Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies

Driving Traffic-No or Low Cost Web Promotions

NACET — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:54:46 +0000

Kristin Keyes from Keyes Communications chats about her upcoming NACET lunch time seminar; Driving traffic to your website for no or very low cost. Listen as Kristin explains the many topics she is going to cover in her seminar and then the one tactic she feels is so valuable when tackling internet marketing.

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NACET — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:03:56 +0000

Test the podcast

Slides Go Digital

NACET — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:26:16 +0000

JOE FERGUSON Sun Staff Reporter | Posted: Sunday, June 20, 2010 5:20 am

Flagship Biosciences CEO and Chairman Steve Potts looks at a microscope slide from a biotech study with a NAC.ET data center server in the background. (Rick Wacha/Arizona Daily Sun)

Glass microscope slides with thin tissue slices are a common sight in most college biology courses.

Millions of new slides are produced every year for common medical tests as well as the research that is being performed by pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

But how the glass slides are handled does not reflect advances in technology — the slides are still shuffled from laboratory to laboratory as pathologists and techs review the results under powerful microscopes.

Maybe a little faster thanks to Fed Ex and UPS, but there are still rooms filled with the delicate pieces of glass.

A Flagstaff company is trying to revolutionize the industry, offering to bring companies largely dependent on slides into the 21st century.

Flagship Biosciences still might require companies to ship them the slides. But then they are transformed into digital pathology files that can be reviewed by a pathologist anywhere in the world.

Each electronic slide is scanned into ultra-high resolution, which allows pathologists and researchers the ability to zoom in to the tiniest detail.

“I call it the Google Earth for the microscope,” said Steve Potts, the CEO and chairman of Flagship Biosciences.

The company was founded in Boulder, Colo., by two renowned pathologists, Drs. David Young and Frank Voelker. Both men offer their expertise to clients, allowing smaller companies to have a well-respected pathologist consult on their slides.

Potts was hired earlier this year after the company moved to Flagstaff.

Having the top experts review new slides is only one of the advantages in using their digital services, said Potts.

The key, he says, is building a digital pathology library to compare hundreds of similar slides with the touch a of a few keystrokes. The libraries, often containing sensitive research, are not shared between clients.

In his office at the local small business incubator known as Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies, twin slide scanners hum nearby. The Aperio ScanScope scanners used by Flagship Biosciences are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and can scan hundreds of slides on a daily basis.

The company moved this year from Boulder to Flagstaff to tap into NACET’s integrated technologies.

A hyperfast connection to the Internet through NACET allows Flagship Biosciences to upload hundreds of images per file in a reasonably short time — they easily eat up a gigabyte or more. A secured server room behind several locked doors and with constant surveillance from security cameras assures that the client’s sensitive data is protected.

The company, which was founded last summer, has several clients.

Potts said despite the high costs of the scanners, the company has always made money.

“We were profitable from day one,” Potts said.

Potts said the company is looking to hire another pathologist for their digital pathology services in the near future. He believes that Northern Arizona University will be a good source for techs as the company grows.

Joe Ferguson can be reached at jferguson@azdailysun.com or 556-2253.

NACET ACCOMPANIES INCUBATOR GRADUATE, SENESTECH, TO MEXICO

NACET — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:24:56 +0000

Flagstaff, Arizona. The Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies (NACET) continues to support incubator graduate SenesTech with international research and support. SenesTech, Inc. (SenesTech) is a platform biotechnology company specializing in reproductive physiology. Its mission is to complete the development of non-surgical reproduction management technology that could profoundly change the world via wildlife and companion animal population control.

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Image Analysis Experts and Board-Certified Pathologists Team up to Offer Online Digital Pathology Training in Image Analysis

NACET — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:18:38 +0000

In response to a growing industry demand for quantitative analysis in pathology, Flagship Biosciences is offering on-line

training programs taught by a combination of image analysis experts and board-certified pathologists.

In response to a growing industry demand for quantitative analysis in pathology, Flagship Biosciences is offering on-line

training programs taught by a combination of image analysis experts and board-certified pathologists.

Digital Pathology Services Firm, Flagship Biosciences, Appoints New CEO

NACET — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:08:14 +0000

Flagship Biosciences, a pathologist-owned digital pathology services company headquartered in Flagstaff Arizona, recently appointed industry leader Steve Potts as CEO. Dr. Potts brings strong business experience in digital pathology from Aperio and Quest Diagnostics….

Digital Pathology Scanning Laboratory

Whats Up Here at NACET

NACET — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:12:57 +0000

Our last quarter has been extremely busy with the number of approved NACET clients increasing an astounding 40% in the last seven months. New clients include Sedona Energy Labs, Protein Genomics and Arizona Synthetic Fuels. These companies are creating new solar technologies, methanol fuel technologies to decrease CO2 emissions and even researching the growing of human skin and blood vessels for wound closure. NACET’s client list now includes a total of 15 internal and affiliate clients with almost a dozen more going through the evaluation process which is quite methodical. Since reaching an occupancy rate of 93% last year, we then graduated our largest client who had taken up 62% of available space as incubators should. We now have rented or committed 53% of the available space in the facility in only two and a half months! Additionally, the Flagstaff City Council has given approval for NACET to now compliment its high technology focus with a mixed use model. Under this arrangement, NACET will continue to provide assistance not only to companies working to commercialize technologies both domestically and internationally but also service based companies or companies who may not center solely on technology. NACET will also continue to function as the Technology Transfer Office for NAU and continues to assist with the commercialization of those technologies.

Several NACET clients are closing funding rounds including Ambature who completed raising a $2 million round. Their CEO Mr. Joe Byers was the first speaker in our new Executive Speaker Series that occurs every quarter at the College of Business at NAU. Mr. Byers not only spent the last 31 years as Vice President at Hewlett-Packard overseeing all of their international technology commercialization but was the lead inventor of the 32-bit computer chip. Mr. Michael Zervas, CEO of Mountain Heart Cardiology will be our next executive speaker on April 19th at 6:00pm at NAU.
During the next quarter, NACET will continue to identify appropriate clients for its facility and further develop its Mentor’s Council. The Mentor’s Council is an opportunity for business people to provide pro-bono time and seminars to companies in the community. So far, over 25 individuals have signed up for this program including attorneys, CPAs, marketing experts, commercialization specialists and others. You can find the list at http://www.nacet.org/about/core-consulting-team/mentor-2/

Joe Byers Speaks at First Series

NACET — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:20:31 +0000

NACET was extremely excited to have Mr. Joe Byers, CEO of client Ambature and former VP of Hewlett-Packard as its first Executive Speaker on January 28th. Mr. Byers discussed his work at HP and how technology has changed over time. He also discussed how companies have to respond to defend, license and develop their own intellectual property. The 70 plus people attending began asking questions within the first 10 minutes and continued a lively interaction for the duration of the discussion. The Executive Speaker Series is a partnership between NAU’s College of Business and NACET with the Flagstaff Chamber, City’s Economic Vitality Division and SBDC as supporting agencies. The series is designed to allow the community to hear firsthand business stories from some of the world’s top business leaders.

Opening Doors for Small Business…

NACET — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:42:05 +0000

On February 06th President Barack Obama in his “Weekly Address” reiterates his commitment to small business as the engine of our economy. President Obama uses Flagstaff’s very own Southwest Windpower as a great example of what can be done from a job creation standpoint if there is funding available to small businesses. The President describes how SWWP has sold over 160,000 wind turbines world wide all being manufactured right here in Flagstaff Arizona. SWWP is a client of NACET and utilizes the NACET facilities to train their dealers from all over the world. 24 dealers every month come into Flagstaff for 5 days to train on SWWP wind products. SWWP is the largest small turbine manufacture in the world.

Below is an excerpt from President Obama’s “Weekly Address” talking about Southwest Windpower.

Sedona Energy Labs Showcases Idea

NACET — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:26:41 +0000

Last week Sedona Energy Labs, one of NACET’s newest resident clients, had an open house in the conference room at NACET showcasing their newest solar product prototypes. The room was packed as observers took the time to discuss and view these awesome new creations. Sedona Energy Labs is a start-up company that is working on producing a tracking technology that would allow solar panels to re-orient themselves during the course of the day. Tuesday, the 5 man S.E.L . group assembled the 15’ x 9’ solar panels in the parking lot at NACET and carefully brought them into the Technology Incubator building on dollies. Normally this type of equipment is outside and so our perspective of how really massive it is can be way off! It is sitting inside the lobby now for several weeks. Come by and see the behemoth they have created!