March 2009 Newsletter Now Available

Highlights from TTO's March 2009 newsletter:

BioRelix Expands License for CU-Yale Riboswitch Technology
Yale University recently executed an agreement with BioRelix, Inc. to expand the company's commercial rights for riboswitch technology jointly developed by Robert Batey (CU-Boulder Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry) and a collaborator at Yale. BioRelix, founded in 2005 and based in New Haven, CT, was established to discover and develop novel and highly potent anti-infective compounds against pathogens resistant to currently available drugs. Riboswitches are short stretches of messenger RNAs that bind small metabolites and control genes required for the survival of many disease-causing bacteria; novel riboswitch technology may be used to defeat bacterial resistance to currently available antibiotics. The expanded license agreement adds the field of agricultural applications to the original BioRelix license.

Legislative Update: Clean Tech Research Grant Program
Earlier this year, Senator Heath and Representative Riesberg introduced Senate Bill 09-031 (PDF) in support of cleantech-related research and development, and largely modeled after HB 08-1001, the biosciences development bill. If enacted, one quarter of the funds would be directed to university cleantech proof of concept funding up to $50,000 per project matched by university funds, one quarter for matching grants to Colorado cleantech companies up to $150,000 matched by company funds, and half the funds directed to university/industry infrastructure to expand the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory. In early March, the bill passed the Senate and was assigned the House Committee on Transportation & Energy.

Read the full newsletter.