By Bob Mims, The Salt Lake Tribune Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
May 21--Six Utah companies and their high-tech creations on Thursday won the Stoel Rives LLP Utah Innovation Awards, and Gov. Olene Walker praised them as the newest members of an elite society.
Citing a Utah technical legacy that includes invention of television, the artificial heart, CD-ROM technology and digital word processing, Walker hailed the winners for upholding a state tradition of "new discoveries and new ideas.
"Utah innovation has enabled the rise of many high-tech companies," she said in opening the awards presentation luncheon. "We are the entrepreneurs of the country."
Thursday's winners in the statewide contest were selected from 18 finalists by a committee of 35 experts from the ranks of private industry, government and higher education:
--In the biotechnology category, partners Idaho Technology Inc. and awards host University of Utah won for their "High Resolution Mutation Scanning" project. The invention increases the potential for detecting and identifying disease-causing mutations in DNA samples.
--Myriad Genetics Inc. won in the chemicals, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals category for its drug, Flurizan. The drug is being developed for the treatment and prevention of prostate cancers, but also has shown promise against Alzheimer's disease.
--The medical devices innovation award went to Zars Inc. for its work on the "Controlled Heat-Assisted Drug Delivery" patch. The patch has been shown to enhance delivery of drugs via the skin.
--Forum Systems won in the computer software and Web services division. Its Forum Systems Web Services Security Solutions suite won praise for its effectiveness against information and identity theft, digital eavesdropping and hackers.
--Broadcast International's CodecSys product won in the electrical devices category. The universal serial bus device, half the size of a normal house key, enables high quality video and audio transmission at lower than the present bandwidths currently required for Internet users.
--The winner in the mechanical devices portion of the contest was Ceramatec Inc., creator of a "nano-ceramic," which has applications in production of optical connectors and fire-retardant building materials.
In addition to the six companies honored, Rex Spendlove, founder of HyClone Laboratories, was recognized as the Utah Engineering Experiment Station's 2004 Pathfinder -- an award for lifetime technology achievement.
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(c) 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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