A biotechnology company with an innovative approach to improving the storage and therapeutic effects of human stem cells has won first place and $10,000 in UC Davis' fifth annual Big Bang! business plan competition.

The competition, designed by MBA students at the Graduate School of Management, promotes entrepreneurship, innovation and hands-on learning.

StemTech is commercializing a patent-pending technology developed at the UC Davis Center for Biostabilization. The technology improves on current methods of cryogenic storage — using a chemical process to quickly deep-freeze cord blood stem cells that are used at public and private storage banks. The company seeks to make stored stem cells as therapeutically effective as fresh stem cells, drastically reducing the time it takes for the stem cell therapies — routinely used to treat leukemia and certain lymphomas — to work.

Team members are MBA students Pej Azarm, Chris Arian and Chris Zobrist; and postdoctoral researcher Jeff Norris and doctoral candidate Kara Schmelzer, both fellows in a new certificate program in business development.

"This validates everything we have been working on for the past several months and gives us the support and inspiration to continue with the venture and truly take this company to a commercial realization," said Azarm.

A panel of nine judges, mostly venture capitalists and entrepreneurs from the Sacramento region and the Bay Area, selected the winners. Results were announced at a campus event May 18.

A dozen qualifiers were asked to submit complete business plans in early April. After a review of the business plans, six teams were selected to make 12-minute presentations before judges and a second eight-minute presentation before a public audience.

"StemTech did a particularly good job of clearly explaining the economic benefits of their technology," said competition judge Jim Jones of BA Venture Partners in Foster City, which invests in early-stage life sciences and diagnostics start-ups. "It's also very topical with Proposition 71 and $3 billion for stem cell research poised to flow," Jones added.

Second place and $3,000 was awarded to All Best Materials, which has developed a technology for creating solar cells that it says are far smaller, lighter, more powerful, and more versatile than any on the market today. The technology's uses range from solar mobile phones to large-scale energy production. Team members are alumni John and Brian Argo; Ruxandra Vidu, a former UC Davis researcher; doctoral candidate Jie-Ren Ku; and engineering professor Pieter Stroeve.

Boegeskov (BEHR-skoh) Energy of Davis won the People's Choice award and $2,000. The company is developing a catalyst-enhancing material that it says will significantly reduce the cost and improve the overall efficiency of fuel cells for vehicles and other potential applications, from forklifts to cell phones.

StemTech is now eligible to compete against winners of other business plan competitions in the first Draper Fisher Jurvetson Venture Challenge for $250,000 in seed stage funding. The competition will be held June 2 in Mountain View, Calif.

StemTech has also been offered incubator space at West Sacramento's Technology Development Center, a business accelerator managed by The Soderquist Group, one of Big Bang!'s sponsors.

The three other Big Bang! finalists were:

• RidePal, which is building a ridesharing program for commuters.
• Biosec of Davis, an early stage biotechnology company that develops new tests for detecting diseases in animals, agricultural products and humans.
• PetSense, which is designing and marketing a patent-pending pet collar that uses radio frequency identification technology to teach pets to keep away from specific objects or locations.