Johns Hopkins launches start-up program that pairs researchers with business execs

The Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County campus in Rockville, MD, is starting a technology commercialization and entrepreneurship program based on a similar initiative at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which has led to the formation of more than 25 companies since its inception in 2005. Called “Innovate!”, the one-year program will take 15 business executives and 15 postdoctoral entrepreneurs through the process of evaluating a technology’s commercial potential and starting a business around that product. Products will come from the National Institutes of Health, Hopkins, and other research institutions and federal agencies. The university’s Carey Business School will launch the program in February, funded through a National Science Foundation grant. The University of Maryland’s “Activate” program has helped launch companies such as Foligo Therapeutics, a Rockville biopharmaceutical company developing products to treat ovarian cancer. That program was also supported by grants from the NSF as well as from the Maryland Technology Development Corp.

Source: The Gazette