For more information, please visit their website.
Physician Innovations (UAB)
Team is led by Marc Krawitz, an alumnus of the Master of Business Administration Program. The company is a systems integration firm specializing in Electronic Medical Record (EMR) solutions for smaller medical facilities.
Q-Track (UAH)
Team is led by Jerome Gabig. Q-Track uses patented wireless technology using near-field electromagnetic ranging to track people and physical assets indoors on a real-time basis. For more information, please visit the company's website.
