Author: Marie Powers

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in LaJolla, CA, have signed a license agreement with Genentech, a wholly owned member of the Roche group, and Roche that grants the companies exclusive rights to manufacture, develop, and market human monoclonal antibodies to treat and protect against group 1 influenza viruses. These viruses include the strains for the current seasonal and H1N1 influenzas. Genentech and Roche also have a non-exclusive right to manufacture, develop, and market diagnostic tests for group 1 influenza. Complete terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Dana-Farber and Sanford-Burnham will receive license fees and may receive milestone payments and royalties.

Wayne A. Marasco, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at Dana-Farber and Harvard Medical School, Robert Liddington, PhD, professor and director of the Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center at Sanford-Burnham, and colleagues demonstrated that the newly identified antibodies attach to the stem region of the viral proteins (hemagglutinin) rather than to the head region — the standard target of current influenza vaccines. Binding to the highly conserved stem region prevents changes in the protein that are necessary for viral entry into the host cell, thereby inhibiting further infection of host cells and the rise of escape mutants. Standard influenza vaccines that consist of an attenuated, or killed, virus typically stimulate antibodies against the protein’s head. These vaccines are less effective as the head region is prone to change, leading to the rise of forms of the virus that can evade neutralizing antibodies. The researchers reported their discovery in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.

Source: Medical News Today

Three outstanding distance learning events filled with practical strategies and how-to guidance on are coming soon, starting with next week’s session on market research best practices. Click on any of the titles below for complete details and to register:

• Performing Market Research Studies: Testing the Waters to De-Risk Your IP Investments — Next Wednesday, February 24, 2010
• Tech Transfer Marketing on a Shoestring: Guerilla Tactics in a Budget-Cut World — Tuesday, March 9, 2010
• The Bilski Decision: Expert Strategies to Manage Its Impact on University IP — Tuesday, March 30, 2010

NovaUCD, the TTO responsible for the commercialization of IP developed at Ireland’s University College Dublin (UCD), reported 85 invention disclosures in 2009 — a 60% increase over the 53 inventions reported in 2008. In addition, seven companies were spun out of UCD in 2009, including:

• Aremon, established to provide validation of clinically relevant and qualified diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers, initially in the areas of neurodegeneration and cancer.
• BioPlastech, which is commercializing a process to convert waste materials to a biodegradable plastic.
• Capstan Healthcare, a veterinary health care company that provides technology and product development services to the veterinary pharmaceutical market.
• Crop Research, which evaluates the efficacy of agrochemicals for use in agriculture, particularly the use of fungicides to control crop diseases.
• Darius Medical, which is developing a low-cost, non-invasive medical device for early detection of coronary artery disease.
• Equinome, which is developing genetic tests to optimize decision-making in the breeding and racing of thoroughbred horses and has launched a genetic test to identify the optimum racing distance for individual Thoroughbred horses.
• Future Buildings Consulting (trading as ERG Consulting), which provides specialty services in sustainable building design and construction to the Irish and European building industries.

In addition, NovaUCD filed 47 patent applications in 2009 — a 25% increase over the previous year. “We should recognize that the conversion to license deals, new companies, and much needed employment takes time,” says Pat Frain, director of NovaUCD. “One major issue is the need to ensure that early-stage campus companies have access to finance.” In that respect, the international success achieved by UCD companies is particularly important, he adds, citing the $60 million sale of NovaUCD spinout ChangingWorlds to U.S. technology firm Amdocs, the €6 million investment in BiancaMed led by pan-European VC firm Seventure Partners.

Source: Biotechnology Ireland

AIDS Research Alliance in Los Angeles has signed a licensing agreement with Stanford University for exclusive rights to a technology developed by chemistry professor Paul Wender, PhD, and colleagues. The technology, reported in 2008 in Science, will allow AIDS researchers to synthesize the natural compound prostratin. Early tests conducted at the National Cancer Institute and ongoing preclinical studies conducted by the Alliance indicate that prostratin targets latent HIV — the virus not killed by existing anti-HIV therapies. Previously, prostratin had to be collected from natural resources — an expensive and cumbersome process. “Dr. Wender’s genius removes a major hurdle to the therapeutic development of this promising compound,” says Carolyn H. Carlburg, president and CEO of AIDS Research Alliance. The ability to produce prostratin synthetically will significantly reduce future costs, making prostratin a more viable drug candidate, she adds.

“When used in combination with existing antiretroviral drugs, prostratin may one day help treating physicians eradicate all virus from the body — a feat not yet possible using existing therapies,” adds Stephen J. Brown, MD, medical director at AIDS Research Alliance. Current therapies suppress but do not completely eradicate the virus from the body, he explains. Some viral particles lay dormant in pockets or ‘reservoirs,’ avoiding the reach of anti-HIV drugs. When treatments are interrupted, the HIV reservoir floods the body with new virus, re-igniting infection. The Alliance has been studying how to flush virus from the HIV reservoir for more than a decade. If approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, prostratin would become the first in a new class of drugs and introduce a novel treatment for HIV/AIDS, according to Carlburg.

Source: PR Web

Scientists at the University of Oxford, U.K., have developed a method to capture a high-resolution still image alongside high-speed video. By combining off-the-shelf technologies found in standard cameras and digital movie projectors, the researchers have created a tool that could transform many forms of detailed scientific imaging and provide access to high-speed video with high-resolution still images from the same camera at a price suitable for the consumer market. The technology, which could have applications ranging from CCTV to sports photography, already is attracting interest from the scientific imaging sector, where the ability to capture high-quality still images that correspond exactly to high-speed video is highly desirable but currently very expensive.

During studies of the human heart, researchers in the Cardiac Mechano-Electric Feedback Group in Oxford’s department of physiology, anatomy, and genetics used sophisticated imaging and computer technologies to create an animated model of the heart that can be viewed from all angles. They combined information about heart structure and function using powerful computers and advanced optical imaging tools — a process that requires a combination of speed and detail, which is difficult to achieve using current photographic techniques. Gil Bub, PhD, senior research fellow on the team, developed a solution that joins high-resolution still images and high-speed video footage at the same time on the same camera chip “by allowing the camera’s pixels to act as if they were part of tens, or even hundreds, of individual cameras taking pictures in rapid succession during a single normal exposure,” he explains. The pixels are divided into groups and programmed to take their part of the bigger picture in well-controlled succession during the time normally required to take a single snapshot. “The trick is that the pattern of pixel exposures keeps the high resolution content of the overall image, which can then be used as-is to form a regular high-res picture or be decoded into a high-speed movie,” Bub adds. The researchers described the technology in Nature Methods.

The concept already has attracted the attention of Cairn Research, a U.K.-based scientific instrument manufacturer, and may soon move from the optical bench to a consumer-friendly package. Mark Pitter, senior research fellow in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Nottingham, U.K., plans to compress the technology into an all-in-one sensor that could be placed inside normal cameras. “The use of a custom-built solid state sensor will allow us to design compact and simple cameras, microscopes, and other optical devices” that may be used for applications such as consumer cameras and security systems, Pitter says. Isis Innovations, Oxford’s TTO, has patented the technology and is seeking commercial partners.

Source:  Science Daily

In a press conference on February 4, the Washington, DC-based Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) expressed concern about recommendations in the report “Gene Patents and Licensing Practices and Their Impact on Patient Access to Genetic Tests,” issued by the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health, and Society (SACGHS). The committee is charged with advising the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services on human health and societal issues raised by the development and use of genetic technologies. Although the SACGHS report indicates that gene patents and licensing practices have not had an adverse impact on patient access to genetic tests, the committee is nevertheless making recommendations that “would undermine the U.S. patent system and the Bayh-Dole technology transfer system that have served our nation so well,” noted BIO president and CEO Jim Greenwood. The committee’s recommendations “would discourage investment in biotech innovation, hobble the transfer of federally funded research, undermine university research programs, and harm patients who are waiting for life-saving therapies and diagnostics yet to be developed,” he added.

SACGHS task force member Brian Stanton, PhD, a consultant on IP management and policy, former director of the Division of Policy at the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Technology Transfer, said the committee’s report shows “no evidence of harm, and yet it still calls for changes.” The change that has garnered the most attention is a proposal to exempt gene patents from infringement liability. While Stanton acknowledged that the task force identified isolated instances of harm that need to be addressed, it also determined that “the court systems and the systems of checks and balances that are built into the fabric of the patent system were more than capable of addressing problems on a case-by-case basis.” He also observed that the report contains a letter of dissent from the only three members of the full committee who have direct experience in business and law with respect to IP and private sector development of products and services.

The Bayh-Dole Act “transformed the entire way that we, as universities, interact with the commercial sector,” and helped to create a whole new industry, added Jon Soderstrom, PhD, managing director of the Office of Cooperative Research at Yale University. According to its annual survey, Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) members have gone from issuing dozens of licenses before passage of the Act to issuing thousands of licenses each year — more than 5,000 licenses in 2009 alone, according to Soderstrom. Over the past 20 years, patents licensed by AUTM members have led to the development of more than 10,000 new products, he added. Prior to Bayh-Dole, not a single drug was developed using Yale’s patented technology. Since passage of the Act, five drugs based on Yale patents have made it to market and 18 more are in clinical trials. The SACGHS recommendations could set the clock back, creating “essentially a reconstitution of the world as is it existed before 1980,” Soderstrom warned. BIO has made a podcast of the press conference available here.

Source: Patent Docs

In an editorial for cnn.com, Krisztina “Z” Holly, vice provost for innovation at the University of Southern California and executive director of the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, argues that the White House should use technology transfer to help solve the U.S. jobs crisis. “Currently, the federal government is investing nearly $50 billion a year on university research yet barely a dime on university programs to help translate the most promising ideas into new businesses and employment opportunities,” she writes. “That’s like turning up the water pressure but never opening up the faucet.” Holly advocates the policy proposal IMPACT, which she recently presented at a forum on Capitol Hill. The proposal — drafted by thought leaders in academia, industry, and the public sector — would expand the nation’s capacity to harness innovation and create high-paying jobs, according to Holly.

A pilot initiative, IMPACT would invest a small amount of federal funding — $2 million per program at 10 demonstration sites — to identify best practices for coaxing breakthrough ideas out of universities and to develop objective metrics for measuring results. The ultimate goal is to expand the program to all eligible universities, creating jobs in newly created businesses for Americans who are eager to work. “At the University of Southern California, through the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, we have already seen how a renewed focus on accelerating innovation can impact the economy,” Holly writes. Two dozen USC-bred businesses are in operation. In 2009, just seven of those start-ups reported combined revenues exceeding $30 million. In the last two years, 16 of the spinoffs raised at least $148 million in financing. Importantly, the companies employ approximately 500 full-time employees — more than half in Los Angeles. “We hope to see IMPACT, or its key initiatives, in the nation’s fiscal year 2011 budget so we can create a scalable model to turn more ideas into jobs as soon as possible,” Holly concludes.

Source: CNN

In association with IPRA Inc. and its principal, royalty rate and valuation expert Russell Parr, 2Market Information Inc. recently added two new royalty rate references. Both are available in print or in PDF for immediate download.

Royalty Rates for Trademarks & Copyrights, 4th Edition, features 30% more transactions and benchmark rates than previous editions. Along with an unrivaled set of benchmarks and real-world rates from transactions completed through 2009, this edition also shows how to implement financial models for the derivation of royalty rates. Details are included on rules of thumb, profit differential calculations, investment rate of return analyses, and discounted cash flow analysis, along with examples that can be used as a template for your specific applications. For details, a table of contents, sample pages, and to order, CLICK HERE.

With Royalty Rates for Technology: Medical Devices and Diagnostics Edition, we’ve created a targeted reference by deriving all medical device and diagnostics entries from the more comprehensive — and more costly — technology edition of this unique benchmarking series. If your interest is focused primarily on the medical device industry, you can access this valuable data at a much lower price than the larger volume. It reports all available compensation terms from scores of completed medical device license agreements, gathered from more than 20 years of Mr. Parr’s research. You’ll find details on fixed royalty rates, per unit royalties, scaled royalty rates, and license fees. CLICK HERE for more information and to order.

All editions in the series provide more than just rates and data — you get context as well. For each transaction you’ll find:

• A description of the licensed technology
• Compensation terms including royalty rates and license fees
• Identity of the licensor and licensee
• Transaction background and history
• Market analysis and benefits of the licensed technology

The University of Minnesota is teaming up with private developers to establish a venture-backed commercialization hub adjacent to the school’s Biomedical Discovery District. Construction could begin next year on The Minnesota Center for Life Science Technology Commercialization, a 60,000-square-foot building designed to convert ideas and technology from university biomedical researchers into viable start-ups. A key component to the center is a $20 million private VC fund that will support the companies. The center is the first step in establishing the Minnesota Science Park, a planned $750 million, 500,000-square-foot series of facilities. Designed to be Minnesota’s answer to North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, Minnesota Science Park will enable academics, scientists, investors, and entrepreneurs to create breakthrough innovations developed and sold by homegrown companies, says Peter Bianco, director of lifescience business development at Halleland Health Consulting in Minneapolis, who is spearheading the project.

The Minnesota Science Park represents a watershed moment for the University of Minnesota, which developed the Biomedical Discovery District to combine the school’s most prized biomedical assets, including its McGuire Translational Research Facility and Center for Magnetic Resonance and Research. The park would add private sector muscle to the school’s intellectual know-how, according to Tim Mulcahy, UMinn’s vice president of research. “The development of this public-private partnership represents recognition of the value of our innovations,” he says. The park will follow the best practice standards developed by the Association of University Research Parks — mainly proximity to a major research university in a dense urban area, experienced developers, and a dedicated venture fund. Under Bianco’s plan, the developer and university each will invest in the venture fund.

Major obstacles remain, however. Facing state budget cuts, the university has limited financial resources. For construction to start, the school must lease a good portion of the commercialization center and commit tech transfer and research assets to the facility. So far, the university and developer have not reached an agreement. “At this moment, we have alignment on wanting to do it but the economy presents a challenge in that we need agreement from the major stakeholders to move forward,” Bianco says. “If we get this agreement, it would likely be nine months to having a spade in the ground.”

Source: MedCity News

Like its cross-border rival, the University of Wisconsin-Madison also has a public/private research center under construction in the heart of its campus. When it opens in December, the $205 million Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery will allow a diverse group of researchers from the UW-Madison campus and beyond to mix with each other and with industrial partners to tackle technical problems in new and unexpected ways, developers predict. The Institutes will be the first public/private research center in the country attached to a major academic research institution, according to George Austin, project manager at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). Having public-private research centers will help UW-Madison to attract top researchers and increase the number of ways their research can be funded, he adds.

“It’s a competitive world in that space, and this investment — and the collaboration that can take place — is required for UW-Madison to stay competitive with the big institutions on the two coasts,” says Jay Bayne, executive director of the Milwaukee Institute and former chief technology officer at Johnson Controls, Inc., in Glendale, WI. “In that regard, it’s a strategic move and it’s a very impressive one.” The Institutes will serve as a collaborative hotbed for many of UW-Madison’s top researchers. Already university faculty have been selected to lead research in five areas: epigenetics, tissue engineering, functional nursing, systems biology, and optimization. Researchers from other institutions around the world also may be invited to hold five-year appointments with the Institutes, says Andy Cohn, a WARF spokesman. The research center was funded with $50 million each from the state and from John and Tashia Morgridge, plus $105 million from WARF.

Source: Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel

From biofuels to pharmaceuticals, Sacramento-area inventors have created scores of promising scientific breakthroughs — many of them in the well-funded laboratories of the University of California, Davis. Now, UC Davis is laboring to convert its massive portfolio of scientific research into products that could help transform the Sacramento economy. The university’s commitment to commercialization has taken on new urgency as the region tries to claw its way out of the recession. UC officials say they’re trying to become a force for rapid-fire economic development in a region known for moving cautiously. Both the university and the region have “a reputation of not being too open to risk, and we have to change that,” says new UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who holds 16 engineering patents. She’s appointed a committee to study why the university has not been more successful at tech transfer.

Nobody expects UC Davis to duplicate the success of Stanford University, which perfected the art of tech transfer and helped build Silicon Valley. But business leaders say UC Davis has the ability to do much more than it has so far. “There is significant opportunity to increase the number of companies coming out of campus,” says Meg Arnold, a former UC Davis TTO official who now runs the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance. For example, the university’s science research budget hit $643 million in 2008 — 16th largest in the nation, according to the National Science Foundation. However, Davis has spawned just two dozen tech companies since 2003 — about one-third as many as UC San Diego. The Davis campus didn’t open a TTO until 1999, and the culture has changed slowly. “A significant amount of the entrepreneurial activity has to come from UC Davis,” says Oleg Kaganovich, a partner in the Sacramento office of DFJ Frontier venture capital. “If that doesn’t happen, we will never grow significantly beyond where we are now.”

David McGee, a former biotech executive who runs UC Davis’ TTO, InnovationAccess, says red tape is being slashed at every turn. Licensing contracts, which used to run 46 pages, have been cut in half. “We have shown we can start up companies,” says McGee, who has run the program since 2004. One reason for optimism is green technology. VCs have fallen in love with the industry, and green companies are clustering around Sacramento to be near the lawmakers and regulators in charge of California’s war on global warming. Green tech is a UC Davis strength; the campus operates research centers devoted to such fields as biofuels and wind power. “We’re getting a lot more interest from investors and entrepreneurs,” says Andrew Hargadon, director of the university’s Center for Entrepreneurship. “People are starting to want what UC Davis has always been producing.”

Source: The Sacramento Bee

The University Funds, LLC, a VC based in Bellevue, WA, has expanded eastward, inking an agreement with Indiana University Research & Technology Corp. (IURTC) to move IP created by researchers at IU into the marketplace. The University Funds was launched in May 2009 to combine the entrepreneurial expertise and management capabilities of a start-up business accelerator with an in-house VC fund to commercialize innovations with high-dollar market potential. (See previous article.) The company is targeting health care and life sciences, plant and animal sciences related to the food chain, alternative energy and green technology, and software applications related to these sectors. IURTC president and CEO Tony Armstrong says the partnership will help establish start-up companies in Bloomington and at other IU campuses. “This agreement provides a comprehensive framework for building a productive and mutually supportive program between IU researchers and a management team experienced in successfully moving intellectual property into commercial use,” Armstrong says. “We think they have a unique model for driving commercialization success around research-based innovations.”

The University Funds will build a portfolio of technology-based start-up companies; provide experienced management teams and legal, accounting, administrative, and operational support; and direct funding to projects deemed to have the best chance of success, according to Len Jessup, the company’s executive vice president for university relations. Jessup, a former tenured faculty member in the IU Kelley School of Business, says both IU and The University Funds stand to gain from a relationship designed to remove roadblocks that might hamper innovative researchers from starting companies or licensing discoveries. The company has similar agreements with 10 public universities in the western U.S.

Source: The Indianapolis Star

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has opened on-campus technology incubator space at the California NanoSystems Institute to WaveConnex, Inc., a start-up that plans to conduct proof-of-concept research on contactless electronic connections that can be used in virtually all electronic systems. WaveConnex, incorporated in August 2009, is leveraging research in millimeter-wave radio technology developed by Frank Chang, PhD, Wintek professor of electrical engineering at UCLA, toward the development of products for contactless connections. The technology, licensed from UCLA, will allow data to be exchanged between electronic devices without physically touching. Contactless connections will potentially enable wide-ranging applications in database transfer, Internet infrastructure, entertainment electronics, and other areas.

WaveConnex expects its products to serve as replacements for metal-to-metal interconnections currently used in nearly all electronic systems, with the potential to overcome current limitations in terms of performance, reliability, and size. Among potential applications are improved pocket-sized “smart cards” with embedded integrated circuits that can store and process large amounts of data without coming into direct contact with another device. “Imagine you have a credit card-sized smart card in your wallet that contains all of your medical history and records in encrypted form, including medications, X-rays, and MRI results,” Chang says. “The technology has the potential to enable any doctor to access, with permission, your accurate medical profile, giving them detailed information for the prescription of treatments and enabling them to update your profile.”

Source: PhysOrg

Rave reviews are coming in from IP and tech transfer professionals who attended one of our most popular distance learning events of the year on Tuesday, and took away dozens of proven ideas and strategies for slashing unnecessary cost out of their patent budgets. Even if you missed the live event, Patent Prosecution: Best Practices for Reducing Costs While Improving Patent Quality, you can still get the cost-cutting tactics provided by two veteran IP attorneys, plus all handout materials, in the recorded CD, MP3, or print transcript version of the session. CLICK HERE for complete details or to order.

And don’t miss these outstanding upcoming sessions:

• Performing Market Research Studies: Testing the Waters to De-Risk Your IP Investments — Wednesday, February 24
• Tech Transfer Marketing on a Shoestring: Guerilla Tactics in a Budget-Cut World — Tuesday, March 9
• The Bilski Decision: Expert Strategies to Manage Its Impact on University IP — Tuesday, March 30, 2010

NioCAD, a spinout from South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, has secured R12.5 million ($1.7M) in second-round funding from South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to commercialize its first product, expected to launch in February. NioCAD has developed an end-to-end design automation tool for building superconductive integrated circuits. As current processor and telecom technologies approach their physical performance limits, superconductive electronics make the strongest case for taking circuit technology to the next level, according to NioCAD CEO Retief Gerber. The technology “has the potential to fast-track fields as diverse as supercomputing, telecom, and life-like 3D virtual reality with sub-TeraHertz processor core speeds functioning at low switching power,” he explains. “Sensor and imaging applications will also benefit, as superconductive circuits make for ultra-sensitive sensors.”

Growth of the technology has been limited due to the absence of integrated design automation tools for such circuits. NioCAD’s technology addresses that shortcoming by offering an integrated architecture catering to schematic and cell-based design, circuit analysis, optimization, and physical design. The integration of physical and schematic design through a unifying data model is entirely new, Gerber says. The technology offers the advantage of instantaneous forward and backward propagation of changes between the two environments and enables simultaneous circuit extraction and verification. “For the first time, circuit optimization can be done on the actual physical layout rather than symbolic models, making it possible to model critical components much more accurately,” Gerber points out.

The NioCAD technology was developed in a lab at Stellenbosch’s electrical and electronic engineering department, whose chair, Willem Perold, PhD, headed the research team and serves as company co-founder. InnovUS, the Stellenbosch University-owned entity responsible for the university’s tech transfer program and IP management, provided incubation support to NioCAD and assisted in its spinout. The company is currently selecting distribution channels, producing user and training materials, establishing support lines, and devising licensing models.

Source: NioCAD

Emission & Power Solutions, Plc (EPS), a clean tech company based in the U.K. that licenses, acquires, develops, deploys, and transfers technologies to improve fuel economy while reducing exhaust emissions, has licensed a patent-pending vapor emissions system developed at The University of Alabama. The company is launching an R&D collaboration with UA to commercialize the product, which was invented by Marcus Ashford, PhD, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in UA’s College of Engineering. The vapor emissions system, which reduces start-up emissions by 80% and total vehicle emissions by 50% to 75%, is transparent to the consumer and easy to retrofit for existing fleets, according to the company. The system will be commercialized as a device to reduce emissions for all liquid-fueled passenger vehicles, including automobiles and light-duty trucks. Its market includes automakers and fuel system manufacturers.

Using advanced fuel treatment devices, EPS has developed a proprietary, multi-phase process using engineered flow patterns to restructure fuel hydrocarbons. The process increases fuel efficiency and produces a cleaner burn during the engine’s combustion cycle. “EPS has a proven track record of securing investment for business and product development,” says Rick Swatloski, PhD, licensing associate in UA’s OTT. “We are excited about working with EPS to further develop this technology and transition it into a commercial product.”

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Power-generating rubber films developed by Princeton University engineers could harness natural body movements such as breathing and walking to power pacemakers, mobile phones, and other electronic devices. The material, composed of ceramic nanoribbons embedded onto silicone rubber sheets, generates electricity when flexed and is highly efficient at converting mechanical energy to electrical energy. Shoes made of the material may one day harvest the energy produced by walking and running to power mobile electrical devices. Placed against the lungs, sheets of the material could use breathing motions to power pacemakers, obviating the current need for surgical replacement of batteries that power the devices. A paper on the material was published online in Nano Letters.

The Princeton team is the first to successfully combine silicone and nanoribbons of lead zirconate titanate (PZT), a ceramic material that is piezoelectric — generating an electrical voltage when pressure is applied. Of all piezoelectric materials, PZT is the most efficient, able to convert 80% of the mechanical energy applied to it into electrical energy. The researchers first fabricated PZT nanoribbons — strips so narrow that 100 fit side-by-side in a one-millimeter space. In a separate process, they embedded these ribbons into clear sheets of silicone rubber, creating what they call “piezo-rubber chips.” Because the silicone is biocompatible, it’s already used for cosmetic implants and medical devices. “The new electricity-harvesting devices could be implanted in the body to perpetually power medical devices and the body wouldn’t reject them,” says Michael McAlpine, PhD, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton. In addition to generating electricity when flexed, the material also flexes in response to electrical current — a property that opens the door to other applications, such as use in microsurgical devices, McAlpine says.

Source: Science Daily

The University of Missouri System plans to establish a three-year, $5-million fund for start-up companies. The Enterprise Investment Program “is designed to help fund start-up companies in Missouri that can move the discoveries of our faculty from the laboratory to the marketplace,” leveraging the university’s expertise in life sciences, nanotechnology, information technology, engineering, medicine/medical devices, and energy, according to university president Gary Forsee. An outside advisory panel will be formed to review funding applications and recommend awards. The panel’s review process, which will include the evaluation of business plans, is slated to begin this summer. The university hopes to make its first awards this fall.

Eligible start-up companies — including those that operate out of university incubators across Missouri — will be required to obtain an investment, raised or invested directly by the founder(s), at a level that shows a commitment to the company’s success, according to Forsee. Additional consideration will be given to start-ups with funding from Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and/or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants and/or matching funds from other sources. Start-ups that apply for the funds also must have licensed a U-Missouri technology, must be located and licensed to do business in Missouri, and must be committed to commercializing IP owned by U-Missouri. In addition, the start-ups must agree to grant the university an equity interest in the venture with a fair market value equivalent to the amount of the university’s financial investment and accept funding installments based on achievement of agreed-upon milestones.

Source: St. Louis Business Journal

The U.S. Supreme Court’s highly anticipated ruling in the Bilski case has the potential to alter the landscape for business method patents and send shockwaves through the tech transfer community. Though no one can predict for certain the outcome, many observers believe the days of business method patents are numbered. For TTOs, it’s critical to prepare now and determine your patent portfolio’s exposure to Bilski-related turmoil, decide how vigorously you want to defend affected patents, if at all, and explore alternatives for protecting relevant IP. That’s why our Distance Learning Division has teamed with three university IP experts for a 90-minute audioconference focused on the practical steps and strategies you can take now to prepare for the fall-out — and minimize any negative impact on IP in development, already-patented innovations, pending applications, and existing license agreements. Our panel will cover the Bilski decision’s implications for every step of the commercialization and patenting process and deliver crucial guidance for tech transfer, licensing, and legal professionals Don’t miss The Bilski Decision: Expert Strategies to Manage Its Impact on University IP, coming March 30th. To register or get full program and faculty information, CLICK HERE.

Also coming soon:

• Patent Prosecution: Best Practices for Reducing Costs While Improving Patent Quality — Next Tuesday, February 9, 2010
• Performing Market Research Studies: Testing the Waters to De-Risk Your IP Investments — Wednesday, February 24, 2010
• Tech Transfer Marketing on a Shoestring: Guerilla Tactics in a Budget-Cut World — Tuesday, March 9, 2010

The University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, is launching a training camp to teach promising young Canadian entrepreneurs how to help create the country’s future economy. The VeloCity Entrepreneur BootCamp (VEB), which will run from May to July 2010, will be based in U-Waterloo’s VeloCity, a hybrid student residence and high-tech incubator that has spawned several start-up companies in mobile communications and digital media. The VEB will enable top student entrepreneurs to fast track the launch of their technology-based start-ups. Selected students will live rent-free at VeloCity and work out of office space provided at no charge by the Accelerator Centre in U-Waterloo’s research and technology park while they are mentored by some of Canada’s most experienced and successful entrepreneurs. Students will receive $3,000 each, up to a maximum $9,000 for each team, and own 100% of their IP.

“We must find new ways to encourage and grow innovation and entrepreneurship,” says David Johnston, president of U-Waterloo. “This initiative brings together enterprising students who, with the support of a leading university, [will] learn how to collaborate with the technology incubator, start-up, and venture capital communities.” At the conclusion of the BootCamp, students will be eligible for additional seed funding through a new entrepreneur program managed by the Ontario Centres of Excellence Centre for Commercialization of Research. VEB is open to any post-secondary student in Canada. In addition to a resume, applicants must submit an overview of their start-up and a YouTube video promoting the idea.

Source: Marketwire