ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2011) — New York University neuroscientists have identified the parts of the brain we use to remember the timing of events within an episode. The study, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Science, enhances our understanding of how memories are processed and provides a potential roadmap for addressing memory-related afflictions.

Previous research has shown the brain's medial temporal lobe (MTL) has a significant role in declarative memory -- that is, memory of facts and events or episodes. Past studies have shown that damage to the MTL causes impairment in memory for the timing of events within an episode. More specifically, declarative memory is impaired in patients suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. However, little is known about how individual structures within the MTL remember information about "what happened when" within a particular episode, such as the order of the toasts at a wedding reception or what preceded a game-winning hit in a baseball game.

You’ve likely heard of the pharma patent cliff. But upcoming drug patent expiration dates are also threatening another sector: university technology transfer offices.

The University of Minnesota, which has spent years resuscitating its tech transfer prowess, is now among the institutions facing a patent cliff that will dry up revenue from commercialized research. Most of its tech transfer revenue over the last decade has come from the patents related to the Ziagen AIDS drug that will fully expire in 2013.

The tech transfer office will lose $6 million to $7 million annually after that drug patent expiration date passes, according to a panel of three experts commissioned to review the university’s Office for Technology Commercialization.

A new federal report on commercialization and technology transfer efforts from federal labs to the private sector shows inconsistent procedures, from licensing to payments to researchers and even measuring the success of programs.

Many of the report’s findings could have been written years ago, but despite efforts by many to streamline the process, barriers to technology transfer and commercialization remain, said Susannah Howieson, one of the report’s authors from the Science and Technology Policy Institute, which advises the White House and Congress on science policy issues.

The 177-page report, “Technology Transfer and Commercialization Landscape of the Federal Laboratories,” was prepared for the U.S. Department of Commerce. The first public discussion of its findings was held Thursday at the Shady Grove Innovation Center business incubator in Rockville.

1. "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." - Peter F. Drucker

2. "If you don't understand that you work for your mislabeled 'subordinates,' then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny." - Dee Hock

3. "A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say 'we did it ourselves.'" - Lao Tzu

4. "The led must not be compelled; they must be able to choose their own leader." - Albert Einstein

5. "The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why." - Warren Bennis

Moorhead, Minn. — A Minnesota organization is behind a move to create a regional initiative that could bring nanotechnology research dollars and jobs to the upper Midwest.

The proposal aims to connect researchers and businesses and build an international nanotech reputation for the region. Dubbed NanoVox, the regional nanotech center would encompass Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, the Dakotas and perhaps Manitoba, Canada.

Nanotechnology is manufacturing on the molecular scale that often finds new uses for traditional materials. Hundreds of products — from clothing to food packaging to medical devices — already use nanotechnology.

This week we published the third annual edition of the Xconomy Guide to Venture Incubators. It’s the only source we know of where U.S. entrepreneurs starting technology, life sciences, or energy companies can survey all of the early-stage mentoring and investment programs open to them in a single document. (You can buy the downloadable file here.)

It’s a great resource, and I wanted to take a moment to recognize and thank our Cambridge, MA-based associate editor Erin Kutz for pulling it together. Erin had a huge job on her hands this year, for one simple reason: the nation has startup fever. While the rest of the economy slowly fizzles, investors, foundations, regional economic development authorities, and other organizations have been setting up incubators, accelerators, and similar programs for startups at a blistering pace.

Making their debut within throwing distance of Radio City Music Hall, the first 14 startups to graduate from the New York version of the DreamIt Ventures accelerator program presented to investors on Wednesday. Demo day brought to a close three months of mentoring that helped these fledgling companies strengthen their plans. Now that they have pitched their companies to an audience of angel investors and venture capitalists, the real work begins as these startups strive to make good on their ambitions.

DreamIt Ventures is a pre-seed-stage venture firm in Bryn Mawr, PA that runs an identical incubator program in Philadelphia. Mark Wachen, a managing partner with DreamIt, says the program offers funding and guidance from mentors who work one-on-one with their assigned startups. “We match each company with a seasoned entrepreneur, someone who’s made the commitment to spend three to five hours with the company each week,” Wachen says.

The boomer generation, spawned (literally) in the aftermath of the Second World War, will continue to shape the American landscape well into the 21st Century. They may be getting older, but these folks are still maintaining their power. Those born in the first ten years of the boomer generation  — between 1945 and 1955 — number 36 million, and they will continue to influence communities and real estate markets across the country, especially as they contemplate life after kids and retirement.

Much has been written about where “empty nesters” might move as their children move off on their own. One longstanding favorite is the notion that, having jettisoned their children, the boomers will also desert their suburban communities for the bright city lights.

There’s a point in the lives of most startups where a radical shift has to occur in order for them to hit the next level. If done right, it can be transformative – but too many startup owners cling to their original ideas and drag their companies down in the process.

Linked In co-founder Reid Hoffman, in this Endeavor Entrepreneur Summit address, pulls examples from his days at PayPal and LinkedIn to share how a team pulls through these moments and tries to avoid startup death.

sI was tweeting back and forth with Anne from Step-Up Finance (@Step-Up Finance) and she said something interesting:

“Perspective and passion… sounds perfect for poetry.”

It makes me think of an article I read about poetry by Michael J Bugeja*. (Stick with me; I haven’t gone all artsy on you.)  In it he says, “Poetry has been the literary vehicle of truth.”  Whether you agree or not, whether you care about poetry or not, truth is important.

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. After exchanging a couple of notes, I concluded that she was more likely a victim of item #1 on my reject list below, rather than a drought on seed funding.

Too many people still believe the urban myth that you can sketch your idea on a napkin, and people will throw money at you. Fundraising is indeed brutally tough at all stages, and the seed funding is the hardest to find. The simple answer is that if you need funding, do your homework early and completely.

Michael A. Finney arrived in Lansing with the new administration of Gov. Rick Snyder. As president and CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., he is playing a key role in shaping and executing the governor's economic development strategies and policies.

Finney previously served as CEO of the economic development group Ann Arbor SPARK, a public-private partnership whose mission is to advance innovation-based economic development in the greater Ann Arbor, Michigan region. Under his leadership, SPARK is credited with playing a major role in assisting 135 companies with expansions in and locations to the region, adding more than 9,000 new job commitments and $1.1 billion in new investments.

He has received numerous awards and recognition including the 2008 Saginaw Valley State University Outstanding Alumnus for the College of Business and Management; named by Crain's Detroit Business as one of the 2007 Newsmakers of the Year; and 2005 Minett Distinguished Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology.

August 5, 2011—Agriculture and agriculture biosciences —agbioscience— are key to economic growth, job creation and quality of life in the North Central United States, according to a new study from Battelle.

In Power and Promise: Agbioscience in the North Central United States, Battelle researchers found agbioscience professionals at U.S. land-grant universities are leveraging advancements in modern science and technology to address crucial national and global needs, including agricultural productivity and food security, improved human health, renewable resource development (such as bio-energy and bio-based materials) and environmental sustainability.

“In our science and technology-based economic development practice at Battelle, we have observed the consistent rise of agbioscience as a core driver of economic growth and business expansion opportunities for the U.S.,” said Simon Tripp, lead author of the study, who will present an overview of the report at the A۰P۰L۰U  Annual Meeting in November. “This is an extremely dynamic sector, leveraging sustainable bio-based resources to produce goods that meet large-scale market needs.”

WASHINGTON (MMD Newswire) August 10, 2011 -- The U.S. Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration (EDA) today announced a $250,000 grant to Ann Arbor SPARK of Ann Arbor, Mich., to develop and implement a Business Accelerator Model that will help provide a full range of business development services to tech-based startup companies in Washtenaw and Western Wayne counties. The project is expected to create 255 jobs and generate $1.25 million in private investment, according to grantee estimates.

"Continuous innovation and a flow of new technologies to the marketplace are vital to our job creation and competitiveness," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John Fernandez. "This EDA grant will spur and accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship in southeastern Michigan to help diversify the economy and create new job opportunities for the region's workers."

Here in Boston, we like to tout our universities, our faculty, our students. The academic community is one of the crowning strengths of the New England economy, not to mention a major driver of its global impact. But what have universities done for the local startup and business innovation community lately?

I’m not going to give a full answer here—it’s one of the broader themes I’m exploring around town—but I’ll give you a piece of the puzzle.

Everywhere you turn there’s a new startup accelerator launching. Time will tell if that’s a good thing or not, but as I said in my last post, if you’re not doing it [an accelerator] to make money, you’re doing it wrong. The feedback was mixed, which doesn’t surprise me, since there are many accelerators operating at the moment that don’t have a primary mandate of returning dollars on investment. They’re designed for other primary goals: economic development (which really should be about making money), building a startup ecosystem (again, really driven by making money), job creation (bad idea), etc. But ignore that for a moment, and let’s assume you’re hell bent on starting an accelerator no matter what. Great! So what should it look like?

Mark Wachen sits in the Manhattan outpost of DreamIt Ventures, the Philadelphia-based start-up incubator. Wachen is an angel investor who founded a start-up of his own called Optimost, which he sold in 2007 for $52 million. And this summer, on the 11th floor of a nondescript Garment District tower, and with the sound of two twenty-somethings playing ping-pong in the background, Wachen is helping a batch of entrepreneurs get their start.

Business incubators have been around for decades. But DreamIt Ventures is one of scores of tech and start-up incubators that have sprouted up across the country over the past five years, with the greatest proliferation in New York City and the San Francisco-Silicon Valley areas. This new breed of incubator is not only elite, but can prove lurative. Usually, a start-up incubator will require that fully formed teams of hopeful entrepreneurs go through a rigorous application process, after which the incubator culls 15 to 20 accepted teams from 100 or more applicants. The selected teams are then given somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000, access to experienced serial entrepreneurs, office space, and opportunities to meet with angel investors and venture capitalists. By the end of the session—a few months, usually—if all goes right, each team should be able to launch a fully functioning small business.

You could say that the institution of the startup incubator has gotten its chance to shine this year. One way we can tell? Our third annual Xconomy Guide to Venture Incubators has nearly doubled in size from the 2010 version.

The big boom wasn’t a total surprise, given that this year politicians and the like have caught onto something that the innovation community has known all along: seriously fostering startup growth is a pursuit worth focusing on.

Does school prepare students for life?

Not necessarily, young entrepreneur Andrew Hsu might say.

“At Stanford, I took every business course I could get my hands on. But I’ve actually found interestingly, that they weren’t that useful,” says the 20-year-old, who holds three college degrees in in Neurobiology, Biochemistry and Chemistry. “There was tons of stuff that I had to learn on the fly.”

After having left grad school, Hsu launched his own startup, Airy Labs, where he develops social learning games for kids. Last week, Airy Labs secured $1.5 million in seed funding. Hsu is what you would call a wunderkind, and one of the Thiel Fellows who received $100,000 from Paypal founder Peter Thiel, to launch a startup. “My background isn’t normal,” he admits, “but starting a start-up very young is quite common in Silicon Valley.”

The VC post of the day is from Zack Shulman (Cayuga Venture Fund) titled Should Founders Personally Guaranty Bank Loans?

If, as an entrepreneur, you’ve raised any institution money, the answer should be – as Zack explains – a decisive NFW. In addition, your institutional investors are likely prohibited from doing this by their fund agreements.

I’ve explained publicly to many of my government friends why the SBA is totally ineffective around lending to high growth, venture backed companies. Their requirement for a personal guarantee from the founders and any owners (including investors) of over 20% of the company is another reason the SBA is a total fail when it comes to lending for high growth companies.