In recessions, businesses retrench and focus on the immediate future. But the drive to innovate means that even during the worst times, new companies are forming and new products are being developed. The energy and imagination of entrepreneurs creates new jobs, making up for those lost by traditional industries.

This new column focuses on the world of innovation and entrepreneurship.

To get funded when money is scarce, you've got to be really good.

Biological Dynamics, a new biotechnology company, faces that challenge. It has invented a cancer detection device that rapidly extracts cancer "biomarkers," molecules that indicate the presence of cancer, from whole blood.

While the idea sounds impressive, the cancer diagnostic field has lots of competition. Also, the company's founders aren't the experienced veterans investors prefer. They're graduate students at UC San Diego, where they developed the technology.

The company's first-place win for its business plan in the UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge may open some doors for the newly-minted entrepreneurs. Biological Dynamics brought home a $40,000 prize. Second- and third-place winners got $20,000 and $10,000.

To date, the company has been self-funded by Raj Krishnan, the leader of both the student team and of the fledgling company and his colleagues. These include Michael Heller, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, bioengineering and nanoengineering, in whose lab Krishnan worked.

"I've sunk a lot of my money into this, so has Dr. Heller," Krishnan said. "The other people on my team have also sunk their money into this. We really believe in this."

That kind of "skin in the game" commitment is what investors like to see. Perhaps even more importantly, the students earned the respect of the judges, themselves well-connected technology and business veterans.

Larry Bock, a judge, said the plans were "well thought-out." As an investor and founder of several life science companies, Bock has seen more than his share of business plans.

Really good companies will always find investors, Bock said, and they will keep on working even during bad times on advancing their products.

"You emerge when the markets do open up as a leader in that area," Bock said.

"I can say from my own career the most successful of the companies I was involved in were formed in the last 'nuclear winter' of biotechnology, when nobody wanted to be involved."

More information on the UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge is available at http://challenge.ucsd.edu.

Do you know of an entrepreneurial success story or bold beginning in North San Diego County or Southwest Riverside County? Contact Bradley J. Fikes at bfikes@nctimes.com or 760-739-6641.