Caught up in the pre-ramping of SXSW, I missed the announcement (or rather, the HUGE announcement) that The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) celebrated the grand opening of its New Venture Incubator (NVI), a facility with laboratory, office and meeting spaces to support technology start-ups in the greater San Antonio region. The incubator, housed on UTSA’s Main Campus, will serve as a bridge between San Antonio entrepreneurs and the region’s research and development community.

The NVI is designed to support companies that are commercializing UTSA intellectual property or sponsoring research in UTSA labs that can lead to the generation of new UTSA IP. The NVI will fit into the broader technology commercialization environment of San Antonio as an early phase source of new ventures.

As part of this connection to a broader entrepreneurial ecosystem, UTSA established a Commercialization Council that includes an influential group of top executives who meet monthly to advance the region’s status in technology entrepreneurship.

“The goal of the Commercialization Council is to develop the linkages between organizations that can play a key role in the region’s technology-based entrepreneurship. Ultimately, we want tech entrepreneurs to look at San Antonio the same way they look at Austin or Silicon Valley. We want them to know they are welcome here, and we have strong partners who can help them grow their businesses,” said Cory Hallam, director of the UTSA Center for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship.

Currently, the Council includes representatives from UTSA, Southwest Research Institute, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative, Biomed SA, South Texas Technology Management, The Small Business Development Center and AT&T.

“UTSA recognizes the potential of establishing a campus-based technology incubator for San Antonio entrepreneurs that have direct ties to the university,” said Hallam. “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.”

Bio-pharmaceutical ViroXis Corp. will be the first start-up to occupy space in UTSA’s incubator. The company aims to identify and patent botanically-derived compounds for use in infectious disease and cancer therapies. Over the next two to three years in UTSA’s incubator, ViroXis will work to develop a rapid, cost-effective and proven botanical prescription drug targeting human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV, which causes skin and genital wart infections, is the leading cause of cervical cancer. Currently, approximately 20 million people in the United States between the ages of 15 and 49 are infected with HPV.

The University of Texas at San Antonio is one of the fastest growing higher education institutions in Texas and the second largest of nine academic universities and six health institutions in the UT System. As a multicultural institution of access and excellence, UTSA aims to be a national research university providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.

UTSA serves nearly 29,000 students in 64 bachelor’s, 48 master’s and 21 doctoral degree programs in the colleges of Architecture, Business, Education and Human Development, Engineering, Honors, Liberal and Fine Arts, Public Policy, Sciences and Graduate School. Founded in 1969, UTSA is an intellectual and creative resource center and a socioeconomic development catalyst for Texas and beyond. More information online at www.utsa.edu/today.