Trevor O. Jones, a veteran engineer who designed General Motors Corp.'s first electronic crash sensor for air bags and started up TRW Inc.'s automotive electronics group, was set to retire last spring. Then came an April 1998 meeting of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation 's scientific advisory council at which Jones heard council members discuss the need to develop a better means for commercializing the foundation's considerable body of research. Jones, who had previously launched several ventures for TRW and GM, saw the opportunity to set up a business that would mine the rich—and largely untapped—body of innovative research coming out of major medical institutions like the Cleveland Clinic, with an eye towards developing products with market potential. Putting aside his dreams of a life of leisure for another day, Jones joined with J. Frederick Cornhill, chairman of the clinic's biomedical engineering department to found Biomec Inc.
Biomec's business plan has gone considerably beyond turning some of the clinic's research into profits and devices for medical use....