Author: Marie Powers

Researchers at the University of Akron (UA) and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed an antibiotic treatment for pulmonary infections, including pneumonia and cystic fibrosis, with the potential to significantly increase survival among patients with lung infections. The nanoparticle antibiotic treatment is composed of encapsulated silver carbene complexes (SCC), developed by Wiley Youngs, PhD, UA distinguished professor of chemistry, and colleagues. The nebulized antimicrobials, administered once daily, offer effective and convenient drug delivery, encouraging patient compliance, reducing illness severity, limiting development of resistance to antibiotics, and potentially decreasing the spread of epidemics, according to the researchers.

During mouse studies, all untreated animals died while all of those treated with the aerosolized, nano-sized, silver-based antibiotics survived an infection of Pseudomona aeroginosa — a common bacteria that infects the respiratory tract in humans, especially those who are immunocompromised, on mechanical ventilator support, or afflicted with cystic fibrosis. Treatment with the SCC-loaded nanoparticles also minimized weight loss and the bacteria burden in the lung, while also reducing the spread of bacteria from the lung through the blood stream to the spleen. The researchers are commercializing the technology through the UA Research Foundation start-up Akron Research Commercialization Corp. They plan to file a U.S. Food and Drug Administration application for Investigational New Drug status for their first product offering, called Silvamist.

Source: The Universtiy of Akron News

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) have developed a noninvasive infrared scanning system to help doctors determine whether pigmented skin growths are benign moles or melanoma, a potentially lethal form of cancer. The prototype system looks for the tiny temperature difference between healthy tissue and a growing tumor. The researchers have begun a pilot study of 50 patients at JHU to help determine how specific and sensitive the device is in evaluating melanomas and precancerous lesions. If the system works as envisioned, it could help physicians address a serious health problem by identifying a mole that may be melanoma at an early, treatable stage. Currently, doctors look for subjective clues such as the size, shape and coloring of a mole, but “we don’t have any objective way to diagnose this disease,” says Rhoda Alani, MD, adjunct professor at JHU’s Kimmel Cancer Center and professor and chair of dermatology at Boston University School of Medicine. “Our goal is to give an objective measurement as to whether a lesion may be malignant, [which] could take much of the guesswork out of screening patients for skin cancer.”

Alani has teamed with heat transfer expert Cila Herman, professor of mechanical engineering in JHU’s Whiting School of Engineering, who is developing new ways to detect subsurface changes in temperature. Because cancer cells divide more rapidly than normal cells, they typically generate more metabolic activity and release more energy as heat. Herman uses a highly sensitive infrared camera to detect subtle temperature differences between cancerous and healthy skins cells. The researchers cool a patient’s skin with a harmless one-minute burst of compressed air, then immediately record infrared images of the target skin area for two to three minutes. Cancer cells typically reheat more quickly than the surrounding healthy tissue, and the difference can be captured by the infrared camera and viewed through sophisticated image processing.

“The system is actually very simple,” Herman says. “An infrared image is similar to the images seen through night-vision goggles. In this medical application, the technology itself is noninvasive; the only inconvenience to the patient is the cooling.”

In the pilot study, dermatologist-identified lesions undergo thermal scanning with the new system, then a biopsy is performed to determine whether melanoma is actually present. “We, at this point, are not able to say that this instrument is able to replace the clinical judgment of a dermatologist, but we envision that this will be useful as a tool in helping to diagnose early-stage melanoma,” Alani says. The researchers envision a hand-held scanning system that dermatologists could use to evaluate suspicious moles. The technology also might be incorporated into a full-body scanning system for patients with a large number of pigmented lesions. The skin cancer scanning system is protected under an international patent application submitted by JHU’s TTO, which has engaged in talks with investors and medical devices firms concerning possible licensing deals.

Source:  EurekAlert!

The University of Notre Dame has awarded an exclusive license to the privately held biotech company Molecular Targeting Technologies Inc. (MTTI) of West Chester, PA, for sensing technology developed by Bradley Smith, PhD, Emil T. Hofman professor of chemistry and biochemistry. The technology can selectively target dead and dying mammalian cells as well as bacteria. When the targeting component is attached to a fluorescent probe, it has been successfully used to target mammary and prostate tumors and bacterial infection in mice. “This unique probe has the potential to image cell death as a means to intervene early in diseases and rapidly determine the effectiveness of treatments,” Smith says. “Imaging of cell death is broadly useful for treatment of numerous conditions, including cardiovascular diseases, neurology, renal diseases and even transplant rejection.”

The targeting probe can be used for in vitro applications as well as for in vivo molecular imaging. “We believe this technology has the potential to target myocardial ischemia, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and bacterial infections,” says Chris Pak, president and CEO of MTTI, which develops medical imaging products for the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Initially, MTTI will launch a range of fluorescent versions of the phosphatidylserine (PS) targeting molecule for research applications. Products are expected to be available in spring 2010 under the name PSVue.

Source: Inside INdiana Business

Cases of food poisoning and contamination in recent years have highlighted the threat that pesticides and chemicals pose to public health and the environment. Researchers at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) have devised a rapid and cost-efficient chemosensing analysis method to test medicines and detect pesticides in foods, pollutants in water, and toxins in fish. Chemosensing is a chemical-detection method in which targeted analytes are detected by molecular-level sensors known as chemosensors. Application of the technique has been limited by high costs, but CityU researchers overcame technical barriers with molecular imprinting technology. The technology, known as template-directed polymerization, costs one-tenth that of current testing techniques and provides results within one minute. The technology is easy to manage, and the materials are small and portable.

Molecularly imprinted polymer materials can be used in commercial applications to detect numerous chemicals, including harmful pesticides in agricultural products, such as DDT; contaminants in drinking water, such as HCH; toxins in seafood, such as histamine; leaked poisonous gas; and Tributyltin (TBT), a harmful substance in marine coatings that can damage the auditory systems of dolphins. CityU’s Knowledge Transfer Office is applying for a patent on the technology.

Source: Nano Patents and Innovations

Thomas Steitz, PhD, Sterling professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University and co-founder of New Haven, CT-based Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and colleagues have discovered ribosomal structures of antibiotics that may enable the creation of novel treatments for drug-resistant infections, including resistant tuberculosis (TB). Rib-X is a development-stage antibiotics company whose platform is based on Steitz’s research. Steitz and colleagues in Yale’s department of molecular biophysics and biochemistry identified two structures of tuberactinomycins (antibiotics used to treat TB) bound to the ribosome. The identification of these structures provides insight for the design of novel antibiotic derivatives that could be effective against a variety of drug-resistant microorganisms. The researchers described their finding in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

In December 2009, Rib-X expanded its license agreement with Yale in the area of ribosomal antibiotic structure and function. Under the agreement, Rib-X will further explore the high-resolution crystal structure of new ribosome technology elucidated by Steitz’s team. “It’s very exciting to continually add to our knowledge of the ribosome,” says Steitz, who was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work determining a high-resolution crystal structure of the 50S subunit of the ribosome, which has proved to be a major target for antibiotic development. “These structures of viomycin and capreomycin bound to the ribosome allowed us to identify an important new ribosome binding site and to better understand how these antibiotics inhibit ribosome function.” Rib-X has a pipeline of antibiotics targeting multi-drug-resistant infections in the $25 billion antibiotics market. The foundation of its product portfolio is its proven discovery technology, the Ribosome Antibiotic Binding (RAB) platform.

Source: Business Wire

Erie, PA-based Full Circle Investments LLC (FCI) is raising a $30 million commercialization fund that will invest in young companies and technologies developed at a handful of research institutions, including Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of Pittsburgh. A typical investment will range between $1 million and $2 million, and most of the investments will be concentrated in a corridor between Baltimore and Rochester, NY. “We’re bridging the gap between research labs and large corporate entities,” says FCI’s managing partner Kurt Buseck, who previously ran the New York City office of Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp. and was a founding member of Bear Stearns’ Principal Investment Group. “We’re taking technologies and building them into products and small scale businesses that fit the needs of corporations,” he adds.

FCI Commercialization Fund I LP will focus on nanotechnology/microtechnology and information assurance, also known as cyber security. Fundraising began in October 2009 and the fund has raised close to $10 million, according to Buseck. Investing will begin once the fund hits the halfway point of $15 million, which Buseck expects to occur around June. FCI, which has strong relationships with some two dozen major corporations, will concentrate on identifying new technologies to fill gaps in the product offerings of these firms, according to Buseck. FCI would serve as a matchmaker between the startups it funds and the large companies. In addition to commercializing university technologies, FCI is looking to invest in what Buseck calls “orphan companies” — young nanotech or cyber security companies that previously received VC support. There are “an overwhelming number of opportunities” in today’s market, Buseck says.

Marc Malandro, director of Pitt’s Office of Technology Management, says he had discussions with Buseck when the fund was in the concept stage and believes that early stage funding is a crucial need. “If you’re going to commercialize technology and that’s the goal of your fund, you have to make sure you’re in the right place at the right time,” Malandro says. “While all money is a good thing, funding after the product is developed isn’t as helpful to a university in terms of rolling things out.” FCI’s focus is “an eclectic mix [that addresses] an underserved set of technology from our standpoint.”

“Our region has a long history of expertise in materials and nanotech,” adds Rich Lunak, CEO of Innovation Works, a state-funded economic development entity. He cites Penn State – also among the schools FCI plans to tap – and CMU as having national reputations in these disciplines. “Our region also has a history with information security,” Lunak says. “It’s good when funds build expertise and have sector focuses. They can develop a tight investment thesis and the expertise to develop companies.”

Source: Pittsburgh Business Times

Arizona State University’s (ASU) technology transfer arm is partnering with Japan Technology Group (JTG) to collaborate on commercializing technologies from ASU and eight Japanese universities. Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE) will market Japanese IP in the United States, while JTG will do the same for ASU in Japan. The goal is to accelerate the transition of university innovations into the marketplace. The exposure of IP from ASU researchers to Japanese industry increases the chances these discoveries will be developed further and potentially commercialized, according to Augustine Cheng, managing director of AzTE. “This collaboration allows ASU and these Japanese universities to expand their international reach in the technology space,” he says.

While ASU has partnerships with many international and U.S. universities, this is JTG’s first formal collaboration with a U.S. university, says Taro Yaguchi, president of JTG, which is based in Philadelphia with offices in Tokyo. JTG represents technologies from Nagoya, Waseda, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Kumamoto, and Iwate Universities as well as Tokyo University of Science and Nara Institute of Science and Technology. “AzTE has a proven technology licensing record as well as an extensive network of domestic and international companies and universities on their roster,” Yaguchi says. “It is extremely beneficial to foster friendly ties with an established entity such as AzTE.” The two groups also will seek joint research opportunities, Yaguchi adds.

Source: Phoenix Business Journal

There’s less than a week left to register for Tech Transfer Marketing on a Shoestring: Guerilla Tactics in a Budget-Cut World. Join Jamie Hall (University of British Columbia), Brandon Reynolds (University of Texas at Tyler), and Dee Anderson (Brigham Young University) on Tuesday, March 9th for this invigorating 90-minute audioconference where you’ll discover a treasure trove of inventive, clever, out-of-the-box ideas to move your innovations to market without busting your budget. Here’s what our expert marketing team will cover during the program:

• Low cost and no-cost strategies for branding your TTO
• Going guerrilla: It’s the little things that count
• Best practices for web-based marketing:
  – Social media
  – E-mail strategies
  – Video clips and instructional videos
  – Online listings, and more
• How to engage faculty in your marketing efforts
• Internal and external PR efforts that work wonders
• Marketing collaborations with other universities
• Avoid these resource-draining no-cost efforts — they’re just not worth it!
• Leveraging campus resources such as MBA programs, entrepreneur-in-residence, etc. as partners in your marketing push
• Web analytics: They’re not just for gauging campaign results anymore. We’ll review a case study from the U of British Columbia that saved the TTO thousands of dollars and resources
• Platform marketing vs piecemeal strategy: which is best?
• How to engage web-savvy VCs and Angels

This how-to session also features an optional 30-minute add-on web forum for idea sharing. For complete details and to register, CLICK HERE.

The upcoming distance learning schedule also features:

• The Bilski Decision: Expert Strategies to Manage Its Impact on University IP — Tuesday, March 30, 2010
• Stretch Your TTO’s Budget: Tap Into Industry Resources and Partnerships — Thursday, April 8, 2010

Select investors who provide capital for startups will have access to a program that provides a first look at companies commercializing technologies developed at Purdue University. The Purdue Research Foundation has established the P3 Alliance – Purdue, People, Performance – as an angel investment network that provides investment information and connects individuals to firms or technologies in which they may invest. For a $500 annual membership fee, participants in the P3 Alliance will receive an online subscription to the network’s web site as well as invitations to three or four annual events featuring company presentations, access to documentation from firms seeking angel-level investments, and the ability to interact online with network participants and management. “The P3 Alliance will provide the necessary capital to commercialize innovative products and processes that are discovered in Purdue laboratories, and Purdue researchers will be able to deliver their discoveries to the marketplace on a much faster schedule,” says Joseph B. Hornett, senior vice president, treasurer, and COO of the Purdue Research Foundation. Prospective members are invited to apply online here.

Source: Your Story

The federal government can stimulate the creation of jobs and businesses by streamlining its policies for bringing new technologies to market, according to a report from the Association of University Research Parks (AURP). The report by Brian Darmody, president of the AURP and associate vice president for research and economic development at the University of Maryland, offers a 10-point plan that includes targeted federal investments to benefit high-tech states. “This is not only about money,” Darmody says. “It’s also a matter of adjusting the policies and regulations that too often deter entrepreneurial researchers in our universities and federal labs from commercializing their work.” Job creation in the United States will largely depend on startups and entrepreneurs who populate university research parks, laboratories, and incubators, he adds. “These are the main centers of innovation in this country. Much more of their work would be commercially viable if some of the roadblocks could be eliminated.”

The 10 steps offered in the report, entitled “The Power of Innovation,” include greater flexibility in federal grant policies for technology commercialization, improved allocation of the $25 billion in R&D spent internally in federal labs, and new connections between federal researchers and the private sector. The plan also supports pending federal legislation that would provide seed funding to create or expand research park infrastructure and calls for “cash for commercialization” – federal grants to encourage researchers to commercialize their work. In addition, the report recommends tax policy changes that would make it easier for the private sector to license IP from universities. The report is available here.

Source: PhysOrg.com

Some of the U.S. Army’s top science and technology leaders are changing how they think and act so they can transfer new technology solutions to soldiers more quickly. “A solider’s life is far more complex than when I was a young infantryman,” says Maj. Gen. Nick Justice, commander of the Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM). “We have to be nimble and responsive to those young soldiers.” Providing that support means looking at every level of Army science and technology, beginning in the Army’s labs, which produce basic technologies like new armor materials and partner with others doing research in applicable fields. Those technologies progress through the RDECOM centers to program managers, who shepherd particular pieces of equipment through the final phases and to the field. Along the way, collaboration takes place with academic researchers, industry, international partners, and others.

Now, the Army also is introducing combat veterans into critical junctures in the development of new equipment. “We will have senior noncommissioned officers who have three, four, five combat tours under their belts,” Justice explains. “They are not coming to be subject matter experts but to partner with my directors and my scientists and engineering officers in uniform. Engineering is about detail, and there’s no better place to look at detail than in our non-commissioned officer ranks.” Bringing soldiers into the system is appropriate because changes to the research, development, and engineering community are driven by changes in the field. “No longer do we look to buy an end device,” Justice points out. “Now we look to buy an integrated solution. And we need to design to modernize, not design the perfect product today. We know the requirements are going to change, so we need to build change into our products and into the Army organizations that produce those products.”

Source: United States Army

A new software tool, the Competitive Advantage Valuation (CAV) system, was specifically developed to provide the precision you need in IP valuation at a price every organization can afford. The low price has been cut even further under a collaboration with 2Market Information Inc., parent company of Tech Transfer E-News. Readers pay only $380, a full $250 off the regular price.

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Rhapsody Biologics (S) Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based startup launched in October 2009 using IP exclusively licensed from Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR), has licensed from Exploit Technologies – A*STAR’s marketing and commercialization arm – a portfolio of technologies to create a personalized peptide vaccine (PPV) platform. The technologies, expected to predict and optimize peptide vaccines for use at an individual and population level, were developed by Prof Ren Ee Chee at A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN). The platform technology encompasses a high-throughput discovery system to identify immunogenic fragments of disease-causing agents that will stimulate an immune response.

The PPV platform, based on validated experimental data incorporated into a proprietary computational rational design algorithm, has successfully predicted hepatitis B virus peptide binding with close to 100% accuracy. In comparison, the accuracy of other methods used in vaccine prediction ranges from 60% to 70%. Additionally, the technology can be used to create vaccines capable of universal coverage and eliminate the non-responder effect, which occurs in 10% to 20% of people who receive a conventional vaccine. Rhapsody is in talks with two major pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines based on the PPV platform. “We are focused on areas of unmet need in both prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines and will begin working with leading vaccine development companies later this year,” says Richard Kivel, Rhapsody’s chair and CEO.

Source: A*STAR

A spinoff developed by New York’s Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the University at Buffalo (UB) is working to train surgeons around the world in robotic surgery using technology that simulates the touch and feel of a robotic surgical system. The Robotic Surgical Simulator (RoSS) was developed over a four-year period by a Roswell surgeon and an engineering professor at UB. The duo launched Simulated Surgical Systems LLC to commercialize and sell the device to medical schools, hospitals, and surgical groups. Khurshid Guru, MD, co-founder and chief medical officer of the company and director of Roswell’s Center for Robotic Surgery, likens robotic surgical systems to an aircraft, saying they’re only as good as the pilot. However, there aren’t many training tools in existence, so many surgeons learn as they go. Like a flight simulator, the RoSS allows physicians to make mistakes in the virtual world instead of live patients.

The simulators are designed to offer two levels of training. One level covers basic operations, such as using the controls and improving hand-eye coordination. The devices also come with training software geared toward specific types of surgery. The RoSS will likely be most widely used to train surgeons in urological surgery, which comprises the largest share of robotic surgery. Other specialties include obstetrics and gynecological surgery, cardiac surgery, and nephrology, according to Thenkurussi “Kesh” Kesavadas, the company’s co-founder and chief technology officer. The system is being tested at four medical schools, including Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. The company expects to introduce the RoSS units early next year at a price of about $100,000 each.

Robert Genco, vice provost at UB and director of the Office of Science Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach, says the company is the first spinoff formed jointly between UB and another entity. “It’s an interesting company,” he says. “All aspects of the technology are covered, plus the business expertise. It has great potential.” The State University of New York Research Foundation and Health Research, Inc., the technology transfer arm of Roswell Park, jointly licensed the technology to Simulated Surgical Systems.

Source: Buffalo Business First and The Buffalo News

Scientists at Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman are exploring the use of nanomaterials to fight influenza and other viral respiratory infections. If their technology works in humans the way it does in mice, people will prepare for a respiratory viral assault by inhaling an aerosol spray containing tiny protein cages that will activate an immune response in their lungs. The activated immune state will offer protection against any respiratory virus for more than a month. “You would be able to prepare an entire population for an imminent respiratory viral infection, like the swine influenza infections that we just experienced,” says inventor Jim Wiley, PhD, assistant research professor in the department of veterinary molecular biology in MSU’s College of Agriculture. “It’s like having a fire department at your house before the fire,”

Wiley uses hollow protein cages made by a heat-loving bacterium that sets off an immune response in the lungs. The nanomaterial approach is based upon activating inducible Bronchus-Associated Lymphoid Tissue, or iBALT, in the lung. iBALT is a naturally occurring tissue that is made in the lung as part of the normal immune response to an infection. Wiley and colleagues described the technology in PLoS One. Their findings show that the presence of iBALT accelerated the recovery of infected mice without causing lung damage or other harmful side effects. The acceleration effect of the treatment disappeared gradually after one month. Currently, the team is testing its iBALT-based therapy in animal models, whose response to influenza is close to that seen in humans. MSU has a patent on the technology, which could be used to prevent or treat a range of pulmonary diseases, including influenza, and to counter bioterrorism threats, such as airborne microbes. The protein cage technology is available for licensing from MSU.

Source: MSU News Service

A mining researcher at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) is leading an effort to reduce the huge amounts of dust created by the large machines miners use to chew coal from the veins beneath the ground. Yoginder “Paul” Chugh, PhD, professor in the department of mining and mineral resources in the College of Engineering, is perfecting a dust control system for retrofitting on continuous coal mining machines. Using water spray technology and strategic placement of the spray nozzles to create “curtains” around dust clouds, Chugh’s team is making huge improvements in dust control efforts at several mines. Traditionally, continuous mining machines have relied on spraying water to control dust, Chugh says. His modified system adds more sprayers, using specific pressures and droplet sizes in strategic areas to knock down far more airborne dust. “We have added more lines of dust control defense and are seeing up to 50% reduction in the dust problem,” he says.

Wetting coal dust makes it heavier and takes it out of the air. This happens at a very small scale, with tiny droplets of water colliding with tiny dust particles. Often, however, the dust and water fail to come into contact or the water fails to adhere to the dust particle. Chugh’s system improves on this concept by not only wetting the dust but also using the spray to create a sort of water curtain that seals the dust at the face of the machine, away from the operator. The spray also pushes the fine dust near the roof back into the water spray area, increasing its “residence time” in that area and thereby giving it a better chance to contact water and drop out of the air. The system uses this hydraulic spray seal technology to form a curtain from the roof of the mine down, greatly reducing dust rollback. The curtain’s design forms a kind of “window” for the machine operator to clearly see the cutting drum’s work, while additional nozzles around the center of the cutting drum and coal pan at the front of the machine wet the coal further before it enters the conveyer system, cutting down further on dust.

At least two mines — Viper in central Illinois and Sunrise Mining Co. near Terre Haute, IN — are using the systems, while other mines are testing it. Chugh is working with SIUC’s Technology Transfer Program to license and market the technology. he hopes to market the system as both an after-market add-on to existing machines and a standard item on newly manufactured equipment.

Source: West Kentucky Star

Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., the TTO of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has introduced a method for tracking, recording, and analyzing human traffic patterns for tourism, town planning, and health care applications. Noam Shoval and Michal Isaacson, researchers in Hebrew-U’s department of geography, developed the technology. Human behavior depends on countless variables, with data on human movement in amusement parks, national parks, and other tourist venues often coming from subjective sources. Costly mistakes in planning such sites usually are detected only after a project is completed and in use. An accurate, objective system that monitors and records actual movement patterns could improve the planning and construction of such sites.

The Hebrew-U system uses Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to record the location of people for a desired period of time. During the tracking period, participants carry a small GPS unit. The tracking data is then analyzed, using a proprietary time/space analysis engine, to derive a map indicating the routes taken by each participant and the length of time spent in each location. The data obtained using tracking technologies can be analyzed in real time, creating virtual “radar” of the activity of visitors throughout a destination. The system was recently assessed in PortAventura theme park in Spain. “Urban tourism is a growing sector with profound effects on the city’s layout and economy,” says Yaacov Michlin, CEO of Yissum. “This tool provides important information that is impossible to gather in traditional ways, such as locating areas that are under-visited by tourists and have unrealized potential and determining the effects of time, weather, and other parameters on tourist mobility and activity.”

The tracking and analyzing system also has medical applications for detecting the mobility of patients after surgery and measuring their recovery. Patients carry a GPS unit after surgery. Future development will integrate additional sensors that will allow the combination of GPS data with physiological data, such as heart rate and blood pressure. The system has been licensed to Location Based Intelligence, Inc., for further development and commercialization in the medical arena.

Source: Your Story

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The University of New Mexico’s (UNM) Science and Technology Corp. (STC) has filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico against Albuquerque-based Environmental Robots Inc. (ERI) charging patent infringement. STC claims that ERI – which manufactures and sells robotics technology worldwide – has infringed on U.S. Patent No. 6,109,852, entitled “Soft Actuators and Artificial Muscles,” which was invented by former UNM researchers Mohsen Shahinpoor, PhD, and Mehran Mojarrad and assigned to the university. ERI failed to make royalty payments, breaching a nonexclusive licensing agreement, according to STC. In addition, ERI has conducted false marketing, STC maintains, because it marks its products with the technology patent number but denies to STC that the patent covers its products.

“ERI cannot have it both ways,” according to STC’s complaint. “If its products are covered by the ‘852 patent, royalties are owed to STC. Alternatively, if its products are not covered by the ‘852 patent, its products are unpatented articles with respect to the ‘852 patent, making its claim that its products are protected by the ‘852 patent intentionally false statements.” STC is a nonprofit corporation formed and owned by the University of New Mexico Regents to support UNM and its partners in IP protection, TT, and commercialization of inventions by faculty, students, and other entrepreneurs. ERI officials did not comment publicly on STC’s complaint.

Source: New Mexico Business Weekly

During fiscal year 2008, 595 companies were formed as a result of U.S. university research, according to the AUTM U.S. Licensing Activity Survey: FY2008, released by the Association of University Technology Managers in Deerfield, IL. Nearly three-fourths (72%) of these companies had their primary place of business in the university’s home state — sound evidence that university TTOs also contribute to local economic development. The survey also indicated that 648 new commercial products were introduced and 5,039 licenses and options were executed during FY2008. All told, 3,381 start-up companies founded with U.S. university IP were operating at the end of FY2008, according to the report. U.S. university TTOs that started 10 or more companies in FY2008 included Boston University/Boston Medical Center, California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Purdue, SUNY, University of Alabama in Huntsville, University of California system, University of Colorado, University of Florida, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Utah.

The survey’s 191 respondents reported 2,092 full-time licensing employees — an average of 11 FTEs per office. Many university TTOs still operate lean programs, however. Approximately 44% of university respondents (69 of 155) reported three or fewer staff members. Survey participants reported $51.47 billion in total research expenditures — an increase of $2.7 billion, or 5.5%, over FY 2007. Federal government sources accounted for $32.7 billion, or 63%, of total research dollars, compared to $31.7 billion in 2007 — an increase of 3.2%. Industry-sponsored research grew by 9%, to $3.73 billion.

Of the 20,115 disclosures filed by AUTM survey participants during FY 2008, the therapeutic/medical category accounted for 27% (5,393), followed by computer/electronic at 9% (1,890), research tools at 8% (1,562), and finance/education/art/music and plant at 1% each. “Other” disclosures accounted for 14% (2,771), while 40% (7,995) were unclassified. Institutions reported that 9% (1,885) of the disclosures received in FY2008 were closed, compared to 10% (1,932) in FY2007.

The number of annual patent filings by U.S. TTOs has nearly doubled over the past decade, according to AUTM, from 9,557 in 2000 to 18,949 in 2008. Although the number of U.S. patents issued has been relatively constant — 3,280 in FY2008 compared to a low of 3,255 in FY2006 and a high of 3,933 in FY 2003 — “this has not prevented licensing professionals from continuing to outlicense technology,” the report points out. Not surprisingly, U.S. patent applications (12,072) greatly outpaced non-U.S. patent applications (848), which continued to fall from a high of 1,403 in FY 2006.

Licensing to small companies was the dominant licensing transaction for U.S. TTOs, representing 48.2% of licensing activity during FY2008. Licensing to start-ups and large companies represented 15.8% and 35.1% of transactions, respectively. Total license income for survey respondents was $3.4 billion, up 26% from $2.7 billion in 2007. The increase was due in large part to income reported by Northwestern University from the licensing of the technology underpinning Pfizer’s epilepsy and pain drug Lyrica, according to AUTM. University standouts in licensing activity, with 100 or more licenses and options executed during FY 2008, included North Dakota State, Stanford, the UC system, University of Georgia, and University of Washington. University TTOs with $100 million or more in FY2008 licensing revenue included Columbia, NYU, Northwestern, and the UC system.

Although the level of TTO activity in Canada was predictably smaller, the pace was healthy. Thirty-nine companies were formed in Canada during FY2008 as a result of university research, according to the AUTM Canadian Licensing Activity Survey: FY2008. Of these, 37 were principally located in the institution’s home province. Discoveries at Canadian institutions also spawned 52 commercial products during FY2008. All told, 608 start-ups launched by Canadian institutions were operating at the end of FY2008.

Canadian institutions totaled $5.52 billion in research expenditures during FY2008 — a 7.8% increase over the previous year. Research expenditures funded by the federal government rose by 3.4% over the previous fiscal year, to $2.43 billion, while industry-sponsored research grew by 33.4%, to $610 million. Thirty-five institutions reported 1,820 disclosures in FY2008, compared to 1,844 disclosures by 39 institutions the previous year, with three institutions — the universities of Guelph, British Columbia, and Toronto — leading the pack. As with U.S. institutions, therapeutic/medical device led the categories, with 25% of FY2008 disclosures, followed by plant at 17%, computers/electronics at 11%, research tools at 6%, and finance/education/art/music at 2%. Sixteen percent of disclosures fell into the “other” category, and 22% were uncharacterized.

Patent activity increased at Canadian institutions, with 1,029 total patent applications filed and 890 new patent applications filed by participating institutions. On the human resources side, institutional TTOs saw a shift during FY2008. Overall numbers of licensing staff increased but there was an equivalent decrease in the numbers of administrative staff, maintaining the overall staffing at the survey’s 37 reporting institutions at 365 FTEs.

Sources: AUTM and AUTM