This "screen grab" shows a simulated disease outbreak that could be used to track and manage a natural epidemic of flu, or even a bioterror attack.

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Getting ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace is a vital mission for research institutions like the University of Arizona.

The UA recently got Arizona Board of Regents clearance to allow researchers and professors to take stakes in six promising ventures while ensuring benefits to the state from potential revenues and jobs.

New ventures now cleared for further development include a system for analysis of disease and bioterrorism threats, a potential new drug to combat valley fever, and a device to protect workers exposed to jet fuel and other hazards.

"One of the missions of the university is to take research findings out to the community. This is about finding practical uses for exciting research outcomes," said Leslie P. Tolbert, UA vice president for research, graduate studies and economic development.

This is the biggest group of prospective ventures to gain initial clearance by the regents in at least two years, she said.

At their March meeting, the regents approved the "enabling disclosure" for the ventures, certifying that the proposed activities will not harm the university or the state.

These ventures come from a "regular stream" of inventions that come out of UA research, said Stephen ONeil, manager of special projects in the university's Office of Technology Transfer.

"The regents want to be supportive of the entrepreneurial spirit (among university researchers) but in a way that assures citizens that conflicts of interest, or the appearance of conflict, is mitigated to an acceptable level," ONeil said.

Though important, action by the regents is only one step on the road to a successful, profitable business. Still to come might be negotiations on the use of patents or copyright licensing, ONeil said.

From 2002 to 2005, the UA launched 15 startup companies.

Encouraging entrepreneurship among researchers is "certainly a positive thing," ONeil added. "This is a way to get innovation from university labs into companies that produce goods and services for society.

"It's a good bet the startup will be located in Arizona and in proximity to the university. These projects are exciting."

International BioComputing Corp. is developing an integrated informatics environment for public health, said Daniel Zeng of the UA Department of Management Information Systems.

"We have strengths in technology and are looking for real market penetration in this field. There is a critical need for analyzing infectious-disease data to help outbreak detection and decision making."

Zeng said the company is already working with the Arizona Department of Health Services in the field of syndromic surveillance and other projects.

TIPD LLC is the second venture for Nasser Peyghambarian, who founded NP Photonics in 1998. He is still chairman of the board of that company, which now has about 40 employees at the UA Science and Technology Park near Interstate 10 and South Rita Road. It sells fiber lasers used for oil discovery and sensing applications for military and security customers.

Peyghambarian, a professor in the UA College of Optical Sciences, said "research has to get out of the lab and go into business to support the people of Arizona and create jobs."

The concept has been useful elsewhere, he noted. "That's how Silicon Valley became Silicon Valley," he said.