Revolutionary Plastics Prove Perfect Pitch

By Eric Schurr

Lawrence Sita

Sponsored by the university's Office of Technology Commercialization, the College of Chemical and Life Sciences, and MTECH Ventures, the Bioscience Day's first "Professor Venture Fair" let University of Maryland faculty inventors pitch their new technologies to a panel of nine venture capitalists from Maryland and Virginia. Presenters were judged on clarity of pitch, commercial viability, and licensing potential.

Sita won for a technology he's developed over eight years that can produce pure plastic products, with no additives or as blends, in an infinite variety of forms. "This award validates my interest to further develop this technology for commercial applications," said Sita. "Having the opportunity to vet this invention through venture capitalists is significant, as they represent field experts you are likely to do business with in the future."

Make The Pitch

Plastic in motion: Click to see video

In an open public setting, Sita and the other faculty presenters had only three minutes to convince the venture capitalists why their invention would be a good investment and four minutes to answer questions about non-scientific things like business models. "It made me step out of my comfort zone," said Sita. "It's easy to say you do great science, but you have to think hard about whether it's commercially viable technology."

With help from MTECH Ventures and other mentors, the scientists worked on honing their years of knowledge and expertise into only three minutes. "We know how to present scientific talks for an hour or more, but it's more difficult to say more in less time," Sita said. "It forces you to restructure our thoughts, because it's not just the venture capitalists we're talking to, ultimately it's the general public too."

Future Plastics

Plastics with potentially dangerous additives have been banned in 41 countries, as well as in California, leaving a gap for new products. Sita hopes to fill that void by launching a company around his technology, which he would license from the University of Maryland.

Through a single catalyst and processes protected under four patents, Sita can produce polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and other polyolefin-based plastics from oil-derived raw materials that are 100 percent recyclable and require no chemical additives to achieve a wide range of properties of technological importance. Both PE and PP-based materials are also currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for internal and external medical use and have no known associated health risks.

Sita can direct this new technology using a single catalyst to prepare a wide variety of end-products that include oils, adhesives, coatings, films, fibers, rubber, and both rigid and flexible plastics without having to rely on chemical additives or other blending agents to impart the range of physical properties accessible.

"The traditional paradigm for developing new plastic grades is to use a trial-and-error approach, which might involve taking thousands of catalysts and screening them in the hopes that you find one to make a specific grade of PE- or PP-based plastic," Sita said. That process can take years.

"If you tell me you need adhesives with a specific set of characteristics, we can generate ten different materials around these target parameters within a couple of days, without having to go back to the drawing board each time."

Sita's work is funded by grants funds from the National Science Foundation and the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO). W.R. Grace also supported a graduate student intern to study potential the commercial viability of his catalyst technology in a close partnership with Sita and the University of Maryland.

Sita's mentors have included 2005 Nobel Prize Winners Robert H. Grubbs California Institute of Technology, and Richard R. Schrock, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Best Inventor Pitch

"Best Inventor Pitch" was hosted by Terry Chase Hazell, president and CEO of SD Nanosciences Inc., a Maryland based biotechnology start-up company. Judges were: Joe Del Guercio, CNF Investments; Mark Frantz, RedShift Ventures; Christine Copple, Starise Ventures; George Pipia, Sr., MedImmune Inc.; Robb Doub, New Markets Growth Fund; Evan Jones, jVen Capital; and Jigar Raythatha, Red Abbey Ventures.

"It was fantastic," Sita said. "It's not just a matter of winning, it starts the ball rolling. The University of Maryland and the state have really put together strong programs, coupled with strong units on campus, to help us explore whether our discoveries can be commercially successful."

Bioscience Day

Bioscience Research & Technology Review Day features research talks, presentations, mini-symposia and demonstrations by university and guest scientists. The day provides a unique opportunity for executives and professionals in industry and government to discover the most recent advances in bioscience and biotechnology at the University of Maryland and to promote the potential for academic-industry-government collaboration; to meet University scientists and interact with graduate student researchers; to network with colleagues who share an interest in the promotion of bioscience and the bioscience industry; and to recruit employees and investigate job opportunities.