Currently, one in six platelet transfusions are ineffective and patients who receive three consecutive, ineffective platelet transfusions could die. New Ventures BC 2009 Finalist LightIntegra Technology Inc. is developing a technology to save the lives of cancer, heart surgery and bleeding patients through fast access to platelet and microparticle profiles in blood.

LightIntegra’s ThromboLUX, developed by a Canadian Blood Services scientist, uses dynamic light-scattering technology to test the platelets prior to using them in blood transfusions to prevent and stop bleeding. LightIntegra’s technology measures the entire spectrum of particles in blood plasma that tells the story of the donor’s health or the quality of platelet or plasma products for transfusion.

New Ventures BC 2009 Finalist Indel Therapeutics Inc.’s patented antibiotic discovery technology is helping to more rapidly generate new antibiotics for combating drug-resistant and hospital-acquired infections.

Infections such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are a huge concern for hospital administrators as there is growing incidence each year of nasty and sometimes deadly bacteria plaguing hospitals. In the United States alone, about 1.7 million people get hospital-acquired infections each year, killing about 99,000 people a year and costing the US health system $27.5 billion annually.

Indel’s novel approach provides an advantage against the emergence of antibiotic resistance and opens a new area of drug targeting in a therapeutic area where there is a lack of and a tremendous need for new drugs.

Indel Therapeutics is based in Vancouver and its intellectual property originated at the University of British Columbia.

This November twenty top Canadian Digital Media companies will present their latest ventures at the Fusion Venture Forum 2009 in front of Google and other top Silicon Valley investors and Fusion organizers are looking for presenting companies.

The annual New Media BC organized event will showcase early and growth stage companies that are original games, mobile & Web 2.0 and new platforms & applications ventures, on November 12th at Robson Square in Vancouver. It’s designed to bring Canada’s hottest digital media ventures to the attention of local and international investors, provide valuable insights into key issues in the industry and become a premium networking opportunity for digital media investors and entrepreneurs alike.

If you’re interested, register for the Fusion Entrepreneur Boot Camp on November 5th and the opportunity to be one of the 20 selected to pitch before top tier investors including Google Ventures.

New Ventures BC 2009 Finalist Etalim is dedicated to finding ways of efficiently generating electricity from the sun.

Etalim’s new solar-power technology inexpensively converts the sun’s heat into emission-free electricity. This new technology uniquely combines thermodynamics, high-amplitude acoustics, mechanical resonance and material science to generate electricity not only from the sun, but from any heat source. An Etalim power plant can capture the sunlight falling on an area of land the size of a football field to power 500 homes without creating any CO2 emissions.

Etalim was founded and incorporated in March 2006. Former Creo CEO Amos Michelson is Etalim’s Chairman and experienced tech entrepreneur Ron Klopfer was CEO in June 2009.

New technology from New Ventures BC 2009 Finalist Bluekey Energy Inc. is the first in the world to produce biodiesel fuel from a non-food product.

Instead of using corn, wheat or sugar cane to produce biodiesel fuel, Bluekey’s process converts a pulp mill waste called soap into synthetic crude oil. The globally patented technology promises to rejuvenate the sunset pulp mill industry by improving waste management and introducing a new revenue stream.

Newly designed and manufactured microchips often fail to work as intended.

Now, new diagnostics technology from New Ventures BC 2009 Finalist Veridae Systems will help designers quickly pinpoint problems and improve their time-to-market by up to 30 per cent.

Veridae’s technology incorporates hardware on the microchip along with external software to give a detailed view of the chip’s internal operations while it runs at full-speed.

A new therapeutic device from New Ventures BC 2009 Finalist Lungpacer Medical Inc. addresses five significant issues associated with the mechanical ventilation of critically ill patients. Conceived and developed by SFU professor Andy Hoffer, intravenously placed Lungpacer electrodes rhythmically activate the diaphragm. Pacing prevents diaphragm muscle-disuse atrophy, resulting in faster patient recovery, a shorter stay in intensive care, lower hospitalization costs and greater patient access to scarce mechanical ventilators during flu pandemics.

Lungpacer Medical Inc. was founded in May 2009 and is Hoffer’s third SFU spin-off company.

New Ventures BC 2009 Finalist Rapid Electric Vehicles has developed REV PACK, an electric drive system for transforming popular, gas-guzzling fleet vehicles into electric zero-emission vehicles. The technology, which includes 120- and 240-volt charging systems, gives North American fleet operators a quick and complete solution for becoming carbon neutral.

The Vancouver-based company also operates Canada’s first electric vehicle showroom on Main street across from the 2010 Olympic Village. They have allocated 2,000 square feet for showroom space with seven bays for vehicle prototyping and development.

Check out this video from the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association (VEVA) discussing a couple of Rapid Electric Vehicles’ innovations at the EPIC 2009 Show.

Thanks to New Ventures BC 2009 Top 10 Finalist Vineyard Networks, small to mid-sized businesses now have an easy and affordable way to monitor and manage their network and Internet connections.  Vineyard Networks’ new online network monitoring and management solutions let companies guarantee the performance of business-critical applications while controlling the impact of recreational and malicious services like YouTube and Facebook.

Vineyard Networks was a finalist for the Most Promising Emerging Technology Award at the 2009 Okanagan Science & Technology Council’s (OSTEC) Silicon Vineyard Innovation Awards. The following is a profile video of the three finalists in the award category.

To date, Vineyard Networks has been  funded through a combination of private Angel Investors and Federal and Provincial Technology Programs.  They have also received a Technology Innovation Grant from the National Research Center (NRC) Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP).

2009 New Ventures BC Competitor FundRazr launched their Facebook app today at TechCrunch 50′s Demo Pit.

FundRazr allows Facebook users to easily collect money and manage members and is fully integrated with the Adaptive Payments API from PayPal X.

FundRazr is designed for any individual, organiser or volunteer who has to collect money on behalf of a social group, sports team, school club, charity, campaign or more. It provides fast and effective pain relief from headaches caused by tireless fundraising and fee collection. FundRazr eliminates the need for handling cash, checks and IOUs by allowing for easy collection of fees and donation payments through the application.

“We’re thrilled that Fundrazr’s fantastic new Facebook app is now available to the public,” said Naveed Anwar, senior director of PayPal’s Developer Network. “It’s a great example of the type of innovation that’s possible when building on our beta APIs and we hope to see more great developer ideas come to life when the APIs come out of beta at Innovate 2009 this November 3rd.”

Congrats to the folks at FundRazr! Launching at the TC50 Demo Pit and participating in PayPal X’s closed beta program are two huge opportunities and they should be able to capitalize again in November with the official launch of PayPal X at the PayPal X Innovate Conference in San Francisco.

FundRazr is the flagship product of Vancouver’s ConnectionPoint Systems and they made it to Round 2 of this year’s competition.