UTSA opens New Venture Incubator on campus 

The University of Texas at San Antonio has opened a new facility on campus that will offer office and laboratory space to technology entrepreneurs as a way to help them grow their companies.

The UTSA Center for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship opened up the New Venture Incubator as part of its ongoing efforts to foster the development of more home-grown tech firms. The New Venture Incubator is located on UTSA’s Main Campus and is managed by the Center for Innovation and Technology Enterpreneurship. UTSA’s College of Engineering and College of Business founded the Center for Innovation and Technology Enterpreneurship back in 2007.

Pharmaceutical company ViroXis Corp. will be the first business to occupy space in UTSA’s incubator facility. ViroXis is working to identify and patent botanically-derived compounds that can be used in infectious disease treatments as well as cancer therapies. Over the next two to three years, ViroXis will work to develop a cost-effective and proven botanical drug that will target the human papilloma virus (HPV). The virus causes skin and genital wart infections and is the leading cause of cervical cancer. Some 20 million people in the United States between the ages of 15 and 49 become infected with HPV.

“By working with promising new companies that are aligned with the university’s research strengths, we create a win-win partnership that benefits the university through increased research funding and IP licenses while providing start-ups with connections to the support they need to become successful free-standing enterprises,” says Cory Hallam, director of the UTSA Center for Innovation and Technology Enterpreneurship.

UTSA is working to become a national research university. The university has 29,000 students.