Biotech venture funding metrics continue at historic highs, highlighting that the robust financing environment in the public markets continues to fuel the private markets as well. – Bruce Booth, partner Atlas Venture in Data Snapshot: Venture-Backed Biotech Financing Riding High, April 2015 Here in Madison, Wisconsin, you might not know that was true if you
Tag: Wisconsin
Case Study: When does “technology” turn into medical device
This semester I’ve embarked on an adventure to co-teach a class in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Masters in Biotechnology program. What sold me on the experience was the majority of my responsibility is interacting with second year students on their final major project (essentially their thesis). That said, I will give one lecture, which will be “health
Biotechnology & Madison High Schools
At the Biotech in WI Meetup this week, we learned about the Biotechnology elective at West, Memorial and La Follette high schools in Madison. Lisa Wachtel, Science Coordinator for Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD), provide background about one of the hands-on laboratory opportunities available during the school day. MMSD Biotechnology Program Needs Although the discussion
Is Biotech Venture Capital Dying?
This post was inspired by the Xconomy story Wisconsin 2013 VC Activity Drops, Shifts to Software from Biotech. To recap, Wisconsin has historically fared very poorly by virtually any measure related to venture capital. And 2013 was ugly form a numbers perspective: VC funding in the state dropped from $95.3M in 2012 to $35.9M. (Here’s
The Gift of Achievement – through Activity
Tri 4 Schools is a non-profit organization that uses athletic events as a platform to get kids active and fight childhood obesity. I am helping raise $500 for Madison-based Tri 4 Schools by the end of 2013 to pay for shuttle transportation for kids that otherwise couldn’t get to a Tri 4 Schools event. I
Early Stage Biotech Investing in Wisconsin: Hot or Not?
In this post, I want to look at funding, particularly via angel investing, of Wisconsin biotech companies over the last few years. On the national scene, Bruce Booth of Atlas Venture suggested in early 2013 that the number of new biotech startups is down and “worth watching closely”. In March, Luke Timmerman of Xconomy wrote
Next Community Experiment: WI Biotech Newsletter
I am trying a new community building experiment: aggregating Wisconsin biotech industry news into newsletter format. I’ve been pondering this approach for a while now and the most recent Biotech in Wisconsin meetup tipped the scales. Katie Hill from Luminex engaged the group around social media in the life sciences and indicated that scientists are
WI VC Investment: Down (& Out?) in Q3 ’13
The venture capital investment numbers are out for the Q3 2013 (courtesy of NVCA & PwC). I am usually not particularly interested in the quarterly fluctuations but the Wisconsin numbers caught my eye, particularly relative to the national data. National VC Environment The national data across industries puts investment from Q1 to Q3 in 2013 at $20.7B, which compares favorably
Biotechnology at the World Dairy Expo
When people talk about biotechnology, agriculture is not necessarily top of mind for many people. Getting caught up in your own corner of biotech is easy to do, even when you learn about the billion dollar big data acquisition Monsanto or read that agriculture is expected to be the primary driver behind sales of unmanned
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