UK: Building Tomorrow’s Prosperity for Kentucky

LEXINGTON, KY (March 23, 2009) - At AllTranz, Audra Stinchcomb is working on ways to deliver a variety of medications via skin patches.

Vijay Singh’s new company, Nanotech Solutions, produceshigh-quality nanoporous metal oxide templates that offer a cost-effective approach to creating nanoscale productsfor electronic and biological nanotech devices.

Scout Diagnostics, a venture by Bert Lynn and Mark Lovell, is developing a new early diagnostic test for Alzheimer’s disease. The testing kit will identify protein complexes in cerebral spinal fluid that serve as biomarkers to detect Alzheimer's prior to clinical diagnosis.

What do all these high-tech companies have in common?

Each was founded in a research laboratory at the University of Kentucky, and each – along with 36 other UK-affiliated companies – was recently recognized by the Lexington Venture Club for attracting a record $55 million in venture funding last year.

“Nationally, venture capital investments decreased last year in both dollars and volume,” says Len Heller, UK vice president for Commercialization and Economic Development. “The financial performance of our UK-affiliated companies in 2008 speaks volumes for the quality of research being conducted here. Investors are confident in the work being done at UK, and the numbers reflect it.”

These companies, which are associatedwith UK either through licensing agreements,collaborative projects or as faculty startups, reported combined annual revenue of $16.4 million in the annual Lexington Venture Club survey of Bluegrass early-stage companies. They created 98 new jobs last year and employ a total of 239 people.

Dean Harvey, executive director of business development in the UK Office for Commercialization and Economic Development, says “These university-affiliated companies offer very high-paying jobs, with average salaries between $60,000 and $70,000.”

The majority of the companies are in the biotech and health care, information technology and software, and advanced manufacturing sectors.

“Our UK high-tech startups illustrate the value of a top research university to both local and state economic development initiatives and our future economic prosperity,” says UK President Lee T. Todd Jr.

Take a look at the companies that have emerged from UK and the impressive array of ideas coming from the College of Agriculture, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Gatton College of Business and Economics, the College of Dentistry, the College of Engineering, the College of Medicine, the College of Pharmacy and the UK Center for Applied Energy Research.