What does an Italian mouse puppet, which appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s and early 1970s, have in common with technology that reduces cross-contamination in medical environments?

The mouse puppet is Topo Gigio, a character who used to end The Ed Sullivan Show by saying “Eddie, keesa me goo’night.” The technology is “Topo Jojo,” a touchless computer mouse made by Simi Valley-based Qualstar Corp.

“Topo is Italian for mouse,” said William Gervais, president and CEO of Qualstar. “And if you’re older than 50 you remember The Ed Sullivan Show. “Topo Jojo” is a play on Topo Gigio.” Many people have an endearing connection to the latter, he added.

Qualstar recently began marketing Topo Jojo, the first model of a planned series of products based on patent-pending touch-less pointing technology. It uses infrared sensor technology to detect a finger’s motion in the air to control a PC display cursor.

Touch-less control eliminates operator contact with the traditional computer mouse, thus preventing a source of cross contamination in medical environments. No additional software is required. And the 7” X 6.5” X 2” stainless steel device runs on Windows XP, VISTA, 7.

“Bacterial cross contamination is a serious health risk to everyone involved in even minor clinical procedures,” said Gervais. “Using Topo Jojo can reduce the risk to both practitioners and patients in today’s data-centric medical environments.”

The publicly traded company, founded in 1984, plans to distribute the device in Italy and Germany. It will also market Topo Jojo to medical and dental providers in the U.S. through its Simi Valley headquarters. List price is $475.

Branching out

The technology may seem far afield from Qualstar’s core business of designing and manufacturing automated tape storage solutions and high efficiency power supplies. But Gervais said it’s right in line with the company’s strengths.

“Topo Jojo is a good fit for our research and development skill set of using metal, plastic and processors,” he said. “And we already sell products into medical environments, such as tape libraries for medical storage.” The company is diversifying, he added.

Touch-less mouse technology may also have applications for automatic bank teller machines, the auto repair industry, and more, said Gervais, adding Qualstar does not plan on just producing one product. Manufacturing is being done in Simi Valley, and the firm employs 65 people locally.

Qualstar revenues for the second quarter of fiscal 2010, which ended Dec. 31, 2009, were $3.6 million, compared to $4.6 million for the same quarter of fiscal 2009, a decrease of $1.0 million or 22.2 percent.

Loss from operations was $0.9 million compared to $0.8 in fiscal 2009. Net loss was $0.8 million or $(0.07) per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $0.6 million or $(0.05) per basic and diluted share for the second quarter of fiscal 2009.

Tape library segment revenues were $2.6 million for the quarter, compared to $3.1 million for the same quarter of the prior year, a 16.5 percent decrease. Power supply segment revenues of $1 million decreased by $0.5 million, or 34.3 percent, compared to $1.5 million in the same quarter of the prior year.

Gross profit decreased to $1.2 million, or 33.2 percent of net revenues, for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2009, from $1.5 million, or 31.9 percent of net revenues, for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2008.

“Looking ahead to the second half of fiscal 2010, we expect that the actions we have taken over the past two years to strengthen our business model, including cost reductions and continuing with new product developments, will have a positive impact on our results as the broader Economic conditions turn the corner,” said Gervais in the earnings report.

Republican California State Sen. Tony Strickland recently campaigned at a Camarillo clean-tech manufacturer to pass a solar jobs bill he co-authored with San Fernando Valley Democrat Alex Padilla. Speaking after a visit to SolarWorld’s manufacturing plant in Camarillo, Sen. Strickland touted the bill’s provision that would exempt the company and firms like it from sales tax on products it sells. “I believe the renewable Energy industry can play a major role in returning California to Economic prosperity,” Strickland said. “I look forward to providing businesses like SolarWorld with the tools they need to create jobs and grow our economy.” He and Sen. Padilla, along with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger believe benefits from the measure would far exceed any lost tax revenue by spurring job creation and overall economic growth. SolarWorld California is a division of German company SolarWorld AG, which also manufactures in Hillsboro, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash. The Camarillo facility has previously been owned by Atlantic-Richfield Corp., Siemens, and Shell Oil Co.

Alan Herman, a former Amgen employee, and his business partner, launched Camarillo-based WindRose Analytica in May 2005. Their goal was to sell the biotech and biopharma analytics firm in five years time.

The duo, which funded the start-up out-of-pocket, beat their goal by a year, and did it in the middle of the Economic meltdown. San Diego-based biologics and pharmaceutical firm, Althea Technologies, acquired WindRose in May 2009.

Details of the transaction were not disclosed. But, in negotiating the contract, Herman insisted that WindRose and its seven employees stay in Camarillo.

“There are a lot of advantages to being acquired because we have a very capital intensive business,” said Herman, now vice president of product development and chief scientific officer for Althea.

The Valley biotech start-up scene has changed quite a bit since the Business Journal’s last report on the industry in April 2008. Some companies have pulled out of the Valley, but others have commercialized products, been acquired, and/or secured additional venture capital.

Commercializing Energy crops

Thousand Oaks-based Ceres, a company that uses plant breeding and biotechnology to develop dedicated Energy crops for biofuels, commercialized its high-yielding switch grass cultivars and high biomass sorghum hybrids.

The private equity-backed company, which has 100 employees, is selling energy crops to bioenergy companies in the U.S. It also established the largest field trial network for dedicated energy crops.

“There are other biotech companies looking to get into this business,” said Ceres spokesman, Gary Koppenjan. “But Ceres has the early mover advantage; we were the first into the marketplace.”

Koppenjan said the company is benefitting from federal efforts to spur clean energy development, because many end users of the energy crops are receiving federal funds.

Ceres started as a plant genomics company. It operated in Malibu and eventually settled in Thousand Oaks. In 2002, Monsanto struck a $137 million licensing agreement with Ceres. Founders then applied their technology to the energy crop sector.

KYTHERA secures capital

Keith Leonard launched Calabasas-based KYTHERA Biopharmaceuticals in 2005, after a 13-year career at Amgen. The privately held company, which has about 30 full and part-time employees, is developing three products for use as aesthetic medicine.

“When I started the company I was looking for where science and innovation could meet market demand,” said Leonard. “Aesthetics did not have a lot of scientific and clinical rigor, with the exception of products like Botox.”

The company has secured more than $70 million in venture capital. Most recently, it received a $10 million infusion of venture capital in the third quarter of 2009, the only biotech company in the Los Angeles area to do so.

KYTHERA has completed multiple Phase II trials for its flagship ATX-101 Adipolytic Therapy product and is working with the FDA to determine the next clinical step. The product is still several years away from commercialization, said Leonard.

The company’s ATX-202 pigmentation modification product is in Phase I trials and Leonard expects to receive data by the end of the year. And ATX-104, a facial contouring product, is in the pre-clinical phase. Regulatory filings are underway.

Leonard said nine months ago he was worried about where the market was headed. But financial statistics show while the aesthetic procedure industry dropped during the recession, it’s bouncing back pretty quickly.

Symyx acquisition

Byeong Chang, who worked at Amgen for 11 years, founded Camarillo-based Integrity Biosolution in 2003. The firm provides contract formulation research services to biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Symyx Technologies acquired Integrity Biosolution in an all cash transaction on August 14, 2008, according to Reuters. The acquisition expanded Symyx’s Research Service offerings in life sciences into biologic formulations, complementing the company’s chemical formulations services.

“Together, IntegrityBio and Symyx will be at the forefront of large molecule contract formulation research and clinical fill/finish services,” said Chang at the time of the acquisition. He is now chief scientific officer of the Symyx Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization. And Symyx maintains a presence in Camarillo.

Lean and mean

John Philo and his business partner, both former Amgeners, founded Thousand Oaks-based Alliance Protein Laboratories in 1998. The firm provides contract research services and consulting in the areas of biophysical characterization, protein purification and protein stabilization.

Many contract and research labs in the greater San Fernando Valley area have been hit by the down economy, said Philo. And some of the firms started by former Amgen employees have either left the area or shut down altogether.

“There’s no question that other companies in the area want to grow, but the capital markets and interest rates have made it difficult,” said Philo.

But Alliance is unique, he said, because it’s not a start-up looking to grow and be acquired or go public. It’s a self-funded two-person shop that has no interest in seeking venture capital.

The company now serves close to 150 companies worldwide. “We’re unique because we have a niche,” said Philo. “We started off with two people and we kind of like it that way. We just wanted to do the things we like to do in the laboratory.”

A governing board with the state’s $3 billion stem cell institute has approved a proposal for funding the development of new stem cell therapies.

The conceptual plan, announced March 11, calls for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to fund early stage clinical trials involving stem cell therapies, and related manufacturing activities, that can be performed in less than three years. The agency would provide the lesser of $25 million or half the project cost to nonprofit researchers and for-profit companies.

Biotechnology companies testing new stem cell therapies often have a difficult time appealing to pharmaceutical companies or venture capitalists for funding because of the inherent risks involved with the young, mostly untested area of research. Last year marked a major milestone when Bay Area biotech Geron Corp. received FDA clearance to begin testing its human embryonic stem cell-based treatment for spinal cord injury on humans. Much of the stem cell science, however, remains in the earliest stages of testing.

“The clinical development awards will provide critically needed support for the earliest and hardest-to-fund stage of clinical research,” CIRM Chairman Robert Klein said in a release. “These therapies should provide health care cost savings and create new tax revenues for California when chronically ill people and their caregivers are able to return to work.”

CIRM said it anticipates a call for entries this spring, with applications due in July. Funding recommendations from the independent grants working group will come before its governing board for final approval in December.

A subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies Inc. has acquired an interest in a company that manufactures core components used in aircraft navigation systems.

Teledyne Scientific & Imaging LLC has an option to acquire a controlling interest in Optical Alchemy Inc. after three years, and full ownership after five years based on Optical’s performance.

The investment, the details of which were not disclosed, increases Thousand Oaks-based Teledyne’s involvement in infrared and visible imaging systems for military operations, especially those using unmanned aircraft.

Because of their low weight, the components made by Optical are well suited for unmanned aircraft, which require persistent surveillance and precise targeting, said Teledyne Chairman, President and CEO Robert Mehrabian.

Glendale Water & Power will begin this spring a demonstration project of a smart grid system funded by a federal grant.

The project will install 1,500 electric and water meters that allow for two-way communication between the customer and the city-owned utility giving real-time electricity usage data that will help save on Energy costs.

Glendale is the first city in the nation to sign an agreement for a Smart Grid Investment Grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The utility is confident its smart grid program will become a model for others to follow in both California and the country, said General Manager Glenn Steiger.

The $20 million grant will fund the demonstration project and later add on other functions of the smart grid system, including data storage, Wi-Fi, and thermal Energy storage.

A subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies Inc. was awarded a contract to upgrade the Pentagon’s chemical and biological defense equipment.

The work done by Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc. will take place in Huntsville, Ala., and Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. for front line defense against chemical, biological radiological, nuclear and explosives weapons of mass destruction.

“Teledyne is here to support our warfighters on the battlefield and enhance homeland security,” said company Chairman, President and CEO Robert Mehrabian.

In addition to Teledyne Brown, nine other winners were announced to provide up to $485 million in support services over the next five years.

Radio Station KCSN-FM (88.5), based at Cal. State, Northridge, announced it will become the only non-commercial radio station in Los Angeles to broadcast an Adult Album Alternative format 24 hours a day beginning immediately. Located on the university’s campus in the San Fernando Valley, KCSN’s signal covers most of the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys and a portion of Los Angeles’ west side, for a total potential audience of more than three million listeners.