Trustees build tech center in Indy

IU's student entrepreneurs have a new friend. \nAlong the banks of the White River Canal in Indianapolis stands IU's $4 million dollar Emerging Technology Center, a building that will house IU students and faculty working in the biotechnology industry.\nThe ETC tenants will be specially selected by IU and will pay low rent and benefit from networking opportunities and access to IU resources.\nThe building, which will open in February or March, is the University's latest contribution to the state's nascent life-sciences economy. \n"This facility has been needed for a while, and we're getting an excellent response," President of the Advanced Research and Technology Institute Mark Long said. "Business is booming."\nJulie Meeks, faculty member of the School of Nursing, will be the ETC's first tenant when the building opens next year. Her company, the Haelen Group, a health insurance consultant business, will operate out of the ETC office space. \nMeeks has spent the past seven years researching and developing a product called One Care Street which helps health insurance providers monitor high-risk patients. She is finally ready to launch the program, as she moves into the ETC. \nThe building will give her company great networking potential, she said.\n"We're growing like crazy," Meeks said. "I think the opportunity is terrific."\nBecause the building is owned by IU, if Meeks needs advice about Information Technology, she can call UITS. If she needs advice about marketing, the Kelley School of Business is there to help. \nMeeks envisions working closely with IU business students. \n"If we have a strategic business problem, I can ask for a team of business students," she said. "I get bright people, and they get experience working in a real environment."\nLong said that's one of the ETC's biggest advantages. It will provide students with internship opportunities, employment and valuable experience. \nD. Craig Brater, dean of the IU Medical School, said the ETC is a "business incubator," meaning it will be a stepping stone for transforming research ideas into marketable commercial products. \n"To find out if they have commercial (viability), these ideas have to go in this incubator stage, where they are taken out of the research context," Brater said. \nThe ETC will also house Medical Care and Outcomes, a pharmaceutical company, as well as the Indiana Proteomics Consortium, a three-way collaboration between IU, Purdue and Eli Lilly. Other companies are currently being considered for inclusion. \nAt Friday's board of trustees meeting in Indianapolis, Long will give a presentation about the role of research and technology at IU. He has lots of good news to share.\n"There is a tremendous research community here," he said. "When you look at the states around Indiana, we are catching right up with them."\nIn addition to the business incubator, Long plans to report that IU's Proton Radiotherapy Institute opens April 1. The facility, located north of Memorial Stadium, will provide treatment for patients with head and neck tumors. Along with Los Angeles and Boston, Bloomington is one of only three cities in the nation with such an institution.\nLong will also report that the ARTI, which handles the intellectual property for IU, recorded a record number of new inventions and patents last year. \nOne of the most unusual inventions was a cat food that cleans cat's teeth, developed by Dr. George Stookey of the Dental School. IU professors also patented new treatments for stroke and premalignant cancer cells.