ResMed (http://www.resmed.com) is a leading respiratory medical device manufacturer, specializing in products for the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disordered breathing (SDB). When ResMed was formed in 1989, its primary purpose was to commercialize a device for treating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a major subset of SDB. Developed in 1981 by Professor Colin Sullivan and colleagues at the University of Sydney, nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) provided the first successful noninvasive treatment of OSA. Since 1989, ResMed has maintained its focus on SDB, which is gaining greater public and physician awareness. ResMed is committed to an ongoing program of product advancement and development. Currently, product development efforts are focused on AutoSet technology, improved CPAP, VPAP and mask systems, and manufacturing cost-reduction programs. ResMed has strategic alliances with Guidant Corporation and MedCath Corporation. The company was founded in 1989 and is based in Poway, California.
Fish & Richardson P.C. (http://www.fr.com) is a national law firm with over 300 lawyers in eight offices: Boston, Dallas, Delaware, New York, San Diego, Silicon Valley, Twin Cities, and Washington, DC. The firm is one of the largest firms practicing intellectual property, litigation, and corporate law and the only firm with a truly national intellectual property practice. Founded in 1878, the firm represented Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and the Wright Brothers. For 125 years we have served great innovators, helping to protect countless ideas, nurture discoveries, and bring new concepts to market. The firm prosecuted and litigated many of the fundamental patents of an industrialized America, serving corporations creating the cutting-edge technologies of the day: the telephone, the air-brake, the steam turbine, the automobile, and the radio. Frederick Fish, the firm's founder, was for many years the acknowledged leader of the patent bar of the entire country at a time when patents were more important than they had ever been. Today, the firm continues to represent great innovators working in cutting-edge technologies.
The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (http://www.calit2.net/) is one of four institutes funded through the California Institutes for Science and Innovation initiative to ensure that the state maintain its leadership in cutting-edge technologies. Calit2 is a collaboration between UC San Diego and UC Irvine. Its mission is to extend the reach of the current information infrastructure throughout the physical world -- enabling anywhere/anytime access to the Internet. More than 200 faculty members from the two campuses are collaborating on interdisciplinary projects, with support from more than 130 industry partners.
Amylin Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company committed to improving lives through the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative medicines. The company was founded in 1987 on the discovery of a hormone, amylin, produced by the same beta cells of the pancreas that make insulin. Since then, Amylin has built a strong foundation on research and development. Amylin's scientists are primarily focused on investigating the potential utility of new peptide hormone candidates. The company has amassed significant research and clinical expertise in metabolic medicine including the areas of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.
The William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement (http://www.vonliebig.ucsd.edu/), aims to foster innovation within the Jacobs School, accelerate the commercialization of Jacobs School knowledge, facilitate the exchange of ideas between Jacobs School and Industry, and prepare engineering students for the entrepreneurial workplace. The Center works with Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Services, the CONNECT Program and the Center for the Commercialization of Advanced Technology. The von Liebig Center was established through a gift from the William J. von Liebig Foundation.
UCSD Connect (http://www.connect.org) is the globally recognized, university-based non-profit organization fostering entrepreneurship in the San Diego region by catalyzing, accelerating, and supporting the growth of the most promising technology and life sciences businesses. Focused on assisting growth companies in the San Diego region, CONNECT has been directly involved with over 900 companies since its inception in 1985, helping them raise over $11B in capital. Part of the University of California, San Diego, CONNECT has a dual role in accelerating growth: it assists growth companies in the San Diego region and promotes the commercialization of technology from university-based research. CONNECT's programs also help business service providers, attorneys, accountants, bankers, investors, and marketing professionals with the knowledge about emerging technologies and access to new business opportunities. CONNECT is entirely self-supporting and receives no funding from the University or the State of California. It is supported by membership dues, course fees, and corporate underwriting for specific programs.
UCSD TechTIPS (http://invent.ucsd.edu ) manages all new intellectual property developed by UCSD researchers and owned by the university. It acts as a catalyst for transforming academic research results into product and business opportunities to promote regional economy for the public good. With over $638 million in external funding in FY2004, UCSD research activities generate valuable intellectual property that includes inventions, discoveries, technologies, patents, tangible materials, copyrightable works including computer software and selected trademarks.
Gen-Probe Incorporated is a global leader in the development, manufacture and marketing of rapid, accurate and cost-effective nucleic acid tests (NATs) that are used primarily to diagnose human diseases and screen donated human blood. Gen-Probe has more than 20 years of NAT expertise, and received the 2004 National Medal of Technology, America's highest honor for technological innovation, for developing NAT assays for blood screening. Gen-Probe is headquartered in San Diego and employs approximately 900 people. For more information, go to www.gen-probe.com.
The Whitaker Institute of Biomedical Engineering (http://wibe.ucsd.edu), advancing knowledge in biomedical engineering by promoting interdisciplinary research and training among engineering, biology, and medicine, with the ultimate goal of improving the health and quality of human life.
