Author: Marie Powers

After taking the mass media to task last week for its often one-sided negative coverage of tech transfer, it’s only fair to recognize an outstanding portrayal of a tech transfer professional in the consumer press. Writing in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, reporter Tom Breckenridge profiles Mark Coticchia, vice president for research and technology management at Case Western Reserve University. Breckenridge describes Coticchia as “one of the most important figures” in remaking the Ohio economy. That’s heady stuff, considering that tech transfer professionals usually toil in obscurity, but probably accurate. Here are some excerpts:

When Coticchia arrived on the job eight years ago, an e-mail from a noted faculty member informed him that his mission to spin university research into new business “was all a bunch of bull- – – -.” Coticchia took the missive in stride, admitting that “I had to make people believe it could be done. That e-mailer couldn’t have articulated the challenge in front of me any better.” Since then, Coticchia has parlayed VC savvy, a well-paid staff, and a smile that beams like a lighthouse at midnight into a steady flow of high-tech deals and new business. The university collected $16.3 million in licensing revenue in 2008 — eight times the amount collected by Ohio State University, despite OSU’s much larger research budget. Coticchia’s office also had a hand in spinning out five companies from CWRU last year.

Coticchia “is really good at the blocking and tackling” of technology transfer, says Ray Leach, CEO of JumpStart, a venture development organization that has invested in seven CWRU start-ups. “He’s in a complex work environment,” Leach adds. “It’s not the easiest thing to commercialize and monetize technology quickly.” Coticchia and his staff engage in a daily dance of diplomacy, trying to balance the interests of multiple parties: university officials who insist on fair royalties for commercial successes born in their labs, faculty inventors who want a reward for their sweat equity, and companies that don’t want to pay too much for rights to the innovations. Then there’s the patent and market research that Coticchia’s staff manages in the years-long grind of moving innovation to market. “The mix of people, technology, and capital is different for every opportunity,” Coticchia says. “To get the right mix at the right time is absolutely critical to success. That’s why it’s more art than science.” Eric Fingerhut, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, last year asked Coticchia to head efforts to drive more technology transfer — and community prosperity — from Ohio’s 14 universities and 23 community colleges. “He’s just exceptional in his understanding of what’s needed to be done and how to leverage Case Western Reserve as a driver for the Northeast Ohio economy,” Fingerhut says. “I really came to believe that he was the best in the state in this area.”

Coticchia previously headed the TTO at Carnegie Mellon University, where he also co-founded Lycos, the Internet search engine. In 2000, he left the university for a VC firm, where he courted some of the country’s top research institutions for technology-related investment opportunities. His real-world business experience distinguishes him from tech transfer leaders who start their careers as researchers before moving to the business side. Coticchia’s mindset has always been that of a venture capitalist, according to Mark Crowell, past president of the Association of University Technology Managers. “Mark thinks about what makes a good [business] opportunity, the potential for emerging companies, what the risks could be,” Crowell says. Coticchia admits that his approach hinges on hiring people with the attributes valued by VC firms: technology backgrounds and advanced degrees, sales and marketing experience, and an understanding of company formation and product development. To attract these skills in a competitive industry, CWRU’s key staffers are paid 20% more than the industry average. But they’ve delivered results. The $16.3 million in licensing revenue collected in 2008 is eight times what it was when Coticchia arrived, and the TTO crafted 31 licensing deals last year, up from six in 2001.

Source: cleveland.com

Four law firms have secured contracts from the National Institutes of Health potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars over 10 years for contested proceedings over patents awarded in the biotechnology, chemistry, and mechanical/electrical/software fields. Foley & Lardner will begin work soon on its first NIH contract, worth up to $208 million. Mark Kassel, who chairs Foley’s chemical and pharmaceutical practice, says the NIH has a right to review the contracts annually and his firm is likely to see “some fraction” of the $208 million. “It’s all based on what the need is,” Kassel says. Three other recipients previously received NIH contracts. San Francisco-based Townsend & Townsend & Crew could see up to $209 million, and Chicago-based Leydig, Voit & Mayer is looking at $183 million. McAndrews, Held & Malloy, whose only location is in Chicago, won a contract worth up to $181 million. Townsend and Leydig won other NIH contracts earlier this year and will focus their NIH efforts in their home offices.

The NIH Office of Technology Transfer hires private lawyers to help it steer technology developed in NIH laboratories and at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration through the patent process. The office filed 343 U.S. patent applications and received $92.7 million in patent royalties in fiscal year 2008, according to its online statistics. According to Kassel, the contracts with the law firms call primarily for litigation support, patent interferences, and inter partes reexaminations. The bulk of Foley’s interferences will be handled out of its D.C. office, according to George Quillin, a partner in the office. The firm’s payday will depend, in part, on the NIH’s appetite for litigation. “I’ve been involved in interferences where the other side gives up right away,” he says. “Or it could be a very closely fought [court battle].”

Source: The Blog of Legal Times

The University of Florida has inked an agreement with Sterling, VA-based G4i Consulting to provide government business development services to UF-affiliated technology companies. The agreement has the potential to bring several hundred million dollars in new government contracts to UF’s incubator companies and to increase licensing revenues for the university. The goal is to establish a fund that will accelerate the commercialization of UF’s start-ups by introducing them directly to government clients and Fortune 500 companies operating in the government contracting space. Plans call for the fund initially to support the creation of a dedicated business development “Gator Team” for five to seven portfolio companies. Drawing on G4i’s customer relationship management system, E PROMIS, and its proprietary business intelligence, each Gator Team will work with G4i to focus the strategy, business, and marketing plans of its incubator companies and develop a proposal aimed at winning multi-billion-dollar contracts over a two-year period. “As focused as we are on driving licensing, we’re also seeking out relationships that will set our start-ups on a path for success,” says David Day, director of UF’s Office of Technology Licensing. “UF’s affiliation with G4i introduces our incubator companies to the largest consumer in the world. The U.S. government buys more than $300 billion of goods and services annually. We believe this can be a powerful engine for fast tracking the university’s technologies into the marketplace.”

As part of its own expansion efforts, G4i plans to open its flagship on-site presence at UF’s Florida Innovation Hub — a 45,000-sq.ft. “super” incubator for scientists, investors, and entrepreneurs expected to open in December 2011. G4i’s dedicated Gator Teams will be housed on-site to assist in market research, business development, and proposal management. In the meantime, G4i expects to begin the appraisal and evaluation of UF start-ups in the fourth quarter of 2009. G4i is currently capitalizing the fund with VC, hedge fund, and private equity relationships.

Visit: G4i Channel

While most licensees act in good faith and strive to abide by their contractual obligations, some — according to several studies the majority — intentionally or not end up breaching their contract. Under-reporting of royalties, failure to support the IP as promised, re-interpretation of definitions, sublicensing arrangements, and financial hardship are just some of the common reasons TTOs and their faculty frequently get short-changed. If you don’t have an airtight post-license monitoring procedure in place, you could be losing millions in royalties. That’s why we’ve lined up three leading experts in licensee monitoring for an intensive 90-minute distance learning event: Post-License Monitoring and Support: Performance and Revenue Enhancement Strategies (and when all else fails, how to pull the plug and take back your IP), scheduled for Wednesday, December 16, 2009. Our panel of three experts will show you how to discover these missing dollars using a systematic, thorough auditing process while maintaining positive relationships with licensees. And they’ll also outline the specific steps, after a problem comes to light, you must take to protect your IP and collect your rightfully share royalty payments. For complete details and to register, CLICK HERE.

PLUS, it’s still not too late to register for Thursday’s live event: CLICK HERE for information on Shifting Your TTO from Market Push to Market Pull: Finding the White Space.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state stem cell agency, and two international partners have awarded more than $250 million to 14 multidisciplinary teams of researchers in California, the U.K., and Canada to develop stem cell-based therapies for 11 diseases. The Disease Team Research Awards include approximately $8 million from the U.K.’s Medical Research Council and approximately $35 million from Canada’s Cancer Stem Cell Consortium to fund the international portions of the collaborations. The four-year grants mark the first CIRM funding explicitly expected to result in a filing with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin a clinical trial. The awards fund research teams that include basic scientists and clinicians from both academia and industry. These collaborations are expected to speed the process of establishing clinical trials by insuring that clinically relevant issues are considered early and avoiding potential safety issues being discovered late in the process.

Alan Trounson, president of CIRM, says the pace of the Disease Team projects stands in contrast to the decade or more that’s usually required to reach clinical trials. “By encouraging applicants to form teams composed of the best researchers from around the world, we think CIRM will set a new standard for how translational research should be funded,” he says. CIRM and the agency’s international partners will actively manage each team, and decisions to move a project forward will be made at key points in the development cycle. The teams are targeting leukemia and solid cell tumors, acute myeloid leukemia, age-related macular degeneration, HIV/AIDS, type 1 diabetes, heart disease, sickle cell anemia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and epidermolysis bullosa.

Source: Bioresearch Online

Across the pond, where public companies have taken a much larger stake in tech transfer activity than they have in the U.S., a deal between two firms may signal industry consolidation. London-based tech transfer company IP Group will take a 20% stake in the much smaller Fusion IP in a £3.2 million ($5.7 million) agreement. A co-investment provision for the larger company will allow IP Group to take a share in any new companies incubated by Fusion. Sheffield, U.K.-based Fusion has exclusive arrangements to commercialize discoveries at the universities of Cardiff and Sheffield, which both spend approximately £90 million annually on research. Fusion’s investments are valued at £6.4 million, and each year the company creates two or three spinoffs — principally in the fields of information technology, engineering, and biotechnology. IP Group, which is more than nine times the size of Fusion, with a market capitalization of £140 million, also commercializes third-level research from a group of 10 universities, including the universities of Leeds, Oxford, Bath, and Glasgow.

“We as a company were quite keen to raise a small amount of additional money — a couple of million or, maximum, £3 million,” says David Baynes, CEO of Fusion IP. “We got money out there in the marketplace talking to institutions, but then we had a chat with the IP [Group] guys.” Those conversations convinced Fusion that the IP Group’s stake was a better deal. Through the co-investment agreement, any new deal funded by Fusion would create a company that is 12% owned by IP Group, 48% owned by Fusion, and 40% owned by the academic initially responsible for the commercialized discovery. In addition, IP Group offers an in-house recruitment team for tech start-ups and a capital markets team that raises money for portfolio companies. “Those are quite nice resources for us to be able to tap into,” Baynes says.

Source: Financial Times

Binghamton University, State University of New York, is targeting entrepreneurship with a pair of initiatives. Entrepreneurship Across the Curriculum, modeled after the university’s successful Languages Across the Curriculum program, offers small stipends to faculty members who agree to provide an entrepreneurship component on a continuing basis in their classes. Faculty members will submit proposals to a committee comprised of their peers and of representatives from outside groups such as Catalysts for Intellectual Capital 2020 (CIC2020). The committee will decide which projects to fund. “Our role as sponsors is to get the ball rolling and leave decision-making to the committee,” says Eugene Krentsel, assistant vice president for technology transfer and innovation partnerships. “Every discipline has the opportunity to have a component of entrepreneurship added to a syllabus. If you are a sculptor, you may eventually open your own gallery. If you are pre-med, you may run your own clinic at some point.” Faculty members will be required to devote a set minimum of class hours to the entrepreneurship component, Krentsel says, adding that faculty members need only provide a “teaser” to their syllabi to pique the interest of students. The committee hopes to receive initial proposals for Entrepreneurship Across the Curriculum in December and to make funding decisions by January 2010, says Ken McLeod, a committee member and bioengineering professor. “You have to start small and let this grow,” he points out. “It’s not going to happen overnight.”

The second entrepreneurship initiative is aimed at faculty members who are considering starting their own businesses. Zhihao Yang, chief technology officer and co-founder of NanoMas Technologies, will serve as special adviser for entrepreneurship. Launched in the Start-Up Suite of the university’s Innovative Technologies Complex, NanoMas represents one of Binghamton’s most successful ventures. Yang will draw on that success to offer hands-on help, encouragement, and information to faculty members seeking to proceed with a business plan.Yang, who has agreed to serve as the adviser for six months, will have his own office on the second floor of the Innovative Technologies Complex. “It’s great for us to have someone who can not only teach it, but say, ‘Hey, I’ve been there. I started one. Here’s what it took,’” Krentsel says.

Source: Binghamton University

Economists say the country is on the verge of a recovery, but businesses and universities are still in cost-cutting mode. They’re slashing budgets, curtailing programs, and implementing hiring freezes. At the same time, TTOs are under increasing pressure to bring in fresh revenues. With few if any options for adding staff, many offices are turning to the student body for the help they need. Such raw talent needs to be developed, but a well-crafted internship program can significantly stretch your resources. “It’s a way of sending emissaries back out into the institution so that, once trained, these graduate student interns can talk about what kinds of things are necessary as you are developing invention disclosures,” explains Michael Batalia, PhD, director of the Office of Technology Asset Management at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. For example, while most researchers know their fields very well, they may not have good notebook practices, and they may not know what to look for the in the patent landscape, explains Batalia. “The graduate interns help to set up lines of communication between our office and the different departments.”

Batalia launched the Wake Forest internship program in 2008 as a way to offload some of the time-consuming legwork involved in managing disclosures, and also to build a “back bench” of qualified TTO professionals. “As an office grows and expands you need qualified people, and that can be a challenge,” he says. “It also gives the students alternate career paths and exposure.” A detailed article on using students to bolster TTO staff appears in the October issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. For subscription information, CLICK HERE.

Pittsburgh, PA-based Wellspring Worldwide, LLC, plans to acquire the Flintbox Innovation Network, an online global IP exchange, from UBC Research Enterprise (UBCRE), a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary of the University of British Columbia. Details of the transaction were not disclosed. Based in Vancouver, B.C., Flintbox is a U-British Columbia spinout and represents a strategic addition to Wellspring’s online software product business. The acquisition will extend Wellspring’s Technology Gateway product, enabling more than 160 universities, government labs, and companies to post, exchange, license, and purchase technologies online. Wellspring also plans to develop the Flintbox platform into an open innovation network by incorporating technology from other Wellspring software products. The open innovation network will enable universities and companies to collaborate on research and commercialization agreements and allow partner organizations to manage online material transfer agreements, multi-institution disclosures, and bundled marketing and licensing. The combined business will operate under the Flintbox brand name and maintain its operations base in Vancouver.

Source: Central Penn Business Network

Technology developed at the California Institute of Technology that enables fuel cells for micro applications has been patented and licensed exclusively to a subsidiary of VIASPACE, Inc., an Irvine, CA-based alternative energy company that provides products and technology for renewable, clean energy. U.S. Patent 7,585,577 was licensed to Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Corporation (DMFCC). The inventors are Sekharipuram R. Narayanan and Thomas I. Valdez, both with the NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where the direct methanol fuel cell was invented.

The new patent is related to monopolar fuel cell stacks. Traditionally, direct fuel cells have employed stacked unit cells arranged vertically like slices of bread in a loaf. Monopolar stacks use the same unit cells, but the “bread slices” can be laid horizontally next to each other. This allows for a thinner fuel cell that is more suitable for many micro applications like mobile phones. According to the patent, the stack design offers two- to three-fold improvement in power densities. The technology is suitable for manufacturing, uses inexpensive plastic materials, and is easy to assemble and troubleshoot. DMFCC says the technology substantially improves the commercialization prospects of portable direct methanol fuel cell power sources.

DMFCC already holds an extensive portfolio of direct methanol fuel cell patents licensed from Caltech and the University of Southern California. “This new patent adds significant value to our intellectual property portfolio,” says Carl Kukkonen, CEO of VIASPACE and DMFCC. “It will be difficult for any company to go to market with direct methanol fuel cells for micro applications — or other applications for that matter — without first obtaining protection under the Caltech patents which we have licensed.”

Source: Reuters

The Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding 37 research grants totaling $151 million for cutting-edge concepts such as bacteria that will produce gasoline, enzymes that will capture carbon dioxide to counter global warming, and batteries cheap enough to power solar energy through the night. Most of the radical proposals will probably fail, but a few could have “a transformative impact,” according to DOE Secretary Steven Chu. The money will go for projects at all stages of development, including some that exist simply as good ideas, Chu says. The grants to small businesses, educational institutions, and a few corporations may support some ideas until VCs or major companies pick them up. The effort, directed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), is modeled on the Department of Defense (DOD) program DARPA, which helped commercialize microchips and the Internet and helped develop body armor and other high-tech products. DARPA is known for quick decisions and long-shot bets — an approach seldom associated with the DOE.

In the initial round, the grants average $4 million. One is going to researchers at the University of Minnesota who are developing one organism that uses sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into sugars and another that converts the sugars to gasoline and diesel. The two can live in a “co-culture” in a thin latex film, according to Lawrence P. Wackett, professor of biochemistry at U-Minn, although much research remains. “A venture capital group might say it’s a little early for them,” Wackett says. “It’s not all worked out, but that’s the spirit of ARPA-E.” A second grant is going to a group led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that is seeking to develop an all-liquid metal battery. The technology could smooth out the intermittent flow of power from sources like windmills and solar cells — displacing sources that emit heat-trapping gases like coal, oil, or gas. The DOE sifted through 3,600 preliminary proposals and selected 300 to be developed into fuller proposals before choosing those to finance in the first round. With only about 1% of the proposals receiving money, the DOE might decide to arrange a “fair” at which VCs could assess other proposals, Chu says.

Source: The New York Times

Hundreds of scientists, including six Nobel prize winners, are campaigning against plans in the U.K. to rate and fund university research according to its potential economic impact. The researchers say that many groundbreaking discoveries achieved in the past would not have survived the new test set in the plan, known as the Research Excellence Framework (REF), which was recommended by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. Under the plan, 25% of research funding would be awarded on the basis of economic and social impact, and the panel of 14 members who would examine research plans would include only three academics. More than 200 chemists, physicists, and other scientists say the measures will deny funding for the kind of “blue-sky thinking” that led to the discovery of DNA, X-rays, and penicillin. “The REF proposals are founded on a lack of understanding of how knowledge advances,” according to a statement signed by the scientists. “It is often difficult to predict which research will create the greatest practical impact. If implemented, these proposals risk undermining support for basic research across all disciplines and may well lead to an academic brain drain to countries such as the United States that continue to value fundamental research.” The statement adds, “We, therefore, call on the U.K. funding councils to withdraw the current REF proposals and to work with academics and researchers on creating a funding regime which supports and fosters basic research in our universities and colleges rather than discourages it.”

Source: Times Online

Our Distance Learning Division has two high-value audioconferences scheduled back-to-back on November 11 and November 12, and is offering a $100 discount until the end of the month for those wishing to hear both presentations. Home Run Strategies: Finding, Nurturing, and Securing Maximum Revenues from Disruptive University Technologies (click here for details), featuring Dr. Rainer Iraschko, Vice President of Research for TRLabs, will be held Wednesday the 11th, and Shifting Your TTO from Market Push to Market Pull: Finding the White Space (click here for details), featuring Lina Ramos, president of Emerging Growth Enterprise, is scheduled for Thursday the 12th. Both occur from 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EST, or can be accessed at any time after the live event on MP3 or digital CD. The cost is $197 for each session (with unlimited attendance), and purchasers of both events save $100. CLICK HERE to take advantage of the combination offer.

Coming in December:

• Tech Transfer Partnerships: Establishing Effective Legal and Operational Structures for Long-Term Success, December 8th
• Post-License Monitoring and Support: Performance and Revenue Enhancement Strategies (And When All Else Fails, How to Pull the Plug and Take Back Your IP!), December 16th

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have invented a TeraHertz-ray, or T-ray, laser that uses nanostructures based on semiconductors with special properties. The new device will provide 400 times higher gain than THz quantum cascade lasers — the only functional T-ray technology — allowing practical use of T-ray-based cameras and spectrometers for security and medical imaging. T-rays are electromagnetic waves with a shorter wavelength than microwaves but longer than infrared. They’re attractive for imaging applications because they can penetrate substances ranging from clothing to walls, they are harmless, and they can detect various chemicals — especially explosives. Despite these advantages, T-rays are rarely used due to the scarcity of T-ray emitters that are capable of generating powerful, coherent, and adjustable TeraHertz waves. The Hebrew U invention overcomes these limitations, says Yaacov Michlin, CEO of Yissum Research Development Company, the university’s TTO.

In another development, Yissum also signed a long-term multi-project research and license collaboration with pharmaceutical giant Roche of Basel, Switzerland. According to the agreement, Roche has selected six promising research projects in the fields of stem cells, biomarkers, and novel molecules for the treatment of metabolic diseases. Each collaborative research project is one to three years in duration. Roche will have exclusive license to commercialize the results in return for the payment of transfer fees, milestone payments, and royalties. The projects include a new pathway and strategies to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity; technologies to minimize the risk of tumor development and decrease the risk of immunogenic rejection when using stem cells to treat human disease; technologies to convert embryonic and induced stem cells into liver cells; identification of new biomarkers for progressive stages of vascular complications, such as ischemic heart disease; new methods to differentiate stem cells into beta cell lineages for organ transplants using proprietary scaffolds; and the use of cannabinoids to treat type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Sources: Reuters and PharmaLive

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has licensed a technology for analyzing automotive engine oil to Da Vinci Emissions Services Ltd., a San Antonio, TX, firm that specializes in a suite of combustion engine lubrication and emissions testing services and equipment. UT-Battelle, which manages ORNL for the U.S. Department of Energy, facilitated the agreement. Researchers James E. Parks and William P. Partridge of the Fuels, Engines, and Emissions Research Group in ORNL’s Energy and Transportation Science Division developed the licensed invention, known as “Laser-Induced Fluorescence Fiber Optic Probe Measurement of Oil Dilution by Fuel.”

The oil-dilution diagnostic device uses fluorescence spectroscopy to determine the amount of fuel dilution in engine oil. This condition can occur as fuel-efficient engines are operated in advanced combustion modes to meet lower emissions regulations. Fuel dilution thins the oil, lowers the lubricating ability, and can lead to higher engine wear, increased oil consumption, and engine failure. Fuel dilution also is associated with modern diesel particulate filters, injection systems, and use of biodiesel fuels. The ORNL-developed fluorescence measurement system provides real-time feedback on the fuel level in oil so engineers can develop fuel-efficient and low-emission engine calibrations to prevent oil dilution. ORNL’s technique is faster, cheaper, and capable of detecting fuel contamination in lower amounts than other methods. Conventional techniques require sampling and sending the oil to an analytical lab, resulting in delays of up to two days to produce results.

Source: The Oak Ridger

Researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, have created the spinout company Ohmedics, Ltd., to commercialize their wound management product. The wound monitor allows doctors and nurses to check whether a wound is moist — the optimum condition for healing — without removing the dressing. The technology uses a tiny, disposable sensor attached to the gauze of a dressing. A handheld meter attached to the sensor displays whether the dressing is moist and can be left alone or is too wet or dry. The technology can be used in hospitals and outpatient settings and adapted to any kind of chronic or acute wound. The technology reduces pain and skin trauma to the patient, limits opportunities for infection, and saves staff time by eliminating unnecessary dressing changes. “With chronic leg ulcers alone affecting 10 out of every 1,000 adults in the Western world at some time in their lives, the need for effective wound care is clear,” says Trish Connolly, professor in the university’s Institute of Medical Devices and CEO of Ohmedics, which was launched following a successful clinical trial in Glasgow. The company plans to begin producing the wound monitor this fall.

Sources: medtechinsider and Science Busines

Faculty members with novel ideas for inventions or companies are busy people with packed schedules. So as technology transfer professionals plan faculty outreach efforts, talking a decidedly informal approach — rather than attempting to cajole researchers into scheduled meetings — may improve your results. Several universities have reported successful outcomes with Entrepreneur Office Hours, designed to allow faculty to drop by the TTO for advice, to brainstorm business strategies, check out funding opportunities, and learn about commercialization resources available. “Some tech transfer people may think they can sit in their offices, disclosures will roll in and the checks will roll in. But it’s not that easy. It’s much more of a contact sport,” says Brian Darmody, associate vice president of research and economic development at the University of Maryland (UM). UM’s office hours program has been evolving and growing for five years, and now has specific results to prove the program’s value. Gayatri Varma, PhD, executive director of UM’s Office of Technology Commercialization, traces the launch of three companies directly to the Entrepreneur Office Hours program. “Life sciences here wasn’t very entrepreneurial,” Varma says. “But after the office hours program got started, we had three companies come out of life sciences — and that hadn’t happened before.”

Columbia University is running a similar program that started just six months ago. “We formalized Entrepreneur Office Hours as part of our efforts to continue to cultivate a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem at Columbia University,” says David B. Lerner, director of CTV Venture Lab, the venture arm of Columbia Technology Ventures that assists faculty and students in start-up formation. A detailed article on the office hours programs appears in the October issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. For subscription information, CLICK HERE.

TAXIS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Rutgers University, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) have signed an exclusive license for worldwide rights to develop and commercialize antimicrobial technology that addresses multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial infections. The rise in the number of MDR bacterial pathogens in recent years has dramatically reduced the utility of the current arsenal of antibiotics. In particular, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have emerged as major threats to global public health. TAXIS is currently identifying and validating lead drug candidates that target MRSA and VRE with formulations the company says are superior to existing standards of care. Current efforts are focusing on developing the azachryseniums (AZCs) as a class of bactericidal agents to effectively treat infections caused by MDR pathogens. “The compounds under investigation have great potential to treat a broad-spectrum of emerging, drug-resistant pathogens that represent large and growing public health and biodefense threats,” says Gregory Mario, CEO of TAXIS. “We are excited to develop these further and move them closer to the clinic.” The antimicrobial technology was developed by Daniel S. Pilch, professor in the department of pharmacology at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Edmond J. LaVoie, professor in the department of medicinal chemistry at Rutgers’ Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. In March, the two scientists joined with Mario to form TAXIS.

Source: Bio-Medicine

The developer of breakthrough technology using the first fully programmable magnetic strip expects the innovation to enable the next-generation of credit and debit cards, providing added security for consumers while protecting retailers and financial institutions from fraud-related losses. The technology was invented by Dynamics, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based company founded in 2007 by CEO Jeff Mullen while attending the MBA program at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. In September, Dynamics secured $5.7 million in Series A funding led by Adams Capital Management, completing a big step toward commercialization of its technology. “Dynamics’ success is reflective of how an interdisciplinary-academic approach coupled with experiential learning is a recipe for successfully incubating entrepreneurial ventures,” says Art Boni, executive director of the Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship at the Tepper School of Business.

Dynamics developed the first prototype of its payment card technology while a tenant of Project Olympus, an initiative of Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science. Project Olympus provides incubator space, start-up advice, and micro-grants to faculty and students across campus. The core of the program is a proof-of-concept Innovation Lab, where students, graduates, faculty, and on- and off-campus partners explore the commercial potential of innovations developed at the university. Mullen and his team presented the concept for Dynamics at one of the Project’s “Show and Tell” programs, in which students and faculty present their ideas directly to regional investment and business leaders. By winning several international business plan competitions, Dynamics subsequently netted roughly $400,000. Mullen holds more than 90 patents pending or issued and received his undergraduate degree in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon. He “leveraged the strengths of several schools and disciplines at the university” to develop, test, and refine Dynamics’ business strategy, according to Boni. “We had to solve many technical challenges, such as the compatibility of our product with the more than 60 million current point-of-sale magnetic readers,” Mullen adds. But “gaining traction in the marketplace and attracting top executives into the company takes a different skill set.”

Source: Reuters

The University of Florida, Cornell University, and a handful of other schools have received $12.2 million to build a social network for scientists and researchers. The goal of the project is to make it easier to find research and like-minded researchers in an effort to speed new discoveries. The project, funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will initially take the form of networks within each of the seven founding schools, which include Indiana University, Weill Cornell Medical College, Washington University in St. Louis, the Scripps Research Institute, and the Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico. The network could expand across the country within two years and eventually go worldwide, developers say. “The goal of the program is national networking of all scientists,” according to Michael Conlon, interim director of biomedical informatics for the University of Florida. “We often find that researchers have pretty good networks with students or with scientists at institutions where they received their degree or worked before. But they don’t always know people even at their own institutions.”

Technologies used to support the effort will include VIVO, an open source discovery tool developed at Cornell to search for research information across disciplines, departments, and colleges. The network also will exploit concepts of the Semantic Web, the vision of web developer Tim Berners-Lee that provides a common framework for more useful data sharing across applications, enterprises, and communities. The effort is not the first seeking to connect scientists. A commercial venture, Epernicus, is seeking to link life sciences researchers within companies and, eventually, across organizations.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle