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Board Gives Research Nod

The EDGE endowment policy board rewarded five finalists with nearly $12 million Monday, including one company that plans to establish its headquarters in Oklahoma City and employ more than 100 people. The awards are designed to spur development of new technologies that promise to change the economic landscape of Oklahoma.

Doug Wallace chief operating officer of Orthocare Innovations, a company whose work includes orthopedic rehabilitation said the company plans to employ about 115 people within three years.

The EDGE - Economic Development Generating Excellence - endowment was created in response to recommendations by an EDGE committee appointed by Gov. Brad Henry in 2003.

The committee recommended that the state build a $1 billion endowment to make Oklahoma the "research capital of the plains."

With about $150 million committed to the EDGE fund for the past two years, the EDGE policy board made its first awards through a competitive process in which it pared the original 94 proposals to 21 and then to the five finalists. Specific amounts for each finalist were still being determined late Monday.

The policy board heard presentations Monday in the areas of:

Biotechnology
Two companies, Halose and Cytovance Biologics will produce sugar-based therapeutics for evaluations, sale and licensing for an Oklahoma glycol-manufacturing facility. Paul DeAngelis is the lead researcher.

The Charlesson Company will develop and produce nano particle-medicated drugs for injection into the eye to treat macular degeneration and other eye diseases. Lead researcher is Jian-xing Ma.

Orthocare Innovations proposed a project called "RESTORED," or Research, Education, Science and Technology for Orthopedic Rehabilitation and Economic Development. Orthocare Innovations will develop the Limb Restorations Institute and large manufacturing capacity to produce advanced prosthetic devices. David Boone is the principal researcher.

Weather Science
A consortium between the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University and other interests will assist the wind energy industry in Oklahoma and elsewhere by producing high-precision windpower assessments and forecasts in a highly integrated information system. Principal researcher on this project is J. Scott Green.

Aerospace
A project by Shivakumar Raman revolves around reverse engineering toward advanced manufacturing. By using innovative hardware and software, the project will offer advanced testing and manufacturing of replacement parts to military aviation and the commercial aerospace industry.

The 15-minute presentations were followed by a question-and-answer period in which the policy board members raised points such as the amount of Oklahoma jobs that might be created by each project and their previous experience with the technology they were pitching.

Click here to view article in the Oklahoman Newspaper

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