|
May
30, 2008
SDSU
Innovation Campus: Epicenter for entrepreneurship, innovation, and
collaboration
BROOKINGS,
S.D. — On land where SDSU used to plant wheat and soybeans for crop
experiments, the footings of the South Dakota State University Innovation
Campus are taking root.
And
the returns won't be harvested in bushels per acre, but in jobs
created, new companies launched, and new collaborations between
business, industry, university and government.
Chief
Executive Officer and Executive Director Teresa McKnight said that's
the idea behind the SDSU Innovation Campus. It's a place designed
to help university researchers to transfer technology from the university
to private industry and government partners in order to bring those
ideas to the marketplace.
“When
you look at the creation of new companies, both national and international,
and if you look back to where these companies originated, you will
find most of the companies originated from a researcher in an academic
environment,” McKnight said.
Contractors
broke ground Nov. 15, 2007, on a 30,000-square-foot incubator and
multitenant building as the first structure on the Innovation Campus.
Phase 2 of that project, in the future, will add another 30,000
square feet to that facility, for a total of 60,000 square feet.
Meanwhile,
plans are proceeding to install infrastructure – roads, curb, gutter,
sidewalk, and utilities. By fall of 2008 or early spring of 2009,
construction is to begin on a separate Seed Technology Building
near the junction of 22nd Avenue and the U.S. Highway 14 Bypass.
It will have office and lab space totaling approximately 36,000
square feet.
McKnight
said there's a natural synergy that results when companies locate
close to universities. It makes it easier for companies to work
with researchers to test their own ideas, or in some cases, to commercialize
university scientists' ideas.
“These
companies want to be attached or want to locate next door to the
academic environment because they want to be next door to these
researchers. They also want to employ the best and brightest undergraduate
and graduate students within the university,” McKnight said.
McKnight
noted that university-related research parks also offer companies
the same sort of synergy from “clustering” companies together —
placing biotechnology, engineering, software and hardware companies
close to each other, for example.
The
benefits of University-related research parks are not just for new
start-up companies. There are times when it makes sense for an existing,
well-established company to locate within a research park.
What
might be ahead for the SDSU Innovation Campus? McKnight has a sense
of that from her previous job working at an established university-related
research park at Utah State University.
“Utah
State created a park in the mid 1980s. Thirty-eight acres of state-owned
property was set aside to develop the research park. When I left
in December of 2006, I had only 2 acres of the 38 acres left to
develop, so we purchased additional property to expand from 38 acres
to 173 acres.”
At
that time in late 2006, McKnight said, the research park had 48
companies that employed 2,103 employees, and 980 of those employees
were Utah State University students. In 2006, those companies' revenues
totaled $132 million.
“In
the state of Utah they use a multiplier of three. In other words,
if those companies brought in $132 million, they put $396 million
back into Utah's economy,” McKnight said. “University-related research
parks have a powerful impact in state economies.”
Learn
more about the SDSU Innovation Campus at its Web site, www.sdstate.edu/innovationcampus
.
May
23, 2008
SDSU
research: New tools against skin cancer
BROOKINGS,
S.D. — There's something new under the sun at South Dakota State
University: Researchers are working with molecules that protect
against skin cancer and may even help undo the sun's damage.
Distinguished
professor Chandradhar Dwivedi, head of the Pharmaceutical Sciences
Department in the College of Pharmacy at SDSU, said the work could
be commercialized within 10 years.
“We
are looking at a number of molecules that can be used with sunscreen
or without sunscreen. They are not simply blocking the radiation,
but they are reversing the damage caused by radiation,” Dwivedi
said.
Exposure
to ultraviolet light, especially in summertime, can contribute to
skin cancer. Farmers and others who spend long hours exposed to
sunlight are among those most at risk.
People
are becoming more aware of the risk of skin cancer thanks to educational
efforts. More people are wearing sunscreens, though Dwivedi cautioned
that sunscreens must be re-applied at regular intervals to provide
optimum protection.
“We
have been saying for a long time that prevention is the best medicine.
We have to make the effort to prevent the disease before we treat
it,” Dwivedi said.
Nevertheless,
some new strategies are emerging that could make sunscreens and
lotions even more effective against skin cancer. Here's a look at
SDSU's involvement:
—
Alpha-santalol is the name of a molecule that is one of the main
components of oil of sandalwood. Dwivedi has made alpha-santalol
a focus of his research for nearly 15 years.
“This
product has been very effective in preventing skin cancer caused
by chemicals and by UV radiation. We have done our work in animal
models. Now it's ready to go for testing in humans,” Dwivedi said.
“Best of all, this molecule has a very nice fragrance, so people
will not mind using it. It smells nice, and at the same time it
prevents chemically caused or UV-induced skin cancer.”
—
A molecule called sarcophine-diol, made from a product called sarcophine
that comes from coral found in the Red Sea, has been a focus of
SDSU research over the past five years. Sarcophine-diol is effective
in micrograms, as compared to milligrams for other chemopreventive
products. In other words it is effective in a concentration of about
one-thousandth of what the scientific literature suggests about
other chemopreventive agents used against chemically and UV-induced
skin cancer. SDSU testing has looked at two models so far and is
now expanding to other models.
Dwivedi
said collaboration with SDSU assistant professor Hesham Fahmy is
moving that work forward. Fahmy, a chemist, already has one patent
from his work with sarcophine-diol at the University of Mississippi
when he joined SDSU's College of Pharmacy in 2004. Dwivedi, Fahmy
and SDSU are now pursuing licensing of the patent based on their
collaborative research of sarcophine-diol.
Dwivedi
said SDSU research will also look at combining products that protect
against skin cancer to provide additive/synergistic effects on the
protective properties of these molecules.
SDSU
is also trying to assess whether the products' potential benefits
go beyond protection.
“We
hope to include it in sun screen or lotion. Apply it once, and you
are set for the day. We are hopeful that it will not only prevent
skin cancer but may actually treat skin cancer,” Dwivedi said.
Fahmy
explained that skin cancer occurs in two stages: initiation, when
normal skin cells turn to precancerous skin cells and remain so
for a number of years; and then promotion, a long stage of 10 to
20 years in which precancerous cells can become cancerous. There
is a chance to intervene in that second stage so that promotion
doesn't take place and the individual doesn't get skin cancer.
He
added that cancer is able to proceed by outwitting the body's mechanism
that orders programmed cell death, called apoptosis, for cells that
have been genetically damaged.
“After
initiation, you have these precancerous cells. But when you use
these compounds, they encourage these precancerous cells to commit
suicide and regenerate rather than turn cancerous,” Fahmy said.
“So in this sense they can undo some of the damage. These compounds
reinforce the programmed cell death process.”
May
22, 2008
SDSU
research: Native American tea has health benefits
BROOKINGS,
S.D. – South Dakota State University research shows that a Native
American tea used in traditional medicine can help knock out upper
respiratory infections.
In
addition the tea is rich in antioxidants that help protect against
cancer and other illnesses.
Professor
Fathi Halaweish in SDSU's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
said those are among the findings from his analysis of a native
tea used by communities of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe of
the Lake Traverse Reservation in northeastern South Dakota. Though
the tea can be consumed routinely, it is also used specifically
to treat sore throats.
“I
have tried it personally. It does heal your sore throat,” Halaweish
said. “It contains some compounds that specifically target the bacteria
that are part of the upper sore throat infection. Our research supports
the long history the Native American people have for using the plant
in this way.”
Currently
the work is funded by the Big Coulee District of the Sisseton-Wahpeton
Sioux Tribe, Halaweish said.
Halaweish
focuses a part of his research on discovering new drugs by isolating
organic compounds from natural sources. Plants have formed the basis
for treatment of diseases in traditional medicine for thousands
of years, and continue to play a major role in the primary health
care of about 80 percent of the world's inhabitants, he notes.
“We
are looking at the potential of this Native American medicine as
a nutraceutical product,” Halaweish said.
That
means the Native American medicine would not be marketed as a drug,
but as a food product that could have medicinal or health benefits.
Halaweish
subjected the tea to a series of tests to detect any antibiotic,
anti-cancer, and anti-diabetic properties. In addition Halaweish
did toxicity studies on the cell culture to verify that the herbal
tea and the compounds it contains are safe to consume.
Halaweish
said he'll be pleased if the tea proves to be a product that tribal
members can produce and market commercially.
“I'm
very happy that this will work for the Native American communities,
that we can be a part of their vision for marketing some of their
Native American plants,” Halaweish said. “This is part of our mission
as a land-grant institution, to help out communities in our state.”
Sisseton-Wahpeton
Sioux Tribe community members also use other plants for medicinal
purposes. Halaweish said SDSU will continue to study the medicinal
properties of herbs used by Native Americans.
May
14, 2008
SDSU
research: Using flax against colon cancer
BROOKINGS,
S.D. — South Dakota State University studies are exploring the potential
for flax to prevent and possibly even treat colon cancer.
Distinguished professor Chandradhar Dwivedi, head of the Pharmaceutical
Sciences Department in the College of Pharmacy at SDSU, said his
work is funded partly by the North Dakota Oilseed Council.
National
Agricultural Statistics Service figures show North Dakota was the
nation's leader in flax production in 2007 by a huge margin, followed
by Montana, South Dakota, and Minnesota.
Dwivedi
said while he was growing up in northeastern India, his family grew
some flax. But it was his curiosity about a different crop, mustard,
that led to his flax research.
“In
our homes, most of the cooking was done in mustard oil. In that
area, the incidence of cardiovascular disease and cancer was very
low, so in the back of our minds we had the idea for generations
that mustard must be good for you,” Dwivedi said. “When I got into
science and research, I became curious about what is in mustard.
I found out it had Omega-3 fatty acid, which makes up about 24 percent
of mustard oil.”
Unfortunately,
Dwivedi noted, the mustard used by Americans on their hot dogs and
hamburgers has the fatty acids taken out. So in looking around for
a crop more familiar to Americans that might provide similar health
benefits, Dwivedi started to work with flax. Flax is even higher
in Omega-3 fatty acids than mustard is.
“I
did research first on flaxseed oil, which has roughly 58 percent
Omega-3 fatty acids. It prevented colon cancer development in animals,”
Dwivedi said. “Then I got further into flax research and looked
at flaxseed meal. Flaxseed meal has Omega-3 fatty acids, just as
in flaxseed oil, but at the same time it has a chemical known as
lignan. Lignans also have been reported to be cancer chemopreventive.
Flaxseed meal has lignan as well as Omega-3. It's much better than
flaxseed oil.”
Dwivedi
performed experiments to evaluate whether flax prevented chemically
induced colon cancer. He also experimented by including flax in
the diets of mice that have a genetic mutation to spontaneously
develop intestinal cancer.
Dwivedi's
research showed that both flaxseed oil and flax meal did help prevent
colon cancer development.
“It's
quite remarkable. So now we are looking at the effect of the chemicals
that are present in the flax meal lignans to see if they could treat
cancer — if they could destroy the cancer cells that have been already
formed.”
Dwivedi
presented an overview of some of his flax research at the 62nd Flax
Institute of the United States, held in March in Fargo.
|