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Tucson Citizen

NP Photonics wins award

The Association of University Research Parks has honored NP Photonics, a Tucson optics company, as research/science park company of the year for 2005.

The award is presented annually to a company in a research or science park that has developed products that are successful in the marketplace or have the potential to be.

NP Photonics employs 40 people at the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park. The company uses glass and fiber technology to design and produce advanced optical light sources for use in security, military, oil, gas, utility and research and development markets.

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The Business Journal of Phoenix – 10:53 AM MST Friday
December 23, 2005

AZ FAST grants awarded

Seven Arizona companies are the new recipients of AZ FAST grants, administered through the Arizona Department of Commerce.

The Federal and State Technology Partnership Program (AZ FAST), equally funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Arizona Department of Commerce, is earmarked for education and grant programs to help Arizona technology entrepreneurs commercialize their technology.

Blue Mountain Technologies Inc., based in Parks, will develop and market a diagnostic reader and radial cassette assembly with integrated rapid assays for the analysis of municipal drinking water and wastewater systems.

SynCardia turning to marketing

Artificial heart’s new managers ready new pump

By David Wichner

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Since becoming the first artificial heart to win federal approval for commercial use last year, the CardioWest total artificial heart has been a medical success.

Now, new management at CardioWest maker SynCardia Systems Inc. of Tucson is looking to translate that clinical success to the marketplace.

By February, SynCardia plans to submit for Food and Drug Administration approval a new pneumatic driver, or pump, to power the CardioWest, company officials said.

Earlier this year, two investors assumed key posts at SynCardia, a privately held company that employs 24 people.

Rodger Ford, an entrepreneur and investor who founded AlphaGraphics Printshops of the Future, quietly assumed the post of SynCardia’s chief executive officer in May. Also joining the company was David Mackstaller, a co-founder with Ford of Anthem Equity Group Inc., a Tucson real estate and business development company and a key SynCardia investor.

IBM overhauls IT at Pa. med center

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

Data storage systems developed in Tucson anchor a massive $402 million information technology overhaul at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center that could become a model for hospitals across the country.

IBM Storage Systems Division in Tucson, collaborating directly with Pitt, supplied three refrigerator-sized and two VCR-sized disk storage systems able to store all the medical records of UPMC’s 1.6 million patients, plus financial records, payroll data for 40,000 employees and other data. The patient records fill only one-quarter of the 120 terabyte capacity, said Joe Furmanski, technical project director at the medical center.

Equally important, the IBM TotalStorage DS 8300 and DS6800 systems, technology about a year old, is six times faster than Pittsburgh’s prior storage system and gives the 19-hospital system near instantaneous access to medical records,

Bashas’, C-Path join FDA study

Store customers to help determine safety of 2 drugs for lung disease

By David Wichner

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

The FDA is taking some of its first steps to reform the drug-approval process in Arizona, with a pilot drug-safety study to be launched at Bashas’ pharmacies in January.

The program, which will gather data about the side effects of two drugs to treat lung disease, is among the first initiatives of the Tucson-based Critical Path Institute,, a nonprofit partnership of the University of Arizona, the Food and Drug Administration and the technology development firm SRI International Inc.

In addition to the Bashas’ drug study, C-Path has won a $750,000 FDA grant to study heart failure using data from the University of Utah.

Drug firm to triple its size in Tucson

Sanofi-Aventis is scouting land in Oro Valley, elsewhere for expansion.

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

The world’s No. 3 pharmaceutical conglomerate plans to more than triple its size in the Tucson area.

Sanofi-Aventis, 1600 E. Hanley Blvd. in Oro Valley, is scouting land in Oro Valley, at the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park and at the planned biopark at 36th Street and Kino Parkway, said Jeff Weir, Oro Valley’s economic development administrator.

The company plans to add 100,000 square feet in the Tucson market to bolster the 25,000- and 10,000-square-foot facilities that employ 70 people in Oro Valley. It is unknown how many employees would be added, Sanofi-Aventis spokesman Marc Greene said.

“We have not made any decision,” Greene said. “We don’t have any definitive timeline. We are looking for an appropriate space but have not found one.”

Bioindustry gains seen as Arizona heeds plan

Author of ‘roadmap’ says the state is two years ahead of projections.

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

Three years into widespread statewide collaboration, Arizona and Tucson have made substantial progress in a 10-year plan to become a serious player in bioindustry.

The author of the Arizona Bioscience Roadmap, which gives detailed steps to develop a competitive bioindustry sector, said yesterday Arizona is two years ahead of projections in landing $160 million in federal research grants. Of that amount, more than 80 percent comes to Tucson.

Other industry advances include:

Related story:

Work begins on biotech center

• The establishment this year of the Critical Path Institute in Tucson to improve the drug development process

• The BIO5 Institute for Collaborative BioResearch at the University of Arizona

Team developing mirrors for largest, advanced telescope

Mike Cronin

The Arizona Republic

Dec. 11, 2005 12:00 AM

TUCSON – Imagine what you could see if you had eyes 28 feet in diameter.

Mountains on the moon would be a snap. Dry riverbeds and volcanoes on Mars would only take a squint.

Now, picture having seven eyes that large, with special infrared glasses to eliminate the atmosphere’s blurring effects. Your cavalcade in the sky would include giant planets orbiting other suns.

About 11 years from now, the University of Arizona plans to aim those seven eyes skyward from the top of a mountain in the Chilean Andes. The seven-mirror telescope, being built under the bleachers of the Wildcats football stadium, is expected to be the largest, most advanced and accurate in the world.