Newswise — Two students from the University of Illinois at Chicago's Liautaud Graduate School of Business were awarded first place at the 2006 Stuart Clark Venture Challenge last weekend.
The annual competition, previously known as the CanAm Bowl, attracted graduate business students from around the world to present their investment opportunity proposals. It is the premier business plan competition in Canada.
Caralynn Nowinski and Chirag Patel, both of Chicago, won the $15,000 first place prize. Nowinski is student at the UIC College of Medicine and is also working towards an MBA with concentration in entrepreneurship. Patel will receive a joint master of science in management information systems and an MBA with concentration in finance, operations, and entrepreneurship in May.
Nowinski and Patel, founders of SanoGene Therapeutics Inc., an early stage biotech company developing cancer therapeutics, pitched their winning venture to a judging panel consisting of venture capitalists, angel investors and senior executives from major Canadian corporations.
SanoGene proposed an idea to commercialize UIC-licensed RNA interference (RNAi) technology, for the development of cancer-fighting biopharmaceutical products. The proposal draws on a discovery by Jasti Rao, professor and head of biomedical and therapeutic sciences at the UIC College of Medicine at Peoria.
SanoGene's competitors in the final round included Thammasat University from Thailand, the University of North Dakota, the University of Kansas and the University of Oregon.
Following semifinal rounds on Friday morning, SanoGene learned of its first place finish among its semifinal competitors from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Manitoba and the University of North Dakota.
SanoGene's success at Manitoba follows other victories at UIC's Concept2Venture Business Plan Competition, the Spirit of Enterprise Competition hosted by the University of Cincinnati and the University of San Francisco International Business Plan Competition. This win brings SanoGene's total prize winnings to more than $45,000.
SanoGene will participate in the prestigious 2006 MOOT CORP Competition, dubbed the "Super Bowl of World Business Plan Competitions," in Austin, Texas, May 3-6, to compete for more than $200,000 in prizes.
NOTE: Please refer to the institution as the University of Illinois at Chicago on first reference and UIC on second reference. "University of Illinois" and "U. of I." are often assumed to refer to our sister campus in Urbana-Champaign.
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