MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition Winner Will Open Up Carbohydrate-based Drug Discovery

Media reports say the recovery may be underway: the students were ready
at The MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition. This is no lighthearted
extracurricular; contest alumni are worth millions–a number of former
teams have gone public or are acquired. Over 400 people were entered in
this year’s competition.

The MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition announced Ancora
Pharmaceuticals as the Robert P. Goldberg Grand Prize winner with
Greenfuel and FishLogic selected as equal runners-up at a ceremony on
May 15. The winner received $30,000 and the runners-up received $10,000
each. MIT’s competition has launched over 75 companies, including Akamai
Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM) and other companies acquired by the likes of
Microsoft, Motorola and Broadcom.

Ancora Pharmaceuticals developed a technology to break open the field of
complex carbohydrate drug discovery and speed drug development by orders
of magnitude. Few carbohydrate-based drugs exist today because of the
slow process of synthesizing carbohydrates. Ancora is targeting
endocrine disease, coagulation disorders, infectious disease and cancer.

Runners up were FishLogic and Greenfuel. FishLogic is developing chips
that deliver new signal processing capabilities for a wide range of
electronic devices. By processing data in an analog format instead of a
digital format, they achieve orders of magnitude improvement in power
efficiency, speed and cost.

Greenfuel develops bioreactor technology that uses algae to remove
pollutants from the output of electric power generation and then uses
the biomass byproduct as a fuel. The result is dramatic cost savings in
reducing emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon dioxide (CO2).
This technology grew out of bioreactor research done for NASA’s Space
Station.

"This is a reward for a lot of hard work by our team, and a recognition
that this is a really big opportunity," said Jeremy Bender, of Ancora
Pharmaceuticals, a student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. "These
companies have potential for huge impact in their fields," said Michael
Feinstein, a competition judge and senior principal at Atlas Venture.

The seven finalists were chosen from 114 entrants. Judges, including
noted venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, selected the winning teams
based on their potential of becoming "tomorrow’s leading firms." The
final judging was so tough this year that one judge, Rich Kivel, CEO of
Molecularware, said, "We were kicked out of the room, because we were
taking too long."

Each finalist team presented its plan to an audience of venture
capitalists and business leaders at the Final Awards in MIT’s Kresge
Auditorium. The event reached a global audience through a live Internet
broadcast. Along with the winners, many of the finalists and other
entrants are planning to launch their businesses. "Even in this economy,
some of the entrants have already turned down job offers to pursue their
plans," said Feinstein.

The ceremony’s keynote speaker was Patrick McGovern Jr. MIT `59, Founder
and Chairman of the International Data Group (IDG), the world’s leading
technology publishing, research and event management company. The
Patrick McGovern Jr. Entrepreneurship Award this week honored the MIT
$50K for significant contributions to entrepreneurship at the Institute.

The MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition is the world leader among
business plan competitions. The strength of the MIT Competition over
others is the combination of students from one of the top management
schools in the county and the top engineering and science school., It
also has tremendous educational backing: workshops, 11 MIT Sloan
entrepreneurship classes, professional mentors for all semifinalists,
and the network of MIT entrepreneurs who have formed over 4,000
companies. The MIT $50K organizers each year share best practices with
competitions around the world through their Global Startup Workshop. The
MIT competition has been called the "granddaddy of business plan
competitions" by the San Francisco Chronicle and "the one to watch."

Netlinks

~ MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition
http://50k.mit.edu/

~ Finalists at the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition
http://50k.mit.edu/50k/2002/2002_50k_finalists.html

~ Judging at the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition
http://50k.mit.edu/about/judging.html

~ MIT Entrepreneurship Center

Home Page

~ MIT Sloan School of Management
http://sloancf.mit.edu/cfsrc/buildDome.cfm?page=http://mitsloan.mit.edu/home/main.html

~ Best Netlinks to MIT Sloan School of Mangement
http://www.business2.com/webguide/0,1660,56752%7C121%7C1,FF.html

Massachusetts Institute of Technology students who started a
company that develops drugs for difficult-to-treat diseases have been named winners of an
entrepreneurship contest at the university.

The Associated Press NJ.com

The founders of Ancora Pharmaceuticals received the Robert P. Goldberg grand prize at
MIT’s annual $50,000 Entrepreneurship Competition Wednesday evening. The contest
winners were announced at an awards ceremony at the school’s Cambridge campus.

A team of judges narrowed 144 teams of business, engineering and science students to a
field of seven finalists.

The Ancora team, who received $30,000 as the winner, has developed technology to
expand and speed development of complex carbohydrate drugs, which are slow to
manufacture. Ancora intends to target endocrine disease, coagulation disorders, infectious
disease and cancer.

Two runners-up in the 13-year-old contest each won a $10,000 prize. They were:

— FishLogic is developing a new kind of analog signal processor to enhance the capabilities
of portable electronics and image processing.

— Greenfuel is developing technology that uses algae to remove pollutants from the output
of electric power generation, and then uses the biomass byproduct as a fuel, saving money
and reducing gas emissions.

http://www.nj.com/newsflash/business/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?g0352_BC_MA–EntrepreneurConte&&news&newsflash-financial