Tag Archives: James Utterback

Study tracks evolution of world’s first 500 bio-nano firms

Elicia Maine, a professor at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business, is presenting right now (9:45 am – 12:45 pm EST, Feb. 18, 2013) at the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2013 meeting in Boston, Massachusetts in a session titled, Confluence of Streams of Knowledge: Biotechnology and Nanotechnology, about her study on bio-nano firms. Here’s more about her and her work in a Feb. 15, 2013 news release from Simon Fraser University (SFU), Note: I have removed a link,

Elicia Maine, an SFU associate professor of technology management and strategy at the Beedie School of Business, has co-authored a study that puts bio-nano firms under the microscope.

They are a new breed of business at the intersection of biotechnology and nanotechnology.

Maine will unveil a groundbreaking study on bio-nano firms in a seminar she has co-organized (with James Utterback, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor) at the world’s largest science research meeting.

Maine’s presentation, followed by a panel discussion, will take place at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) convention in Boston, Massachusetts on Monday, Feb. 18, 9:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. (Pacific time) Location: Room 300, Hynes Convention Centre.

The study, the first of its kind, tracks the evolution of the world’s first 500 bio-nano firms from their inception until now. “We are interested in seeing when these firms developed or acquired nanotechnology and biotechnology capabilities, and what they have done with those capabilities in terms of integrating the knowledge into new products and processes,” says Maine.

“We’ve classified the pioneers of this new breed of firms at the confluence of biotechnology and nanotechnology based on their primary role in innovation. They cover the areas of biopharma, drug delivery, diagnostics, biomaterials, medical devices, suppliers and instrumentation, and bioinformatics.”

Unfortunately, this is an unpublished study (I haven’t been able to find any reference to it online) but there is a video of Maine talking about her research on bio-nano firms,

ETA Feb. 21, 2012, There was a second news release from SFU dated Feb. 18, 2012, which provided some additional information and quotes about Maine’s research,

The study’s authors have identified, classified and analysed more than 500 of the world’s first companies in the emerging bio-nano sector. Their data shows these companies are taking hold not just in technology hotbeds such as California’s Silicon Valley and the northeastern United States but also across the country, and in Europe.

“We have watched the ecosystem emerge in terms of the number and type of firms entering,” says Maine.  “This confluence of technology silos in the emerging bio-nano sector is enabling radical innovation, new products and connections that didn’t exist before. Some of the things we’re talking about are targeted drug delivery, tissue engineering, enhanced medical diagnostics and new therapeutics.”

Between 2005 and 2011, the number of bio-nano firms nearly doubled to 507, with more than 100 of them emerging in North America alone.