Thrive: Madison region businesses awarded scholarships to attend international BIO 2010 Convention

Contact: Jennifer Smith, Dir.-Communications, Thrive jsmith@thrivehere.org 608-443-1961

Nine of ten scholarship recipients housed in the Madison Region

MADISON REGION, WI—As a cosponsor of this year’s BIO scholarship program, Thrive congratulates the nine Madison Region biotechnology companies awarded $1,100 scholarships to attend BIO 2010, the world’s largest bio industry convention. BIO 2010 runs May 3-6 at McCormick Place, Chicago.

The Small Business Scholarship Program is designed to help small Wisconsin biotech companies in medical, agriculture, energy or other sectors, including medical devices, to participate in the convention’s One-on-One Partnering or company presentation forums. Companies that have attended in the past have noted these opportunities as some of the most valuable aspects of their BIO experience.

Last year, five Wisconsin companies received scholarship grants. One grant recipient, Scarab Genomics, scheduled 27 one-on-one meetings; today, Scarab Genomics remains in contact with or has contracts with 15 of those companies.

This year’s grant partnership sponsors include: BioForward, Alliant Energy, the City of Madison, Thrive, and the UW Madison Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), working together as part of the Wisconsin Pavilion organized by the Wisconsin Technology Council. Scholarship recipients are all small Wisconsin biotechnology businesses demonstrating a strategic approach to the Business Forum, and having a financial need.

Companies still seeking support to attend the International BIO Convention are encouraged to apply to the Wisconsin Department of Commerce Trade Show Grant Program. Visit http://www.commerce.state.wi.us/ie/ie-tradeshowgrant.html to learn more and to download application materials.

2010 Madison Region scholarship recipients:

C5-6 Technologies (Middleton) — Develops and commercializes solutions for the conversion of agricultural and forestry feedstocks into five carbon and six carbon sugars, high value chemicals, food products and fuels.

CellCura (Madison) — Dedicated to the development of novel equipment and products for use in Assisted Reproductive Technology and Stem Cell Research. Products from CellCura will improve safety and efficiency in both clinical and research environments.

Echometrix (Madison) — Early-stage developer of proprietary ultrasound technology that offers a new, quantitative approach to the assessment of tendon, ligament and muscle pathology.

InvivoSciences (McFarland / Wauwatosa) — Researches and develops engineered, tissue-based assays that mimic human and animal functions. The high-throughput system and ready-to-use tissues grown in a three-dimensional (3D) environment are predictive and cost-effective.

Intense Engineering (Madison) — Helps dynamic companies create, develop, and commercialize innovate technologies, and to help companies obtain better funding/market capitalization with emphasis on the medical and biotech fields.

Neoclone (Madison) — Develops monoclonal antibodies for research and diagnostic applications and has a research program for making human therapeutics.

Primorigen (Madison) — Committed to developing innovative, economical high throughput protein and cell-based assay systems and novel cell biology research products to accelerate development of regenerative and other medicines for afflictions such as diabetes.

Quintessence Biosciences (Madison) — Private, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel, proprietary, anti-cancer compounds based on its EVade™ ribonuclease technology platform.

Vatrix Medical (Fitchburg) — Medical technology company focused on developing less invasive and more complete methods to diagnose and treat the root causes of aneurysmal disease.

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The Madison Region presence at BIO in the Wisconsin Pavilion includes the cities of Madison, Middleton, Fitchburg; Alliant Energy, MG&E, and Thrive.