Instead of donning a white lab coat after today's graduation ceremony for UW-Madison's Master of Science in Biotechnology program, one student will be writing a business plan. Abdalla Saad hopes to start a company in Madison that would market a better drug delivery system.

The system would be based on technologies developed by three UW-Madison professors, anesthesiology professor Robert Pearce and pharmacy professors Sandro Mecozzi and Glen Kwon, and pharmacy graduate student Jonathan Fast. The company would be a spin-off based on their research.

"This technology is a formulation using polymers and copolymers that would encapsulate drugs for a better delivery method," Saad said.

Encapsulating the drugs reduces toxicity and allows more direct delivery to affected areas of the body, Saad said. For example, chemotherapy drugs could be delivered to a tumor for specific application and less systemic exposure.

The system could be applied to anesthetics, as well. Saad said inhaled surgical anesthetics could be delivered intravenously, reducing post-surgical side-effects such as dizziness and nausea and lessening recovery time.

"It's a novel formulation," Saad said. "It is a platform technology for anti-cancer drugs, anesthesia and other therapeutic applications."

The technology would be used by pharmaceutical companies to reformulate their drugs or use the technology when creating new drugs.

After spending a number of years doing scientific research, Saad said, he wanted to do something else. Saad said the biotechnology program allowed him to combine his science experience with business.

He hopes to have the business plan completed by August. He is looking for MBA candidates to help with the business plan and be part of the company, as well.

If Saad is successful in launching his business, he will be the sixth graduate of the biotechnology master's program to start a UW-Madison spin-off company since the program's inception in 2002. The program integrates science, policy, law and business, preparing students to develop and market new technologies.

The Master of Science in Biotechnology program will hold its graduation ceremony at 5:30 p.m. today at Promega's Biopharmaceutical Center Institute in Fitchburg. Gov. Jim Doyle is scheduled to address the graduates.