News

OrthoAccel - $750,000 - February 28, 2008

Houston-based OrthoAccel Technologies, Inc., was awarded $750,000 to further develop and commercialize its orthodontic device, the Celerect.  The Celerect is a revolutionary device, based on a technology that cuts treatment time for braces in half.

OrthoAccel was the winner of BioHouston's 2007 Michael E. Debakey Life Science Award, and is a joint client of both the Houston Technology Center Acceleration program and BioHouston.  Click here for more...

StarVision - $750,000 - January 9, 2008

StarVision Technologies, Inc., a Research Valley-based aerospace research and development company, was awarded $750,000 to help complete its SpeedStar product, a revolutionary new altitude determination sensor system that improves the performance and reduces costs for satellites. 

The company will become a joint client of both the Houston Technology Center Acceleration program and the Research Valley Innovation Center, a science and technology incubator/accelerator recently established by the Research Valley Partnership and various Texas A&M University System entities.  Click here for more...

Bellicum Pharmaceuticals - $1,450,000 - October 9, 2007

Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, was awarded $1,450,000 to help develop its next generation therapeutic vaccines for the treatment of cancer, based on technology developed at Baylor College of Medicine.  Click here for more...

Laser Tissue Welding - $160,000 - October 9, 2007

Laser Tissue Welding, Inc., a biotherapeutic company, was awarded $160,000 to help develop its innovative sutureless surgical therapies using human serum albumin based biodegradable biomaterials to join, repair and create homeostasis on surfaces of solid viscera organs such as the liver, spleen and kidney involved in trauma, cancer and transplantation even in the presence of coagulation failure or therapeutic anticoagulation.  Click here for more...

Thrombovision - $1,500,000 - October 9, 2007

ThromboVision, Inc., a biomedical diagnostics company was awarded $1,500,000 to help develop its ThromboGuide Platelet Function Analyzer.  Click here for more...

Visualase - $750,000 - October 9, 2007

Visualase, Inc., a biomedical diagnostics company, was awarded $750,000 to help develop its Visualase Thermal Therapy System, a revolutionary tool for destructive treatment of cancer or other malignancies using patented laser and MRI-based guidance systems.  Click here for more...

Lynntech receives $600,000 ETF Award, May 9, 2007

Lynntech, Inc., a research and development company, has been awarded $600,000 to help develop its high power, hydrogen/air fuel cell technology. Click here for more...

PLx Pharma receives $2M ETF Award, March 16, 2007

PLx Pharma, a pharmaceutical company, has been awarded $2,000,000 to help develop new formulations for safer and more effective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) currently on the market, such as Aspirin and Ibuprofen.  PLx will use a platform technology licensed from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and will focus on reducing the potential life threatening gastrointestinal toxicities related with chronic use of NSAIDs.  Click here for more...

Molecular LogiX receives $794,520 ETF Award, March 16, 2007

Molecular LogiX has been awarded $794,520 to develop a "first in class" therapeutic cancer treatment.  This treatment will optimze the company's Pan-HER Anti-Cancer Ligand, a genetically engineered version of the naturally occurring growth hormone that blocks the cell receptor necessary for growth of tumor cells.  In addition to providing oncologists and their patients with a new, more robust drug to treat cancer, this drug has the potential to be the first of a new family of drugs to treat other diseases resulting from abnormal ligand receptor interactions.

Molecular LogiX has been working in collaboration with scientists from the Baylor College of Medicine and University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, assisted by the South Montgomery County Woodlands Economic Development Partnership.  Click here for more...

NanoComposites receives $1.5M ETF Award, October 4, 2006

NanoComposites has been awarded $1,500,000 to commercialize its proprietary process for the functionalization of carbon nanotubes.  In 2007, NanoComposites will be producing uniquely enhanced elastomers for use in mission critical seals used in upstream oil and gas drilling operations.  NanoComposites has been working in collaboration with Rice University and assisted by the Greater Houston Partnership.  Click here for more...

Nanospectra Biosciences receives $1.25M ETF Award, October 4, 2006

Nanospectra Biosciences has been awarded $1,250,000 to fund the clinical development of its AuroLease Cancer Therapy.  Nanospectra's primary focus is the development and commercialization of AuroLase, which is broadly applicable to virtually all solid tumors.  Nanospectra Bioscience's collaboration partners are Rice University, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTMB at Galveston and the Greater Houston Partnership.  Click here for more...

CNAP/CNI receives $975,000 ETF Award, October 4, 2006

The Carbon Nanotube Acceleration Project (CNAP), an operating division of Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc. (CNI) has been awarded $975,000 to help bring to market a new fuel cell technology that is expected to power the next generationof portable and wireless electronic devices.  The technology was developed by the late Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry, Professor Rick Smalley, at Rice University.  CNAP's collaboration partners are Rice University and the Economic Development Alliance for Brazoria County.  Click here for more...

Endothelix receives $1M ETF Award, July 21, 2006

Endothelix has been awarded $1,000,000 for the development of its low-cost non-invasive VENDYS procedure, a new technology for the measurement of vascular reactivity, a marker of endothelial dysfunction, by monitoring temperature at one's fingertips.  Endothelix's first technology was licensed from the Texas Heart Institute and the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.  Researchers from the University of Houston, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas A&M University are also actively involved with Endothelix.  Click here for more...

itRobotics receives $750,000 ETF Award, July 21, 2006

itRobotics has been awarded $750,000 for the development of robotic in-line inspection systems for tubular plant equipment and non-piggable pipelines, developed in collaboration with Rice University.  itRobotics' application was sponsored by the Greater Fort Bend Economic Development Council.  Click here for more...

CorInnova receives $500,000 ETF Award, June 1, 2006

CorInnova has been awarded $500,000 for the development of heart assist technologies that lead to heart recovery rather than heart replacement.  The core technology is a device that enhances heart recovery through restoration of proper cardiac motion.  This is a Texas A&M University technology invented by Dr. John Criscione, CorInnova's CEO.  CorInnova's application was sponsored by the Research Valley Partnership.  Click here for more...

Moneymakers article in Houston Chronicle - March 16, 2006

Click here to see an interview with Aruna Viswanathan, Vice President and Director of Operations, for the Houston Technology Center in the Houston Chronicle.

HTC Selected to serve as Gulf Coast RCIC - September 8, 2005

The Houston Technology Center (HTC) announced on Friday that it has been selected, in collaboration with Greater Houston Partnership (GHP) and all the Economic Development Organizations (EDO) within its region, to serve as the Gulf Coast Regional Center of Innovation and Commercialization (RCIC) for the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF).  The Gulf Coast RCIC will service 30 counties in its region and accept all funding applications for energy and technology companies within its region.

The TETF was created in June 2005 when Governor Rick Perry signed House Bill 1765 allocating $200 million for the fund whose goals are to improve research at Texas universities, assist small to mid-size technology firms to launch sooner and significantly reduce the time it takes to move new life-changing inventions out of the lab and into the hands of consumers.

“Supporting emerging technologies in Texas will help us cultivate and keep our home-grown technologies and also attract new business and research. This will create new jobs and enhance our competitive position as a global technology leader” Said Mark Ellison, Director of the Emerging Technology Program. He added: “The program will also encourage stronger collaboration and greater synergies between the numerous economic organizations within each region”.

Eight RCICs will assist the administration of the fund by receiving applications from individuals and companies, researching each application and submitting recommendations to the Texas Emerging Technology Committee. The committee will then make its recommendations to the Governor, Lt. Governor and Speaker who will determine quarterly which projects will be funded.

“HTC is pleased to expand its outreach to include College Station, Galveston, Beaumont, Port Arthur and many other locales. While we have the infrastructure in place to serve as a focal point, we will build on input from all the various partners in the program. Our success will depend on the collaborative effort of all the organizations involved” said Paul Frison, President and CEO of the Houston Technology Center. “We are thrilled to see such support for emerging technology companies from the Governor and are committed to help the program as much as we can”, he added.

Governor Rick Perry and Mark Ellison will be featured speakers at the HTC Technology Showcase in October and discuss the new Texas Emerging Technology Fund.

Houston Technology Center (HTC) accelerates the commercialization of emerging technology companies in Houston. A 501(C)(3) corporation and the center of entrepreneurship in Houston, HTC assists Houston-based entrepreneurs within several key sectors: Energy, Information Technology, Life Sciences, Nanotechnology and NASA-originated technologies.