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Not long ago, the rivalry between the University of Southern Mississippi and Ole Miss ran so deep, it was unthinkable for students from both schools to agree on most anything.

Today, graduate students from both schools' polymer science and medicinal chemistry departments are not only working well together, they're birthing a young crop of biotech companies.

"Three years ago, the people involved at Ole Miss and Southern Miss came together with the realization that the biotech industry was booming and that many of the innovations were to be found at the interface of polymer science and medicinal chemistry," said Ken Malone, program director at Southern Miss. "Having great science, protecting intellectual property, researching the market, obtaining financing, scaling up production and addressing regulatory issues are all important parts of creating a viable biotech business. Putting together all of these pieces isn't just a challenge for science-trained individuals. It's also outside of the standard training in business and other disciplines. Understanding how all these pieces fit together is a crucial part of the IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeship) training."

Thanks to $3.6 million in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) over a five-year period, both schools established the IGERT program — Entrepreneurship at the Interface of Medicinal and Polymer Sciences (EMPS) — in 2003. John Williamson directs the Ole Miss program.

Ablitech, Inc., has risen as one of the program's star developments. Assisted by principal investigator Douglas Wicks of Southern Miss' polymer science department, graduate students established the biotech company to create and develop polymer platform technologies for drug delivery. Their initial focus: the drug-eluting cardiac stent market.

"Drug-eluting stents are a perfect example of the revolutionary new medical treatments that can be developed by working at the interface of two cutting-edge science fields," said Ablitech COO Nick Hammond, an Ole Miss graduate student. "Our polymer product lines, AbLute™ and AbCoast™, will provide polymer systems with improved drug compatibility, controlled drug delivery profiler, higher drug loading capacities and tailored physical properties. The goal of these polymeric characteristics is not only to fill the void seen in current applications, but also to prevent any recurrence of cardiac blockage in the vicinity of the implanted medical device. The initial drug candidate, AbSent™, will provide improved selectivity and potency with increased efficacy for the target application."

Ablitech placed third in the 2006 FedEx Business Plan Competition.

"Luckily, we had the benefit of instruction from a Business Oversight Team (BOT), a team of business experts who graciously volunteered their time and expertise and helped guide us through our introduction to the business world," said Hammond. "We presented what we thought were well-developed ideas and received feedback as you might expect from 'The Donald' on an episode of 'The Apprentice.' We quickly discovered that it was a struggle to step out of the chemistry lecture mode that we had developed so well over the last several years and step into the business presentation mode. The BOT was always ready to help and clarify any areas of misconveyance of our business ideas, products or applications. These mock venture capital pitches well prepared us to step up to the next level of business development and gave us the confidence to grab hold of the reins of innovation."

Before implementing the EMPS program, educational leaders held roundtable discussions with local small business owners to learn about issues they faced in starting companies and the issues they believed were critical for students to consider at the early stage of forming their own companies. Several business experts helped fill in the gaps by giving lectures on subjects ranging from intellectual property protection and choosing an appropriate company structure to the role of MURA companies and the university.

"Protecting intellectual property is a complicated formula of understanding what can be patent/copyright/trademark-protected, when it's better to keep a trade secret, how to enter secrecy agreements for joint development and importantly, when to seek the limited time protection of a patent," said Malone.

Thirty students from Ole Miss medicinal chemistry and Southern Miss polymer science departments have enrolled in EMPS, which has led to a new graduate minor in technology commercialization at Southern Miss. Another 30 students from outside these departments have participated in various courses. The program includes the Department of Economic and Workforce Training at Southern Miss to provide a unique entrepreneurial component to give PhD scientists the skills necessary to start a small business or participate in the business aspects of a corporation.

"Prior to this program, most of our brightest tech students were leaving Mississippi to work for big companies," said Malone, who pointed out the biotech workforce exceeds 12 percent growth annually. "Now, they're focusing on staying here and starting their own companies. (And) through those exercises, the students develop a camaraderie that will take them well beyond graduate school."

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