News
INVESTING
IN INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
PRODUCTIVE IDEAS
UK PROGRAM FINDS NURTURING START-UPS PAYS
DIVIDENDS IN BIOTECH BUSINESSES
By John
Stamper, Herald-Leader Business Writer
Marit
Jagtoyen can turn diesel fuel exhaust into drinking water.
The Army hopes Jagtoyen's filtering technology will someday
turn the exhaust pipe of a Hum-Vee into a water supply for
soldiers driving the vehicle. If it works, America's Armed
Forces can thank the University of Kentucky's Advanced Science
and Technology Commercialization Center, also known as ASTeCC,
for helping Jagtoyen start LexCarb LLC.
"If
we hadn't got into ASTeCC, we couldn't have moved on with
our company," Jagtoyen said. The $18 million ASTeCC building
was constructed in 1994 to help transform the university's
intellectual property into marketable products. The 80,000-square-foot
building was funded entirely by grants from the U.S. Small
Business Administration and the U.S. Economic Development
Administration. "We want to grow companies so our graduates
can stay here and have an opportunity to fully use their education,"
said Joseph Fink, UK's assistant vice president for research
and graduate studies.
Portions
of the building, located in the heart of UK's campus, are
rented to faculty members and others who want to create companies
based on research done at UK. Each start-up in ASTeCC gets
a three-year lease at rock-bottom rates ranging from $10 to
$18 per square foot. Similar space equipped with chemistry
hoods and emergency wash stations at UK's Coldstream Research
Campus runs $30 per square foot. The largest part of ASTeCC,
however, is dedicated to free lab space for 24 faculty-led
groups working on research that might eventually be commercialized.
The center has "graduated" nine companies, including LexCarb
in December 1999, and has 11 more in the works.The
companies are based on research from throughout the university.
Out
of the garage
LexCarb, which spent a year in ASTeCC before moving last year
to a larger space at UK's Coldstream Research Campus on Newtown
Pike, is a good example. Before the Army would OK a Small
Business Innovation Research grant to continue Jagtoyen's
work that year, they wanted to see her workspace. She knew
her Lexington townhouse garage wouldn't pass military muster.
And her neighbors were starting to complain, since some thought
her filtration device might be a moonshine still. So UK offered
her some low-rent lab space -- complete with fume hoods, sinks
and countertops -- in its ASTeCC building. "The Army actually
came and looked at our facilities, so we sold them on ASTeCC,"
Jagtoyen said. "There are some things you just can't do in
your garage." But don't ask Jagtoyen, who can often be seen
driving a red Hum-Vee around
town, to chug a bottle of her diesel water just yet. There
are still traces of two unidentified compounds in the otherwise
pure water. They're probably harmless, she said, but so far
she's only sipping.
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