NJIT and UMDNJ have executed a license agreement with The Incubation Factory, St. Louis, MO, covering their personal tonometer technology on which a patent is pending. The tonometer was developed by a research team led by NJIT Professor Gordon Thomas, PhD, and Robert Fechtner, MD, director of the glaucoma division at UMDNJ. NJIT Associate Professor Tara Alvarez was a member of the research team.

“We are excited that this innovative technique will generate more accurate eye pressure readings to help doctors monitor glaucoma and thus improve the prevention of blindness,” Thomas noted.

Vince Smeraglia, UMDNJ Director of Patents and Licensing, said “This is a terrific example of a prominent engineer like Dr. Thomas collaborating closely with Dr. Fechtner, an experienced clinician, to address an unmet medical need for less painful testing and the delivery of significantly faster test results.”

Glaucoma, a group of diseases for which 119 million Americans are at risk, is marked by increased eye pressure – known as intra-ocular pressure, which damages the optic nerve. Unless caught and treated, this increased eye pressure can cause vision impairment and ultimately lead to blindness.

Patients at risk for glaucoma generally have their eye pressure tested every three or four months by medical personnel, but recent studies have shown that peak eye pressure occurs during the nocturnal period. Since most ophthalmologist visits occur during the day, it has been shown that 67 percent of patients tested are likely to be incorrectly diagnosed.

The current preferred method of obtaining eye pressure involves a licensed medical practitioner using a specialized instrument to touch the patient’s cornea directly through the open eyelid, which may cause discomfort or pain and requires that antibiotic medications be administrated just prior to each exam. The NJIT/UMDNJ tonometer allows for testing through the closed eyelid and thus can be done outside a normal medical setting such as in a pharmacy operated patient care clinic or even at home.

Research shows that those most at risk for glaucoma experience wide variations in their eye pressure throughout the day; these individuals are at a higher risk for disease progression. NJIT/UMDNJ’s tonometer would allow a glaucoma patient to check his/her own eye pressure and report readings to the ophthalmologist in real time via the internet.

“The personal tonometer holds great potential in helping glaucoma patients better manage their condition,” said Incubation Factory President Randy Delkus, “The Incubation Factory is excited to collaborate with NJIT and UMDNJ to commercialize this technology.”

Thomas, who teaches in the department of physics at NJIT, has been awarded 13 patents and has published more than 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals. His research interests include new sensors with human applications, such as preventing blindness and brain injury and protecting perimeter security. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and was a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories from 1972-1999, both when it was as a division of AT&T and later as a division of Lucent Technologies.

Fechtner directs the Glaucoma Diagnostic Laboratory at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, which helps provide patients and physicians with the latest imaging and laser technologies, including ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM), confocal scanning topography (Heidelberg Retina Tomograph and Topographic Scanning System [TopSS]), scanning laser polarimetry (GDx), a simultaneous stereo camera, and various psychophysical tools.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation’s largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 6,000 students attending the state’s three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health.

The Incubation Factory (TIF), headquartered in St. Louis, MO, is a unique investor that licenses technologies from research institutions and forms new startup companies. TIF serves as a commercialization agent for technology transfer organizations at national laboratories, universities and research institutions, worldwide to bring new technologies to market. TIF is composed of experienced professionals who have “hands-on” technology and product development experience and a track record of creating successful companies. TIF removes the “art of the start” by utilizing structured, proven processes that result in faster time to market, lower commercialization risk and high returns to technology partners. TIF recruits experienced management teams and provides the requisite funding necessary for commercial success. For more information, please visit http://theincubationfactory.com/

NJIT, New Jersey’s science and technology university, enrolls more than 8,900 students pursuing bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in 120 programs. The university consists of six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, College of Architecture and Design, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, College of Computing Sciences and Albert Dorman Honors College. U.S. News & World Report’s 2010 Annual Guide to America’s Best Colleges ranked NJIT in the top tier of national research universities. NJIT is internationally recognized for being at the edge in knowledge in architecture, applied mathematics, wireless communications and networking, solar physics, advanced engineered particulate materials, nanotechnology, neural engineering and e-learning. Many courses and certificate programs, as well as graduate degrees, are available online through the Office of Continuing Professional Education.

Incubators provide comprehensive support to companies in their startup stages of development – helping entrepreneurs through the most difficult time of their business career.

Every year, more than 400,000 entrepreneurs start new businesses in the US. And 350,000 of those new businesses close their doors before year’s end. Compare this disturbing number to the success of new companies in business incubators: more than 80% of incubated companies are profitable within two years and are still doing business by the end of five years.

How do incubators do that? An incubator for businesses, just like an incubator for eggs or newborn infants, provides a safe, supportive, protective, and nurturing environment that promotes growth. It is also a dynamic center with continuing contact with fellow entrepreneurs. Incubators typically provide spaces for businesses to operate, just at or slightly below market rates. They provide an array of services that nourish start-up entrepreneurs, such as business counseling, mentoring, access to essential services and to potential investors. Incubators can also furnish shared services allowing incubator residents to cooperate with one another and reduce costs, critical needs during the start-up phase of a company.

Maine’s Applied Technology Development Centers (ATDC)
Helping New Maine Firms Introduce Tomorrow’s Technologies

Maine’s transforming economy welcomes new entrepreneurs seeking to commercialize products and services in emerging technologies. The Maine Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) has established Seven Technology Development Centers across Maine that are designed to help firms meet the challenges of introducing new technology based products.

The 7 technology categories are:

• Environmental Technology
• Biotechnology
• Information Technologies
• Aquaculture and Marine Sciences
• Forestry and Agriculture Technologies
• Precision Manufacturing
• Composite Materials

The River Valley Technology Center in Rumford, Maine has been established as the leading site in Maine that is focused on incubating Precision Manufacturing Technology Enterprises.

Click the NBIA logo to see the resources available at the NBIA website. The National Business Incubation Association is the world's leading organization advancing business incubation and entrepreneurship. It provides thousands of professionals with the information, education, advocacy and networking resources to bring excellence to the process of assisting early-stage companies.

NBIA offers professional development activities and specialized training to help business assistance professionals create and administer effective incubation programs. The Association’s public awareness activities educate entrepreneurs, public sector leaders, corporations and investors on the benefits of business incubation. NBIA also conducts research, compiles statistics, produces publications that provide hands-on approaches to developing and managing effective programs, tracks relevant legislative initiatives and maintains a speakers’ bureau and referral service. It creates partnerships with leading private-sector and public-sector entities to further the interests of the industry and its members.

Some Questions and Answers About Incubators
What is an Incubator?

An incubator is a highly robust tool for business development, as well as an incredibly powerful and flexible resource for promoting, structuring, and directing economic development.

An incubator for businesses, just like an incubator for eggs or for newborn infants, provides a safe, supportive, protective, and nurturing environment that promotes growth. Business incubators typically provide spaces for businesses to operate, just at, or slightly below market rates. They provide a variety of services that support start-up entrepreneurs, such as business counseling, mentoring, helping them to get access to different kinds of services, and facilitating access to potential investors. The incubator can also provide for shared services, allowing incubator residents to share and reduce certain costs, which is often critical during the start-up phase of a company.

The Incubator Environment Helps Businesses Survive and Thrive.

The National Business Incubator Association’s statistics show that 80% of companies in incubators are profitable by the end of two years. This compares extremely well with national statistics on non-incubated start up businesses, 80% of which are out of business within two years.

What do you mean by “Robust Tool for Business Development”?

A large part of the spirit that makes up the incubator atmosphere is created by the incubator tenants and clients. They bring an energy into the house, and provide a kind of support network for each other. We believe that one major factor that contributes to many business failures outside of incubators are due to psychological factors. Beginning entrepreneurs are usually on their own, faced with huge personal risks and uncertainties. The incubator-house atmosphere provides a support network of peers facing similar challenges. This network allows for mutual assistance and exchange of ideas and experience. The creation of this kind of community may be the most important single attribute of incubators.

A Powerful and Flexible Resource for Economic Development.

Because the incubator model is the best way yet found to nurture and launch start-up businesses, this capacity translates into a great strategy for promoting local or regional growth, creating jobs, and wealth in a community. Incubators can also be used for directing development. Incubators can be targeted to foster businesses in specific sectors as ways of promoting the growth of specific economic clusters.

Incubators: A Simple Concept Waiting to be Molded to Community Needs.

The idea behind incubators is fairly simple and straight forward. Incubators are about creating an environment to help new businesses grow. The major issues for many start-ups are cost control and access to good advice and information. Incubators help keep costs low by keeping the rents for new companies at a reasonable level, but more importantly, by allowing for companies to share necessary services, and by facilitating access to different kinds of useful services so that they can be obtained at low cost or even at no cost. But incubators are really just a tool for business development.

Courtesy Kauffman Foundation

“We have long believed that the unique convenience and presentation offered by Optomycin™ is without precedent and this notice of allowance is further confirmation,” said Ed Timm, President of Mobius Therapeutics™. “As we approach product launch, this patent protection along with the orphan drug status for glaucoma surgery will provide a strong foundation for Mobius™.”

About Mobius Therapeutics™

Mobius Therapeutics™, LLC is an early stage venture focused on ophthalmic surgery solutions. Its first product, Optomycin™, is a system for delivering antifibrotic agents in glaucoma, refractive, and corneal surgery. Additional product applications are in earlier stages of development.