"Why is this goat smiling?" asked Giovanni Cicione as he pitched his product at yesterday's Life Sciences Technology Showcase in downtown Providence. Cicione's company, BioIntraface, patented an anti-microbial coating for orthopedic implants, which expedites healing and prevents infections. Cicione hopes that Billy the Goat will be one of many happy customers, and he asked investors in the audience for a $3.5 million grant over the next two years to turn the startup into a profitable company.
The all-day event was held at various local businesses, the Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Alpert Medical School. All of these locations are situated in the Knowledge District, an area that has been billed as the heart of the state's biomedical and life sciences sectors.
By fusing science and entrepreneurship, BioIntraface exemplified the businesses at the showcase. The event offered Rhode Island businesses an opportunity to display their products for potential investors. Speakers touted the event as a first step in establishing Rhode Island as a center for life sciences innovation on par with nearby New Haven and Cambridge.
Leigh Kendall, program manager of the Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, said one goal of the showcase was to attract out-of-town leaders in venture capital, medical device manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.
She called the showcase "the inaugural event of the Life Sciences Innovation Hub." Brown is just one of many institutions in the hub, which includes other schools like the University of Rhode Island and Bryant University, as well as local hospitals like the Rhode Island Hospital and Women and Infants Hospital. According to the brochure, the showcase was a chance for "science, talent and capital" to work together to promote innovation in Rhode Island life sciences.
The showcase began at 11 a.m. with a walking tour of four life science companies in the Knowledge District. Participants first visited NABsys, which uses electronic detection to make genome DNA sequencing quick and precise. Epivax, which is developing vaccines and biotherapeutics, was the next stop. Another company, ShapeUp, aims to use social networking and gaming to connect companies' employees and motivate them to lead healthy lives. The last business on the tour, Isis Biopolymer, uses electrostimulation to transport molecules across the skin.
Kendall said one goal of the showcase was to "facilitate the connections and the opportunities in the life sciences area" as a way to improve the economic climate and use the resources in the Knowledge District.
Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts '78 gave the introductory remarks for panel discussions about medical device and pharmaceutical innovation.
Following an interview with Robert Wassman, the chief genomics officer at Generation Health, 13 Rhode Island startup companies pitched their products. Each presentation combined explanations of both the science behind the product and its marketability. Companies ranged from NeuPlay, which produces remote control toys for special needs children in physical therapy, to Lucidux, which created a real-time three-dimensional video for surgeons. Representatives of these companies, like Cicione, tried to sell their innovations to the venture capitalists in the audience.
At the day's final event, attendees converged on the new Med School building, where all three floors featured research posters from local hospitals and universities. Ed Wing, dean of medicine and biological sciences, welcomed them to the new building. Wing worked at the University of Pittsburgh for more than 20 years and suggested that Brown imitate that university's investment in startup companies. Wing said he hopes that, like Pittsburgh, Providence can profit from these companies, while elevating the status of the city's universities and pulling it out of an economic slump.
