WAUWATOSA – 3D Molecular Designs, LLC, will receive a Technical Knock-outs (TKO) Award from e!nnovate Tuesday at e!nnovate’s eForum Technical Conference in Waukesha.

3D Molecular Designs is the first company to provide 3-dimensional models of proteins to researchers. It sells models to researchers throughout the world, including those at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Harvard University, MIT and Yale University.

In addition, the company is using its technology to create a line of science education molecular construction kits that are unique to the market. The kits enable students to quickly assemble complex molecular structures and actually “feel” a binding or repelling sensation, as they put the molecule parts together.

“All of our products are ‘hands-on,’” noted, Michael Patrick, Ph.D., CEO. “They provide an immediacy that is not possible with 3-dimensional computer visualization programs.” Patrick of Pine River, and Tim Herman, Ph.D., COO, of Wauwatosa, founded 3D Molecular Designs in 1999.

e!nnovate describes its award recipients as, “TKO’s are privately held companies that are innovative users or developers of technology solutions.” e!nnovate, a technology initiative association, was founded to create strong market awareness of technology initiatives in Wisconsin, while facilitating networking and mentoring opportunities for members.

The TKO Award coincides with two other important events for Herman and Patrick. 3D Molecular Designs is introducing its first science kit – the Water Kit© – to science educators this week and one of Herman and Patrick’s educational programs is being featured in the Nov. 7 issue of the international journal, Nature.

The Water Kit© is 3D Molecular Designs’ first mass-produced item, which brings the price down to a level that all school systems can afford.

Until now, all of 3D Molecular Designs models have been custom made using proprietary software developed by Herman and Patrick and built one at a time (or just a few at a time) on rapid prototyping machines.

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The Water Kit©, $33, includes 1 sodium, 1 chloride and 12 water molecules, and comes in a water cup. This introductory price is available through November. Teachers who purchase the Water Kit© and complete a field test survey, will receive a $33 credit toward a Classroom Water Kit©, available in Sept. 2003. A guide with support materials for teachers is available at www.3dmoleculardesigns.com/water

“The response to the Water Kit© was overwhelming Friday and Saturday, when we introduced it at the National Association of Biology Teacher’s annual meeting,” said Herman. “Teachers from middle schools through colleges were lined up to get their hands on the kit. They loved it.”

Herman, a faculty member at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), directs the MSOE Center for BioMolecular Modeling and Patrick is co-director. Patrick is also co-director of the Wisconsin Teacher Enhancement Program in Biology, University of Wisconsin – Madison.

In addition to commercializing the technologies they have developed, Herman and Patrick make it available to science educators through workshops and other outreach programs. Last fall they made the technology available to high school students, for the first time, through student design teams, called SMART (Students Modeling A Research Project) Teams.

Herman, Patrick and the design team from Milwaukee’s Riverside High School are featured in the Nov. 7, Nature, which describes some of the most innovative science education programs in the world. All of the programs noted in the article, link students and their teachers with biomedical researchers. Herman and Patrick’s program is one of only two U.S. programs featured in the article.

Under the direction of Herman, the Riverside students designed models of the three proteins involved in the infectious process of anthrax. They made models for researchers who were identifying the structure and function of the anthrax proteins. In each case, the researchers had not previously seen or used 3-dimensional models of their proteins.

This aspect of the program enables the high school students to provide a valuable resource to the researchers, while learning new technology – using proprietary software – and participating in this unique program.

Additional information is available on the following websites:
www.3dmoleculardesigns.com/water
www.rpc.msoe.edu/cbm/cbmnews.php
http://www.einnovate.org/events-eforum.html

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3D Molecular Designs
2223 North 72nd Street
Wauwatosa, Wisconsin 53213
www.3dmoleculardesigns.com