Edmund Egan and Bruce Holm — both faculty members at SUNY's University at Buffalo and both closely associated with the anchor tenant of our supporting member UB Technology Incubator — were honored with the university's first annual Faculty Entrepreneur Award.

Dr. Egan is the president and CEO of ONY, Inc., and Dr. Holm (who is the executive director of the UB NYS Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences) is the co-inventor of the underlying technology, a lung surfactant to prevent respiratory distress in premature babies.

Based on research by UB, University of Rochester, and University of Western Ontario, ONY was founded in 1985 and received FDA approval in 1999. Since then the surfactant has been administered to more than 250,000 premature babies. ONY is the largest and anchor tenant of the UB Technology Incubator. Congratulations to Drs. Egan and Holm!

Our member SUNY Fredonia Technology Incubator is moving rapidly toward start of construction on its new building, according to solid coverage in the Dunkirk Observer of a talk recently given by director Jeff Corcoran before the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation. In this talk, Jeff reported that construction bids are scheduled to be opened on June 3, 2008, and that construction will start soon thereafter. He also gives an excellent introduction to the rationale behind business incubation and the potential of this incubator to help WNY revitalize its manufacturing sector.

Of the 29 companies presenting at the SmartStart Venture Forum/UNYTECH conference on May 13-14, at least 7 are tenants of our member organizations. The BIA/NYS is an industry sponsor of the event, which was produced by the CEG, the parent of our member Watervliet Innovation Center. Presenting incubator tenants included:

• At the BEST Incubator of Polytechnic University: Fair Choice Systems, Inc.
• At the Lennox Tech Enterprise Center of High Tech Rochester:: Diffinity Genomics, Inc.; Lighthouse Biosciences, LLC; and SiMPore, Inc.
• At the RPI Incubator Program: Intellidemia, Inc.
• At the Saratoga Technology + Energy Park of NYSERDA: Advanced Energy Conversion, LLC
• At the UB Technology Incubator: Integral Information Systems

One-page fact sheets on each of these companies are available at this link. SmartStart Venture Forum/UNYTECH is an upstate-oriented venture forum where venture-capital firms can see the best that the state has to offer in the way of deal flow.

SUNY Fredonia Technology Incubator, which is planning a newly constructed incubator facility in downtown Dunkirk, has advanced its membership in BIA/NYS to the Supporting level, which recognizes outstanding commitment to the association. This is the second such vote of confidence in recent weeks, and we expect further such announcements. Our thanks to incubator director Jeff Corcoran!

SSL Industries, a tenant of our supporting member UB Technology Incubator, is one of six early-stage companies participating in a Pre-Seed Workshop hosted by the University at Buffalo's Center of Excellence in Life Sciences and Bioinformatics. SSL is a distributor/developer of energy-saving LED (light emitting diode) lighting and other green products.

The workshop, produced by consultants Judy Albers and Mark Wilson, has been offered in several regions of the state, with assistance from locally based volunteers, including mentors, coaches and "judges" from the investor community. It is intended to help early-stage entrepreneurs identify the most effective paths to commercializing their ideas. The executive director of BIA/NYS served as a volunteer team member in a version of the workshop offered earlier in the year in New York City.