Graduates

The EnterpriseWorks graduate, CU Aerospace, launched their satellite into space for the first time on December 12, 2018. Over a decade in the making, CU Aerospace along with University of Illinois engineering students developed the small CubeSail satellite. At 10PM, this satellite launched from New Zealand, hitching a ride on the Electron rocket from the commercial space company, Rocket Lab. This technology was developed when CU Aerospace lived inside the EnterpriseWorks incubator at the University of Illinois Research Park. Considered extremely unique in its field, CubeSail has a new technique for steering a “solar sail” with a solar-powered satellite propulsion system. In 2005, David Carroll of CU Aerospace wrote a proposal to NASA to test the CubeSail funding. Soon after in 2008, CU Aerospace won funding and contracted the University of Illinois to develop it. The CubeSail team watched Rocket Lab’s video livestream from a classroom at Talbot Lab. The team then headed to their ground station north of Urbana with hopes to communicate with CubeSail about five hours after it deployed from the rocket. The beginning of the mission was useful for testing the satellite itself, first developed at the University of Illinois Research Park. This was the first space mission for the team and the radio, powersystem, software and electronics were all tested by the team. If the CubeSail mission is deemed successful, CU Aerospace can commercialize the technology as an alternate propulsion system that can be used for deep space missions. “What’s unique about what we do at the university is that everything, all the designs, all the structures, are all put together and designed by our students. We start from scratch,” says Michael Lembeck, associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and director of UI’s Laboratory for Advanced Space Systems. The University of Illinois lab has four other missions lined up in the near future. The next will carry a spectrometer to measure different kinds of chemicals in the upper atmosphere, which will help future spacecraft engineers design better materials for re-entry. To view the full story, click here.

EnterpriseWorks graduate, Revolution Medicines, tees up for oncology IND for $56M Series B Venture Capital Investment. The capital has been raised from Nextech Invest, The Column Group, and Third Rock. Current CEO, Mark Goldsmith, said, “We appreciate the strong support shown by our founding and new investors in this significant financing that will fuel the advancement of our exciting SHP2 program and innovative pipeline.” Revolution Medicines began at the University of Illinois in 2014, founded by Professor Marty Burke. Its purpose was to develop a platform to rapidly open chemical space hereto inaccessible for drug development, while enabling Ph.D. chemist to focus on the utility of molecules rather than the synthesis of the molecules. Essentially, Revolution can attack targets that were previously considered undruggable. Since 2014, the company has begun to focus on oncology, and the $56M will help put the SHP2 program into the clinic. The SHP2 program focuses on a molecule that blocks SHP2, a protein that regulates cellular proteins, but also acts as a driver of certain cancers and as a signaling node in various regulatory pathways. Revolution will continue with its discovery and research and expects to test its SHP2 drug as a monotherapy and in combination with other treatments for patients with advanced cancers. “The raise of new capital, expansion of our executive team and board with seasoned leaders, and multiple presentations about progress in our SHP2 program at the recent AACR conference all reflects enormous momentum in our effort to outsmart cancer,” said Goldsmith. Read the full story here.

CHAMPAIGN – Scott White is impatient about a few things. One is how long it takes new technologies to get into the marketplace. So White, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois, decided to do something about it – namely, start his own company. Autonomic Materials Inc. took up residence in the University of Illinois Research Park last fall. Housed in the park’s EnterpriseWorks business incubator, the company aims to develop commercial applications for the “self-healing” technologies White and his colleagues are creating at the UI’s Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. First up: developing “self-healing” polymer-based coatings for ships, oil rigs and other metal structures exposed to corrosive saltwater environments. During his 18 years at the UI, White has studied materials and how they fracture. Inspired by biology and nature, he considered how living things heal and wondered whether those concepts might be used to help materials repair themselves. White and his colleagues used the techniques of “microencapsulation” and “microvascular materials systems” to distribute healing substances throughout the material. When their findings were published, they received interest from many quarters in applying the concepts to products. But White decided if the technology was going to get to market quickly, he should start his own company. “I never thought I would do this,” he said. But from his observations, large companies aren’t the most efficient when it comes to employing new technologies. “They’re very slow,” White said. “The pace I see the fruits of our labor being used is too slow for me.” He concluded that if he wanted to see that kind of technology applied and used, it would have to be done by a small company. Autonomic Materials incorporated in 2005, with members of the UI’s Autonomic Materials System Group accounting for most of the core investors. At this point, the company has two full-time employees: senior development scientist Magnus Andersson and development scientist Gerald Wilson. Both have doctorates from the UI, Andersson in fluids mechanics and Wilson in materials science. For now, Wilson spends much of his time on technical development, while Andersson acts as the lead on business development. More technically trained employees will be needed this year as the company ramps up its testing program for evaluating coating systems. White said Autonomic Materials is focusing on developing epoxies, polyurethanes, vinyl esters and silicon rubber with self-healing properties that can be used in marine environments. Among the likely end users: commercial shipbuilders, defense contractors and companies that need to protect oil production platforms and piping from corrosion. Though Autonomic Materials is smack-dab in the Midwest, its lab at EnterpriseWorks is equipped with salt fog chambers that replicate the corrosive environment of the sea. White said he hopes to have Autonomic Materials Inc.’s first commercial product formulated by April. During the initial stage of the company, it will focus on developing commercial products, optimizing materials systems and proving performance characteristics, he said. Once it develops clients, the company expects to partner with large manufacturing firms to supply the product. Eventually, White hopes the broader paint industry will adopt self-healing technology in its products. “I want to walk into Lowe’s and see a self-healing paint on the shelf,” he said. “I don’t see any reason why this can’t occur in three to five years.” White said the technology is “remarkably cost-effective” and there are no significant costs that would boost the price of paint. “There’s not a magic dust that costs an ungodly amount,” he said. “The materials are widely available.”