About the companies
- Virtual Incision Corporation is the result of a collaboration between UNMC surgeon Dmitry Oleynikov, M.D., and UNL mechanical engineer Shane Farritor, Ph.D. Drs. Oleynikov and Farritor will develop and commercialize the first inexpensive, remotely operated, in vivo miniature robotic surgical tools and camera systems that operate within the abdominal cavity. Their research has been funded by the Department of Defense, NASA and National Institutes of Health.
- Ximerex, Inc., grew from research conducted by William Beschorner, M.D., at UNMC and Johns Hopkins University on xenotransplantation — transplanting organs from one species to another. This would help address a severe shortage of human organ donors. Dr. Beschorner has received funding for his research from the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Standards and Technology.
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Two companies that spun off from UNMC research — Virtual Incision Corporation of Lincoln, and Ximerex, Inc., of Blair — are highlighted in a nationwide “success stories” report recently released by
The Science Coalition.
The report identifies 100 U.S. companies that sprang from breakthrough research conducted at universities and sponsored by a federal agency.
Two other companies highlighted in the report — J.A. Woollam Co., Inc., of Lincoln; LI-COR Biosciences of Lincoln — spun off of research done at the University of Nebraska.
“These companies — which represent a small sampling of all the businesses spun off from University of Nebraska research — demonstrate that one of the best strategies for ensuring strong economic growth is investment in university research,” said NU President James B. Milliken, J.D.
According to The Science Coalition, the 100 companies profiled in the report collectively employ more than 100,000 people and have annual revenues of nearly $100 billion.
Universities conduct the majority of basic research — 55 percent in 2008 — in the United States. The federal government is the primary source of funding for basic research, which is key to fundamental scientific discoveries.