The Star Tribune and other venues are noting that Pawlenty joins board of technology firm called RedPrairie, but out here on the prairie, Pawlenty has gotten on board with a different sort of tech.
MiroMatrix, set to open a plant in Glencoe's industrial park on October 27, is a regenerative medicine firm that seeks to manufacture human organs for transplant from swine parts:
It sounds like something right out of a science fiction novel - making human organs from pigs - but Robert Cohen, chief executive officer of MiroMatrix Medical, said that is exactly what is planned when the start-up company opens its doors Oct. 27 with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony at the facility in Glencoe's industrial park.
MiroMatrix will be housed in the same building as Midwest Porcine Recovery, which opened its doors in 2010.
The two companies will be working in tandem - Midwest Porcine supplying the raw material and MiroMatrix the technology and know-how.
MiroMatrix is now in the process of finding more investors for its cutting-edge technology, and Cohen sees the potential for the new company as being great. "When all is said and done," Cohen told a chamber of commerce gathering last Friday, "we can make new organs for your body. It sounds like science fiction, but this can actually happen."
The McLeod County Chronicle reports today in Pawlenty joins MiroMatrix's board of directors:
Miromatrix Medical Inc., a regenerative medicine company engaged in the development of commercial products based upon its perfusion decellularization/recellularization technology licensed from the University of Minnesota, announced today that Timothy Pawlenty has joined its board of directors.
The Miromatrix Medical technology has the potential to enable the creation of fully biological replacement organs for the human body. In addition to the Company's internal efforts focused on the development of its first product - a biomesh for hernia repair and breast reconstruction - scientists around the globe are working with the Company's technology and are taking the first steps toward the creation of human organs including the liver, lung, kidney, pancreas and heart.
Miromatrix has enjoyed significant support and cooperation from both the State of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota. The city of Glencoe recently joined this list of supporters by attracting the company to its industrial park, where Miromatrix will move into a new laboratory constructed to its specifications within the facility of one of its primary suppliers.
Following his election to the Miromatrix Board of Directors on Oct. 17, Pawlenty said, "I am extremely excited to join the board of a company that has the potential to improve human health in an historic way within its reach. In my view, Miromatrix likely will be Minnesota's next medical and business miracle."
The company's tissue regeneration technology grabbed headlines in the New York Times in January 2008, but pioneering scientist Doris Taylor was soon shown the door as the government subsidized Miromatrix moved her discovery toward the lucrative biomedical marketplace. Med City News reported in May:
Even as Cohen prepares to raise capital and figure out a new product, he has had to deal with some dirty laundry being aired involving the ouster of Taylor from the company’s board. Cohen declined to comment on the matter, but said that her absence will not hurt the company’s prospects and fundraising efforts. The co-inventor remains on the board.
Miromatrix has already raised $1.4 million in a seed round that included two $250,000 loans from the state of Minnesota. Impressed by Taylor’s success and attracted by the hope that Miromatrix might one day spawn a regenerative medicine industry in Minnesota, state officials provided those loans in 2010. However, the loans don’t place any limits on where the company needs to be based, Cohen said. The company needs to begin repaying those loans in 2015.
The company was seeking $5 million in new funding when the article was published--but Bluestem is guessing that Pawlenty, whose abortive presidential campaign is still drowning in debt, isn't on board to raise private sector money.
Given his campaign videos resemblance to sci-fi blockbusters like Independence Day, maybe he'll be in charge of producing promotional clips. Or maybe it's to snag more government subsidies.
Or maybe it's that dirty laundry? Perhaps Pawlenty's there to make sure the academic scientists don't get too biggety around the job creators. The Star Tribune reported in April's Lavish praise, then a quick ouster for star U scientist:
"Because I'm a scientist and because I'm curious, I asked a lot of questions, and that wasn't particularly well received," she said.
Taylor put her questions, including how the company was spending its limited cash, into writing for a July board meeting.
"We all had what I thought was an open, honest conversation, and I left,'' she said. . . .
Taylor's dismissal occurred during a period of financial instability, according to Peter Bianco, DEED's paid observer of Miromatrix. He wrote last September that the business was on the verge of collapse unless new money could be raised.
In response, DEED provided a second $250,000 loan to attract a matching amount of private money. The cash bought the company time to work on two key unfinished initiatives: introducing its first product, which Cohen wouldn't identify, and raising more money.
Bob Isaacson, who manages business subsidies for DEED, said the level of Taylor's involvement doesn't matter as long as the company has her technology and is moving forward. But experts say that university spinoffs are far more likely to flourish when the founding scientist stays on during the early years. . . .
The MNDaily reported on the July 2010 ouster here. Having underfunded the U for years, T-Paw has a record of putting those research geeks in their place.
Photograph: Nope, kids, MiroMatrix's research isn't like that.
Great reporting ... it re-awakens memories from the last session when Republicnas included cloning bans in non-related funding bills as well as HR 998 (sponsored by Cornish, Drazkowski, Gunther, Torkelson and many more) and SF 695 (Fischbach) and the reaction from the bio-tech industry that feared it would kill jobs and research.
So if Minnesota had enacted the cloning ban, not only would it have pushed companies to move jobs out of state, but more than likely caused the default on the state loans.
Posted by: Minnesota Central | Oct 20, 2011 at 07:25 AM