Instead, some of the company’s employees had to go to Baltimore to a convention, where they stumbled on some Army scientists from the Frederick military base.
That happenstance should now be more purposeful with the opening of a new Business and Technology Cultivation Center on North Market Street in downtown Frederick, County Executive Jan Gardner announced Thursday.
The center will bring together public institutions and private companies under one roof to exchange ideas and collaborate on tech transfers such as the one Blue Sources and Fort Detrick eventually partnered on.
The center will be at 118 N. Market St., and will house the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce and a second Frederick Innovative Technology Center Inc. incubator along with the county’s Office of Economic Development, which currently occupies the building.
“We’re here to create a location where successful business will become contagious,” said Helen Propheter, county director of economic development.
Fort Detrick runs its own technology transfer program, which has the goal of fielding solutions for soldiers fighting in wars, said Barry Datlof, of Fort Detrick’s U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.
“That helps the civilians as well,” Datlof said. “But we can’t do it alone. We need help from everyone in the local community.”
Working with companies such as Bellomo’s company, Blue Sources, which now specializes in commercializing products and services that use fish to monitor water contamination, should become the new norm, Datlof said.
Blue Sources partnered with Fort Detrick as part of a technology transfer program to acquire exclusive rights to a group of five patents and signed a cooperative research and development agreement to bring Fort Detrick’s fish-related water contamination research to the market.
Another example, used by Gardner, is a bandage that soldiers use to stop bleeding on the battlefield. Gardner said that technology should be available in emergency rooms as well. A technology transfer program could bring that product to the market.
The Army’s MRMC works with vaccines, therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics and medical information technology. Companies in those fields will now have access to a licensing arm that can help get the product field-ready for the soldier and in turn make it appealing commercially, Datlof said.
Datlof noted the large amount of medical software the federal government develops, but never makes it into the public eye. The incubator will help foster a relationship that allows the exchange of software to benefit the community.
“We can’t do it all ourselves, even though the federal government spends millions of dollars a year,” he said. “We have to be able to field it. We have to be able to interact with the medical community outside of the gate.”
After years of being on the outskirts of town, the Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, of which The Frederick News-Post’s publisher, Geordie Wilson, is a member, voted to return downtown.
The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development provided a $150,000 grant, which allowed the chamber to complete the move into the building on North Market.
The organization’s downtown offices, which will be on the second floor, are being renovated and are scheduled to open in June.
“As an entrepreneur opening a new business in 2016, I relied on the chamber for guidance and support on numerous occasions, including representation at City Hall,” said Brett Kraimer, owner of CycleFit Frederick. “Having the organization in downtown Frederick will no doubt enable them to do even more to support emerging companies, and to help grow the business community.”
Kathie Brady, CEO of FITCI, said Frederick’s cohesive spirit is the “secret sauce” in starting an incubator like FITCI. The community allows for collaboration between companies in order to grow and thrive.
“If you’re going to run a business, if you’re going to start a business, this is the only place you should do it,” Brady said.
The 6,000-square-foot building previously housed the county’s Public Works and Parks and Recreation divisions before they moved to the Bourne Building on Montevue Lane.
©2017 The Frederick News-Post (Frederick, Md.). Visit The Frederick News-Post (Frederick, Md.) at www.fredericknewspost.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
