Technology Transfer Tactics » Tech Transfer

Study calls on New York State to invest in university tech transfer

Marie Powers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:05:50 +0000

New York State should invest $20 million to $35 million annually to spin out university-based research into start-up companies, according to a study produced by Excell Partners, Inc., a state-supported seed fund partnership with the University of Rochester. The study, “Venture Capital and Seed Activity in New York State,” notes that New York is second only to California in the amount of federal research funds flowing to its universities but ranks 25th in state capital for start-ups. For every $4.40 spent by California universities for R&D, that state commits $1 to help commercialize the research, the study found. In contrast, New York commits $1 for every $95 spent on R&D. “In New York, we’re way behind the power curve,” says Judy Albers, chief operating officer of Excell Partners and a study author. The study comes on the heels of Gov. David Paterson’s establishment of a task force that’s charged with finding ways to stimulate economic growth through state research institutions. The 14-member task force, led by Cornell University President David Skorton, is expected to make recommendations by December 15 on how to foster business incubation and commercialization of university research. “We’ve got two Ivy League universities in New York, a national research lab at Brookhaven, and eight or nine other preeminent universities,” Albers says. “That’s an enormous amount of intellectual capital.” She hopes the study will demonstrate the need for the state to invest seed money that better corresponds to the amount of research that takes place in New York. “A million dollars ain’t going to do it,” Albers says. “We wanted to use this study to put real numbers to the problem. A lot of people know that we lack seed money in New York State, but they don’t understand the magnitude of the solution.”

Go to: Newsday

U-Maryland Biotech Institute to be split apart

Marie Powers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:04:43 +0000

Farther down the East Coast, Maryland’s biotech community is taking a wait-and-see attitude after the breakup of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI). The University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents is dismantling UMBI as a single institute after an ad hoc committee investigating the Institute’s effectiveness found no strong scientific or organizational justification to keep it intact. “I’m sure it was a very thoughtful decision on the part of the regents,” says Richard A. Zakour, executive director of MdBio, the bioscience division of the Tech Council of Maryland. However, “it’s hard to say how it’s going to work out,” he adds. UMBI, established in 1985, is the only University System of Maryland institution with a legislative mandate to drive economic development, according to its annual report. Its research areas include biotechnology applications to human health, marine environments, agriculture, and protein engineering-structural biology, with a focus on tech transfer and commercialization efforts. UMBI encompasses four centers and operates a fifth across three campuses. The Institute has an operating budget of $63.7 million, with 85 faculty members and 59 graduate students involved in its operations.

In its report, the panel studying UMBI said its organization “as a geographically dispersed, freestanding entity has created intractable problems. As a result, while UMBI has attracted talented researchers and developed impressive, state-of-the art laboratory facilities, it has not produced the level of translational research and technology transfer for which it was created.” The committee cited lack of scale in UMBI programs, isolation among UMBI’s research centers and between the centers and the university system’s other research institutions, and absence of a critical mass of graduate and undergraduate students. The regents approved the committee’s recommendation to align UMBI’s research centers with their respective university campuses. Jennie Hunter-Cevera, who served as UMBI’s president for almost a decade, had previously announced her resignation and left at the end of June to join a research institute in North Carolina. An acting successor will be named to guide the Institute’s reorganization, according to a spokeswoman for the university system. William M. Gust, managing general partner at venture capital firm Anthem Managing Partners in Baltimore and a member of UMBI’s board of visitors, says the regents have done a good job with the reorganization. Whether UMBI has been a good investment for the state’s taxpayers “is in the eye of the beholder,” he adds. The money pumped into UMBI over the years has resulted in just one start-up company, but he cites a much better track record in terms of patents and licenses.

Go to: Gazette.net

Four key challenges addressed in upcoming tech transfer audioconferences

David Schwartz — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:03:18 +0000

Technology Transfer Tactics has lined up four distance learning audioprograms over the next two months that address some of the most critical challenges and opportunities facing tech transfer and IP professionals. Click on the individual titles below for complete program and faculty information:

IP Bundling: Establish Effective Partnerships to Increase the Value of Your Innovations - July 9, 2009 1:00-2:30 pm (Eastern Daylight Time)
Conflict of Interest in University Research: Strengthen Your Process and Policies - July 22, 2009 1:00-2:30 pm (Eastern Daylight Time)
Achieve Success by Taking a Business-Minded Approach to Tech Transfer - August 6, 2009 1:00-2:30 pm (Eastern Daylight Time)
Launch Your Own VC! Create Your Own Funding Vehicle For University Technologies - August 26, 2009 1:00-2:30 pm (Eastern Daylight Time)

U-Iowa TTO sues Abbott for patent infringement over manufacture of Humira

Marie Powers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:01:06 +0000

The University of Iowa Research Foundation (UIRF) in Iowa City has sued Abbott Laboratories for allegedly infringing a pair of UIRF-owned patents related to a cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter used to manufacture a number of vaccines and therapeutics. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, claims that Abbott has infringed one or more claims by manufacturing its blockbuster monoclonal antibody Humira, which is used to treat a variety of autoimmune diseases. UIRF, an independent non-profit corporation that handles technology transfer for the University of Iowa, is seeking enhanced monetary damages because it says Abbott “willfully and deliberately” infringed the patents. Interestingly, a similar lawsuit over Humira, brought by Johnson & Johnson’s Centocor and New York University, was decided last week. The jury verdict went in favor of J&J and NYU, to the tune of $1.67 billion in lost profits and reasonable royalty. The jury also found that Abbott had willfully infringed the Centocor-NYU patents.

The UIRF complaint alleges that Humira also infringes U.S. Patents 5,168,062 and 5,385,839, “Transfer vectors and microorganisms containing human cytomegalovirus immediate-early promoter-regulatory DNA sequence.” Both patents are based on the inventions of Mark Stinski, professor of microbial biology at the UI Carver College of Medicine. Because the ‘839 patent is a continuation of the ‘062 patent, which was awarded December 1, 1992, under U.S. patent law both patents would expire December 1 of this year. According to Timothy B. McBride, an associate specializing in biotech patent law with St. Louis, MO-based Senniger Powers, LLP, a patent holder “can only sue on a patent that still has term, or is still valid. Certainly [UIRF] would want to sue now while that is still an active patent.” UIRF’s suit claims the CMV promoter is “a fundamental tool used in the biotech industry to enhance the manufacture of vaccines and therapeutics.” UIRF said that it has granted 112 active licenses to the patents, including 16 linked to royalty-bearing products. According to the Institute’s 2008 annual report, the CMV patents accounted for nearly all royalties received by the school and for approximately three quarters of UIRF’s overall income of $28.6 million. UIRF said that it received approximately $21.5 million from royalties on product sales in 2008, or an average of approximately $1.3 million per royalty-bearing license for the patents. In its complaint, UIRF claims that Abbott Labs and subsidiaries Abbott Bioresearch Center and Abbott Biotechnology “illegally use or contribute to the use or induce the use of compositions covered by one or more claims of the Iowa patents to manufacture the pharmaceutical product Humira.” The complaint does not specify which claims of the patents are allegedly infringed in the manufacture of Humira, a fully recombinant mAb for treating autoimmune disorders in which tumor necrosis factor plays a role, including rheumatoid arthritis, chronic plaque psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Worldwide sales of Humira increased to $4.5 billion last year from $3 billion in 2007 and are projected to increase by more than 25% this year, according to Abbott. In a statement, Abbott said that it “believes that Humira does not infringe these patents, and that the patents are invalid.” The company will “vigorously defend against the allegations,” the statement said.

Like NYU, UIRF is seeking “enhanced damages” based on the claim that Abbott’s activities were willful. “It might be a little more difficult to calculate damages when the patent is something that is used along the way in manufacturing the product,” but it’s possible that damages would be awarded just as if the patents covered the core product itself, McBride says. The case is a “perfect example of a university doing wonderful research, creating a product that’s useful, and then obtaining patent rights and being able to exercise those rights to benefit the university,” he adds. The suit also “demonstrates that universities are forces to be reckoned with when it comes to technology and intellectual property. They understand what is at stake in this game, and they’re not afraid to play it.”

Go to: Biotech Transfer Week

SBIR bill sent to full Senate disappoints venture industry

Marie Powers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:58:41 +0000

Last Thursday, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship unanimously passed the “SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2009,” sending it to the full Senate for a vote. The bill would — for the first time in eight years — allow venture-backed companies some access to federal funding for innovation. However, the amount allocated to venture-backed companies doesn’t thrill the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), which has lobbied to get venture-backed companies into the SBIR equation. Senate Bill 1233 would allow companies that are majority-owned by multiple venture firms to access up to 18% of SBIR funds at the Department of Health and Human Services and up to 8% at all other participating agencies. Although something is better than nothing, NVCA argues that venture-backed companies do not pose a threat to other businesses applying for the grants. “We’re very disappointed in what was passed,” says Emily Mendell, the NVCA’s vice president of strategic affairs. The SBIR program is scheduled to expire at the end of July and has already been extended twice. A 2001 administrative law judge ruling and subsequent rulings by the U.S. Small Business Administration closed the program to many venture-backed companies. The SBA interpreted the law to mean that start-ups which are majority-owned by venture firms are essentially considered part of the venture firm and all its other portfolio companies. The House Committee on Small Business is working on its own version of the bill, which is expected to come to a committee vote soon. It’s unclear if the House version allows SBIR grant participation — and if so how much — from venture-backed companies. A spokesman for the House committee said only that the bill “allows appropriate participation of venture-backed companies in the SBIR program.”

Go to: The Wall Street Journal

CU licenses blood flow visualization technology

Marie Powers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:55:07 +0000

The University of Colorado (CU) has executed an exclusive license with privately held Illumasonix, LLC, an early-stage medical device company based in Boulder, for a non-invasive method to provide quantitative information on complex blood flow in the treatment of vascular disease. The technology uses ultrasound and FDA-approved microbubbles to track blood flow, providing real-time assessment while also detecting blockages. Invented by Robin Shandas, professor of mechanical engineering at CU-Boulder and professor of pediatrics and cardiology at CU-Denver, the technology combines the high spatial resolution of MRI technology with the temporal resolution and ease-of-use of ultrasound for cardiovascular and neurovascular diseases, which affect millions of people annually. Illumasonix was formed in 2007 in a partnership between CU and Quincy, MA-based Allied Minds, an investment corporation specializing in early-stage university business ventures. The company received undisclosed initial capitalization and research funding from Allied Minds and approximately $250,000 in matching funds from the State of Colorado. Earlier this year, Illumasonix reported positive initial results from its human feasibility study of the technology, and the company expects a commercial product could reach the market as early as 2011. “The Illumasonix technology will provide a substantially more accurate and predictive way to assess cardiovascular health,” says Erick Rabins, vice president of Allied Minds and manager of Illumasonix. “We believe it will become the primary tool used to determine when and if surgical intervention is required.”

Go to: Knowledge Innovation Technology

Purdue innovation saves energy by checking air conditioner refrigerant level

Marie Powers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:53:57 +0000

Engineers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, have developed a technique that saves energy and servicing costs by indicating when air conditioners are low on refrigerant. The virtual refrigerant charge sensor is especially practical for automotive air conditioners, which leak refrigerant more than other types of units, and for household central air conditioning units, says James Braun, professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue. Maintaining the proper charge, or amount of refrigerant in a system, saves energy because air conditioners low on refrigerant must operate longer to achieve the same degree of cooling as properly charged units. “Not only does the energy efficiency go down, but you also reduce the lifetime of the unit because it has to work harder, causing parts to wear out faster,” Braun explains. However, checking refrigerant and charging it to specification is a costly and time-consuming process, requiring a technician to remove the refrigerant and weigh it using a vacuum pump. The new technology would eliminate periodic refrigerant checks by using sensors to monitor the temperature of refrigerant at various points along the tubing in an air-conditioning unit. Braun and colleagues created a software algorithm that interprets temperature-sensor data to estimate the amount of refrigerant in the system. Four sensors are attached to tubing running into and out of components called heat exchangers. In air conditioning and refrigeration systems, liquid refrigerant evaporates in a heat exchanger called an evaporator, cooling the air. The refrigerant vapor turns back into a liquid in another heat exchanger called a condenser. During these steps, the refrigerant undergoes dramatic temperature changes. Automotive air conditioning units equipped with the new refrigerant-charge system could activate a warning light on a car’s dashboard. Technicians servicing home air conditioners might simply plug a personal digital assistant into the unit to read the refrigerant-charge information, Braun explains. The researchers tested the system on various types of air conditioners running on conventional refrigerants, including R-22 and the more environmentally friendly R-410A, which replaces R-22 in new units. Their findings were published in HVAC&R Research. Purdue has applied for a patent on the technique. “The method could be commercialized if a company invested some time in the implementation side,” Braun says.

Go to: ScienceDaily

Model for patent protection at Virginia Tech speeds up commercialization process

Marie Powers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:52:10 +0000

What happens when a faculty inventor’s desire to rush his results into publication collides with the TTO’s efforts to protect the new discovery? Often times, unfortunately, the university loses out on the right to patent or reap any financial rewards from the innovation. By 2003, Fred Lee, PhD, the director of the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES), an industry consortium assembled by Blacksburg-based Virginia Tech, had seen this scenario play out so many times that he was determined to come up with a better way. Lee’s solution is the Intellectual Property Protection Fund (IPPF), a mechanism whereby a select group of consortium members pays higher annual fees to get royalty-free access to all the technology developed at CPES. The membership fees go toward patenting those innovations that IPPF members decide should be protected, as well as to other research endeavors. There are caveats to the approach. For instance, inventors lose out on the ability to earn any royalties from their inventions. Further, this mechanism does not fully address the rampant patent infringing that goes on in the electronics arena. However, Lee stresses that the IPPF and its fee-based membership approach has doubled the amount of revenue that CPES brings in to the university every year. And he has had no trouble finding consortium members willing to pay the hefty fees required to gain full access to IPPF and CPES technologies.

The IPPF is actually a select group of about 30 companies from the CPES Industry Partnership Program. The highest dues category — at $50,000 per year — gives the companies first crack at evaluating new CPES technologies as well as a non-exclusive license to those technologies that IPPF elects to patent. Participants gain the efficiency of eliminating negotiations and contracting for every patent they wish to license. “They have this blanket agreement so that they have access to all of the IP generated by this mechanism, and they don’t need a lawyer to get involved in the process,” he says. No less important, he adds, is that they get an early look at promising innovations. IPPF is bringing in anywhere from $1 million to $2 million dollars per year in membership fees from the arrangement. “The concept works very well for us to market our IP and for industry to profit from it without any hassle,” says Lee. A detailed article on the IPPF approach appears in the June issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. For subscription information, CLICK HERE.

Scotland sets up Academic Health Research Center

Marie Powers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:49:54 +0000

Scotland has followed the example of Great Britain and established the Scottish Academic Health Sciences Collaboration, a partnership among four university medical schools and associated hospitals that’s designed to speed the translation of research into clinical practice. The partnership brings together the university medical schools in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow to provide a platform for greater collaboration with industry. The initiative was launched with £15 million from the Scottish government’s Chief Scientist Office. A board comprised of representatives from the eight partners and Scottish Enterprise will manage the collaboration, with Harry Burns, the Scottish government’s chief medical officer, serving as chair. Last year, Great Britain underwent a major reorganization of its leading university medical schools and their associated teaching hospitals, creating American-style Academic Health Science Centers (AHSC) at University College London, Imperial College London, Cambridge, and Manchester. The model is gaining traction in other parts of Europe, as well. The Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm plans to migrate to an AHSC structure, and the model has been introduced at University College Dublin, which has formed Dublin Academic Healthcare with its affiliated hospitals, the Mater University Hospital and St Vincent’s University Hospital. Ireland’s medical schools also are partners in a separate entity, Molecular Medicine Ireland, which aims to coordinate biomedical research and education on a national basis.

Go to: Science Business

Washing machine using one cup of water heads to hotel laundries

Marie Powers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:48:48 +0000

An environmentally friendly washing machine developed by a researcher at the University of Leeds (UK) is heading next year to hotel laundries and commercial dry cleaners. Stephen Burkinshaw, PhD, professor and chair of textile chemistry, discovered the technology, which is being commercialized by Xeros, Ltd., in Leeds. Xeros is collaborating with GreenEarth Cleaning to sell the technology across North America. Product development is being funded by IP Group, a London-based commercialization firm that has partnerships with 10 universities in the U.K. The project team claims the green machine needs just one cup of water to wash a load of clothes — 90% less water than conventional machines and 30% less energy. The work normally done by water is replaced by using thousands of tiny reusable nylon polymer beads, which attract and absorb dirt under humid conditions. The beads are placed inside the smaller of two concentric drums along with the dirty laundry, a spew of detergent, and a little water. As the drums spin, the water wets the clothes and the detergent loosens the dirt, then the nylon beads mop it up. The beads have a crystalline structure that gives their surface an electrical charge that attracts dirt. When the beads are heated in humid conditions, they lose their crystalline structure and acquire an amorphous structure so the dirt is drawn into the core of the bead, where it remains locked in place. The whole process takes about 30 minutes. When the outer drum stops rotating, the inner drum continues to rotate and the beads fall through a slot and are collected in the outer drum. The few remaining beads trapped in the folds of clothes normally fall into a collection trough while the laundry is being removed, and a vacuum wand can be used to remove them from pockets. “We’ve shown that it can remove all sorts of everyday stains including coffee and lipstick while using a tiny fraction of the water used by conventional machines,” Burkinshaw says. And the beads can be reused up to 100 times. “We hope commercial success could act as a springboard to move into the consumer market,” says Xeros CEO Bill Westwater. “We’ve been very encouraged by the response from people, but the proof is in the pudding and that means putting a machine into someone’s operations and justifying the savings.”

Go to: Alternative Energy

BizWorld offers new series of tech transfer market research reports

David Schwartz — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:47:18 +0000

BizWorld, parent company of Tech Transfer E-News and Technology Transfer Tactics, is pleased to present a new line of in-depth market research reports under a newly established partnership with Business Insights, a world leader in strategic market analysis. Business Insights’ portfolio of reports is designed to help you make well-informed and timely business decisions. With an underlying understanding of problems facing today’s research commercialization professionals and executives, these high-value resources will help you crystallize your strategic planning and drive your organization forward. The first three reports being offered under the partnership arrangement are highly relevant to tech transfer and IP professionals. Click on the individual links for full details:

German university’s space technology optimizes forest production

Marie Powers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:45:14 +0000

Researchers at the Institute of Man-Machine-Interaction at Germany’s Rhenish-Westphalian Technical University (RWTH) Aachen University have combined space and robotics technology to develop a precision forestry positioning system that allows more efficient forest planning and harvesting. The system, which combines remote sensing maps from airplanes with satellite navigation data, has helped catalogue 240 million single trees in the German region of North Rhine-Westphalia. The information is used to plan which trees to cut, and when. Harvesters then use the data to identify specific trees to cut, which improves the efficiency of harvesting, optimizes overall wood production, and reduces costs. The system won the North Rhine-Westphalia Region’s 2008 European Satellite Navigation Competition, which was supported by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Technology Transfer Program Office (TTPO) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. “We already have one harvester in operation with our system onboard,” says Jürgen Rossmann, the professor at RWTH Aachen University who led the research team. “As the prototype works well, we are fairly close to the stage where we can go into production. Another six to 12 months, and we should be there.”

ESA’s TTPO is responsible for defining the overall strategy for the transfer of space technologies, including the incubation of start-up companies and their funding. The objective of the precision forestry positioning system is to automate and optimize the work involved in foresting, from the early planning of the forest to the final cutting of single trees, to better compete on the world market and to overcome efficiency problems related to the forest ownership structure of the region. “Precision farming is important in today’s agriculture, where farmers can save money with the use of satellite navigation systems,” explains research collaborator Arno Bücken. “However, the accuracy of the GPS navigation system, which is of 20 to 30 meters, is not enough to identify single trees in a forest. We found a solution to this problem, which increases the accuracy to 50 centimeters by using GPS as the initial reference position, and then taking remote sensing data to identify the single trees in the forest.” Each tree is not only known by its geo-coordinate, but trees also are time-stamped and measurement data archived. This makes it possible to see how the trees grow, Rossmann says. “Before the invention of this system, forest workers made their decisions based on visual inspections of the forest — a much slower and less efficient method requiring higher skilled workers on a full-time basis,” he explains. “Equipped with precise sensors and positioning systems, our solution helps locate and coordinate forest machinery and workers.” The system can even remember where a tree was cut and who owns it — a feature that’s well suited to the North Rhine-Westphalia region, where two-thirds of the privately owned forest consists of parcels of 0.5 to 1.5 hectares. The ability to identify felled trees and assign them to the correct owner using geo-tags allows different owners to harvest together, reducing costs.

Go to: ESA Portal

Water purification technology developed at Auburn receives EPA registration

Marie Powers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:43:48 +0000

A water-purification technology developed at Auburn University has been granted registration by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The technology, used in appropriately designed drinking water devices, could save lives in remote areas or during natural disasters. Dave Worley, professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry in Auburn’s College of Sciences and Mathematics, developed the technology that Seattle-based HaloSource, Inc., is commercializing as “HaloPure Br.” The company, which pays royalties to Auburn through a licensing agreement, markets the technology as a disinfecting cartridge to drinking water device manufacturers around the world. “The EPA registration not only will benefit U.S. citizens but also will help provide safe, clean drinking water to consumers in many other countries,” Worley says. “Once the U.S. EPA grants registration to a new technology, many other countries will adopt the view that it is safe and proven.” The technology involves attaching biocidal bromine onto porous beads for use in inexpensive disinfecting cartridges that can be incorporated into water purification and filtration devices, Worley explains. “Bacteria and viruses are killed on contact at the point-of-use. Chlorine also can be used, but bromine is more effective at killing germs.” To activate the cartridges, brominated water is passed through them to anchor the bromine atoms to the beads. When untreated water contaminated with bacteria, mold, or virus cells passes through the HaloPure cartridge, the cells pick up the bromine atoms, which sink into the cells and kill them. The cartridges can be engineered to ensure the safety of stored water and to control biofilm and slime formation downstream of the cartridge. HaloSource, established in 1998 on the potential of Worley’s discoveries, already has received regulatory approval in India, China, and Brazil, where the technology has been marketed since 2007. In the U.S., potential end users include municipalities, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security, and the military, as well as hikers, backpackers, and campers, says Jeff Williams, HaloSource senior vice president and chief technology officer. “This technology has the potential for saving lives when there are no inexpensive means available for disinfecting drinking water,” he adds.

Go to: Laboratory Equipment

Eli Lilly offers ‘free’ assays to researchers

Marie Powers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:26:17 +0000

In an initiative that aims to forge broader partnerships with academia, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is offering to conduct free drug development assays in four therapeutic areas on any compounds provided by academic researchers and small biotechs. Lilly’s Phenotypic Drug Discovery (PD2) program will test any compound it receives in the form of in vitro assays for Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, cancer, and osteoporosis — the company’s key therapeutic targets. In exchange, the company wants first dibs on any licensing deals or collaborations that promising compounds might yield. The initial rollout “is open to an indefinite number of investigators without any preconditions,” says Alan Palkowitz, Lilly’s vice president of discovery chemistry research and technologies. The company is seeking to work with researchers across the globe, he adds. For the past 20 years, pharma has increasingly looked to targeted drug development, which tests compounds against a single genomic target in a disease pathway, to fill the drug development pipeline. PD2 will instead rely on phenotypic assays, which test a compound’s effect on a broader measure of the disease — such as anti-angiogenesis in cancer or insulin secretion in diabetes. Turning to phenotypic assays to test compounds from sources far and wide looks for promising therapies “without making any assumptions of how a compound works,” says Joel Kirschbaum, director of the Office of Technology Management at the University of California, San Francisco.

Lilly partnered with AUTM to develop a universal material transfer agreement for all participating institutions that specifies the conditions for researchers to submit their compounds, Palkowitz says. Once an institution has signed the agreement, any of its researchers can submit a compound for testing by entering its chemical structure into a web portal. A computer algorithm transforms the structure into “an electronic fingerprint” so the molecule’s structure remains confidential while the company determines whether it’s already seen the compound. Lilly then tests new compounds, and if one is found promising, the two parties have 120 days to reach an agreement. If no agreement is reached in that time, the researcher is free to publish, Palkowitz says, adding that if the researcher decides not to commercialize the compound or the company decides not to pursue a collaboration, the IP stays with the researcher. About 65 institutions have already signed on as “early adopters.”

Go to: The Scientist

Ocean Tomo IP auction unit sold, garners low bid

Marie Powers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:24:49 +0000

Ocean Tomo has sold its patent auction business to British brokerage ICAP plc for $10 million. The sale of Ocean Tomo’s transaction department, which includes the auction and patent brokerage, comes as revenue has plunged and key transaction leaders have left the company. “Most of the talent had left at this point and there was a lot of uncertainty about the live auction model,” observes Ron Laurie, who owns the IP consulting firm Inflexion Point Strategy in Palo Alto, CA. “It was really a distressed-asset sale.” ICAP will pay $5 million in cash and $5 million in restricted stock for Ocean Tomo’s best-known line of business. Founded in 2003, the company helped create a market for patents with its lavish and highly publicized auctions. Just last year, Ocean Tomo sold more than $40 million worth of patents at three auctions. From those and other sales, its transactions department brought in $12 million to $14 million, making it the largest revenue stream for the company. But Andrew Ramer, transaction chief and auction organizer, left with two top deputies ahead of the March auction in San Francisco. At that event a handful of patents sold for just for $2.7 million. Commenting on the divestiture, Ocean Tomo CEO James Malackowski acknowledged that “maybe it’s a smaller deal than we could’ve done a year ago,” but added “it’s a very good day for Ocean Tomo and a very good day for the industry.” The new owner will continue to hold the live patent auctions, with one scheduled for July in Chicago and another for November in Paris. Ocean Tomo’s vice chairman, Dean Becker, and nine employees will join ICAP to run the business. While ICAP is bullish on patent auctions, observers say the dot-com-esque rise and fall of the Ocean Tomo auction business — selling for less than its 2008 revenue — may be a sign of a business model that’s run its course. “There are two problems: One is that [the auction] market is gone because no one has money to speculate,” Laurie says. “The other problem is that the platform was inherently inefficient for high-value transactions because of the limited opportunity for diligence.” Ocean Tomo retains its other lines of business, such as its expert-witness service.

Go to: Law.com

Audioconference to tackle conflict of interest in university research

Leslie Norins — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:22:54 +0000

As the business of technology transfer continues to evolve, increased attention is being focused on managing conflicts of interest that can arise within university research programs and tech transfer offices. Without effective policies, processes, and faculty education, your institution risks loss of funding, federal investigations, multi-million dollar settlements, and a hit to your reputation that could cost you dearly for years to come. The stakes are getting higher - and the issues becoming more complex - as large corporate sponsorships become more common and faculty start-ups continue to gain favor with many TTOs. To help you guard against this threat, our Distance Learning Division has lined up an expert attorney and a veteran TTO exec — Bernadette M. Broccolo of McDermott Will & Emery, LLP, and Anne C. Di Sante, Director of Technology Transfer at Wayne State University — to bring you detailed legal advice as well as practical, how-to guidance on tackling the thicket of thorny COI issues you must address. Join us on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 from 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. eastern daylight time, for Conflict of Interest in University Research: Strengthen Your Process and Policies.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this nuts-and-bolts session:

Best practices in COI policies and procedures
Strategies for faculty COI orientation and ongoing education
Critical red flags that should spur a COI review
Defining individual, institutional, and imputed institutional interests
Regulatory compliance tips
Drawing lines between sponsored research and licensing
Keeping tabs on faculty consulting agreements
Conducting reviews and enforcing policies without alienating researchers
Internal review practices that stand up to external scrutiny
COI case studies - the good, the bad, and the really ugly
Blueprint for effectively handling violations
Clarifying common “gray areas”
and much more!

CLICK HERE for complete details or to register. Or to see our entire schedule of upcoming events, CLICK HERE.

MITRI, Wayne State partner on depression drug

Marie Powers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:20:32 +0000

The Michigan Technology & Research Institute (MITRI) in Ann Arbor and Wayne State University (WSU) in Detroit are partnering to organize a drug development company based on neurosciences research platforms from the university’s Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Included is a new treatment for depression, which ranks behind cardiovascular disease as the world’s second most debilitating disease. “Drug therapies currently on the market for treatment of depression have many shortcomings,” asserts Aloke Dutta, PhD, professor of pharmaceutical sciences at WSU and inventor of the new technology. “A number of the therapies don’t work in a significant number of patients, and some treatments work at first but later become ineffective.” Polyfunctional molecules discovered in Dutta’s laboratory interact simultaneously with norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine systems in the brain, and exhibit activity in animal models that indicate antidepressant effects. Current treatments for depression don’t address the dopamine component needed to interact with relevant targets in the brain, according to Dutta. “One of the research goals will be to study whether such novel triple uptake inhibitor molecules have more desirable therapeutic profiles as antidepressant agents compared to existing drugs and whether their chronic exposure might sustain effectiveness and lower the incidence of side effects,” he says. The Michigan Universities Commercialization Initiative is funding the research, and collaborators expect to file an investigational new drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the near future. The MITRI-WSU collaboration is expected to serve as a model to expedite early university technologies into commercially attractive ventures. “We view this project as an excellent opportunity to advance promising early-stage academic research and improve the visibility of WSU discovery efforts to the pharmaceutical community,” says Michael Bleavins, PhD, president of MITRI Laboratory Center.

Go to: WWJ Newsradio 950

GAO report explores role of tech transfer in DOE labs

Marie Powers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:17:30 +0000

In a sweeping report, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) has recommended a series of actions to improve the effectiveness of tech transfer at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) labs. Among these, the DOE should articulate departmental priorities and better define tech transfer, improve performance data, and ensure that labs have sufficient expertise and a systematic approach to identify commercially promising technologies. DOE labs spend billions of dollars each year on advanced science, energy, and other research, yet the return on investment is difficult to assess “because policies defining technology transfer are unclear and headquarters and laboratory officials do not always agree on which activities should be included,” according to the GAO report. Although successful commercialization efforts have focused on a variety of areas, ranging from cancer treatment to biofuels, “DOE and laboratory officials do not agree on whether research sponsored by other federal agencies should be considered technology transfer,” the GAO reports. That lack of clarity is problematic, given that DOE labs performed about $1.8 billion in work for other federal agencies in 2008. Much of that research may eventually be transferred to the commercial marketplace, the report states, yet DOE isn’t able to determine the effectiveness of its labs in transferring technologies outside the department — largely because it has failed to establish consistent goals and lacks reliable performance data. To improve the commercialization of promising technologies, the GAO recommends that DOE adopt successful approaches used by other federal labs, particularly in three areas: 1) improve the ability of staff to identify promising technologies or potential markets; 2) secure funding to develop or test promising technologies to attract potential partners; and 3) improve its ability to negotiate the terms of tech transfer agreements. Read the full report at the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Jerusalem plans to offer $25M in biotech incentives

Marie Powers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:15:17 +0000

The city of Jerusalem is preparing to compete against established biotech hubs by raising and investing 100 million shekels ($25 million) in health and life science companies over the next five years. Yissum Research Development Company, a subsidiary of the Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, already is a big player in life sciences. Now, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat says the city, in coordination with the Jerusalem Development Authority, plans to bolster its health and life sciences infrastructure, train skilled personnel, establish a Jerusalem-based investment fund for health sciences, and establish and advance the first Israeli biomedical industrial park on the campus of Hadassah Medical Center and the Hebrew University School of Medicine. “I am personally committed to the field of biomed and the health and life sciences business cluster as a core competitive advantage that we must exploit in Jerusalem,” Barkat says. “Among other things, I intend to award financial incentives in order to encourage international companies to put down roots in Jerusalem, as well as to define Jerusalem as a Special Economic Zone with tax benefits for high-tech and biotech companies.” Those policies are intended to supplement work of the Jerusalem Development Authority’s BioJerusalem project, which was founded to utilize the life sciences industry to promote economic growth in the Israeli capital. Shirley Kutner, executive director of BioJerusalem, says the city has seen a 20% increase in life sciences companies and a 34% growth in life sciences employment since 2006, with 110 biomedical companies now operating there. Kutner expects investment in biomedical companies to surpass $350 million in five years. Approximately 43% of biotech research in Israel is conducted at Hebrew University, with half of the country’s clinical research being performed at Hadassah Medical Center. Jerusalem also hosts Israel’s only incubator for drug development, BioLine Innovations Jerusalem.

Go to: Israel National News

Intel invests $12 million to create visual computing research center in Germany

Marie Powers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:13:19 +0000

Intel Corporation is investing $12 million over five years to create the Intel Visual Computing Institute, which will explore advanced graphics and visual computing technologies. Housed at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany, the institute will be Intel’s largest European university collaboration. Visual computing is the analysis, enhancement, and display of visual information to create life-like, real-time experiences and more natural ways for people to interact with computers and other devices. Applications include games, medical imaging, and interactive 3-D data models used in areas such as scientific research and financial services. The institute is expected to deliver more compelling visual computing applications through new software designs and architectures, visual computing algorithms, and parallel computing solutions. Research conducted at the institute is expected to yield new software tools within a few years. The institute also will establish a feedback loop to Intel’s hardware design labs, contributing to visual computing hardware design.

A key mission of the newest member of Intel Labs Europe is to contribute to the company’s tera-scale research program, which explores how multiple computing cores will be used to produce higher-performance computing and more life-like graphics. Intel has collaborated on visual computing with Saarland researchers for a number of years, according to Justin Rattner, the company’s senior fellow and chief technology officer. “Given the growing importance of visual computing technology, it made perfect sense to expand our relationship and form this new institute,” he says. The lab will conduct both basic and applied research in interactive computer graphics and natural user interfaces. By year-end, the institute will employ about a dozen researchers from Intel, Saarland, Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence. That number is expected to grow by more than five times over the next five years and to include collaborators from across Europe.

Go to: eHealthNews.eu

TTOs take part in mad scramble for research dollars

Marie Powers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:11:46 +0000

U.S. technology transfer offices are hardly immune to the severe economic difficulties faced by their parent organizations and the larger communities they serve, but moods are beginning to brighten just a tad in the wake of President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package, which includes unprecedented sums for scientific research. In fact, universities and other research institutions across the country are engaged in a mad scramble to fashion proposals that meet stimulus requirements for job creation, accountability, and other agency-specific mandates. Many universities have developed stimulus-related web resources so that department heads and faculty researchers can access the latest and most important information quickly. Others have devised rapid response teams so that any new opportunity can be immediately seized. Clearly, it will take time for new research to produce innovations that are ripe for licensing, but TTOs have a distinct role to play in this early effort. With their market knowledge and industry contacts, TTOs can highlights areas of endeavor that may not only meet stimulus requirements, but also have the greatest potential to bring in revenue long after the stimulus pipeline has run dry.

The Department of Research and Office of Sponsored Programs at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle began gearing up for the deluge in March. “We knew the volume was going to be well over and above our norm for [April], and so we did some additional training of our staff … and then we brought in four temporary personnel to do nothing but babysit www.grants.gov applications,” explains Lynne Chronister, assistant vice provost for research and director of sponsored programs. “What we have done is put together a series of Recovery Act teams including a core team, a working group for campus, a human resources team, a communications team, and an information technology team. So we have really organized ourselves to be able to respond to, for instance, the reporting requirements that are coming on board.” This kind of organizational heft is needed, stresses Chronister, because there are 22 agencies that have ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) funds to disperse, and each agency is handling the stimulus funds differently.

Administrators at Boise State University (BSU) also moved with urgency to establish a web-based clearinghouse for all the latest information on stimulus funding opportunities. “We felt the need to do this right from the start, because when this money started coming in there was a lot of misinformation,” explains Mark Rudin, PhD, the VP for research at BSU. Rudin says the process of scoping out research funding opportunities at BSU is a little different than what most universities employ. The university has a pre-award staff person embedded in the College of Engineering who surveys all grant opportunities and then makes contact with specific principal investigators. “We also have PIs who are ahead of the ballgame and are glued to their computers waiting to see what announcements are coming out,” he says. In applying for the ARRA funds, administrators must pay extra attention to financial accountability and job creation. As a result, in many of the infrastructure grants, facilities and maintenance personnel are taking an unprecedented role in the application process. “We are looking to those guys to talk about what jobs are going to be created, and whether we are going to be able to make a facility ‘green,’” says Rudin. “They are actually writing portions of these grants just because of the increased emphasis in these areas.”

The Office of Research Affairs at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) is also trying to position the campus to take full advantage of the stimulus funds, and in cases where the number of applications is limited per institution, that involves making sure the best proposals get submitted. “What we do is organize an internal competition where we put out a note saying that any teams interested in applying for a particular award need to submit a short draft of who the team members are and what the objectives would be,” explains Arthur Ellis, PhD, vice chancellor for research at UCSD. “Then our office runs a kind of internal screening process, or we set up our own kind of peer review if it calls for that. Ellis acknowledges that his office is still wrestling with some challenges presented by the ARRA funding. He is particularly concerned about the reporting requirements that will be attached to many of the stimulus awards, and making sure that sufficient resources are built into the grant applications to handle these mandates. For example, university researchers are not accustomed to documenting how many jobs their projects have created, so that is going to be a challenge for the academic community, stresses Ellis. A detailed article on the scramble for stimulus funding, including expert guidance on TTO strategies for securing ARRA-related grants, appears in the June issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. For subscription information, CLICK HERE.

Ontario leaders join forces to commercialize promising technologies

Marie Powers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:07:19 +0000

Two of Ontario’s leading research commercialization organizations have joined forces to accelerate the development of promising discoveries by researchers and entrepreneurs in the Canadian province. The Centre for Commercialization of Research (CCR), launched in November by Ontario Centers of Excellence (OCE) and the Networks of Centers of Excellence of Canada, and PARTEQ Innovations — the TTO of Queen’s University in Kingston — have signed a collaborative agreement to advance technology innovations across the province. Although the agreement marks the first formal relationship between the organizations, OCE and PARTEQ have worked together for more than 20 years. “With this collaboration, CCR builds on the successful relationship OCE has had with PARTEQ,” says Mario Thomas, CCR’s managing director. Last year OCE was awarded nearly $15 million by the Canadian government to establish CCR and provide a focal point for OCE’s commercialization efforts. A number of commercialization opportunities are already on the horizon for the partnership. They include GreenCentre Canada, a national Center of Excellence for commercializing green chemistry discoveries, and a collaboration agreement between PARTEQ Innovations and the People’s Republic of China Innofund — a nonprofit government fund focused on supporting innovation at small and medium-sized Chinese companies.

Go to: SOA World

Nanoparticle coating could bring relief to denture wearers

Marie Powers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:04:54 +0000

A research team from the University of Liverpool, U.K., has developed a nanoparticle silica coating that inhibits the adhesion and proliferation of cells and microorganisms, including those that cause oral thrush, which affects many denture wearers. The technology received the U.K.’s Armourers & Brasiers Venture Prize, an annual award in the form of an investment to foster early commercialization of promising research. More than one-fourth of the U.K. population wears dentures, according to the most recent adult dental survey. A quarter of these are likely to develop denture stomatitis or fungal-induced stomatitis — mainly Candida albicans, commonly known as oral thrush. Lab tests have demonstrated that the nanoparticulate silica coating developed at the university inhibits the build-up of Candida albicans. Using proof of concept funds awarded by Ulive, the university’s TTO, Rachel Williams, PhD, senior lecturer and materials scientist, and colleagues developed a transparent solution containing the nanoparticles. Adhesive patches on each particle promote attachment to the denture, and denture wearers can use the solution as part of their normal cleaning procedure. “Our approach will reduce the need for sufferers of oral thrush to be treated by drug therapy,” Williams says. “Our product aims to prevent the occurrence of oral thrush and maintain a healthy mouth via continual renewal of the nanoparticle coating.” The team plans to use the Armourers & Brasiers prize to move the product to clinical trials. “We see significant potential for this product as a regular denture cleaning product,” Williams says. “Worldwide market opportunities are significant — especially in the developed world — due to an aging population leading to an increasing number of denture wearers.”

Go to: Nanotechnology Now

Strathclyde develops monitoring system to detect discharge in HV cables

Marie Powers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:03:07 +0000

Partial discharges are symptomatic of degradation in high-voltage (HV) power cables and often cause further deterioration of the insulation. These discharges may be detected using online and offline techniques, but offline techniques require the cables to be taken out of circuit. Naturally, companies that supply electricity prefer to use online techniques, but these have their own disadvantages, including interference and difficulties in isolating the partial discharge location. Now, researchers at Scotland’s Strathclyde University have developed an online monitoring system for detecting and locating partial discharge in HV cables with power ratings from 11kV to 33kV, and the university wants to license the technology, which is described in the IEEE conference proceedings from the Universities Power Engineering Conference, 2008. The monitoring system can be connected to existing control systems and uses real-time online data or in situ measurements, allowing equipment analysis and diagnostics to take place during normal operation. Because partial discharges are detected in real time, plants are not removed from service during testing. Corrective actions also can be planned in advance, resulting in less unscheduled downtime and lower operating costs. The technology also increases the rate of detection of partial discharge, allowing for better management of HV power cables by power companies, utilities, rail operators, and oil and gas companies.

Go to: Science Business

Multi-media bundles focus on four key tech transfer challenges

Marie Powers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:00:27 +0000

Technology Transfer Tactics is now offering affordable, topic-specific multi-media bundles covering four of the most critical challenges facing tech transfer professionals. Choose one or more of these convenient packages filled with case studies, best practices, expert guidance, and how-to strategies. Each bundle combines a Tech Transfer Library report and an audioconference CD, offering an inexpensive way to focus in on key topics of interest. Click on the titles below for complete information:

IP MARKETING STRATEGIES AND TACTICS - Find proven strategies that will help you market your IP more effectively to corporations and investors and bring in more patent-worthy research.
PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT, EFFICIENCY, AND STAFFING STRATEGIES - Implement proven program management strategies that will boost the overall performance of your staff and your TTO.
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EARLY STAGE FUNDING STRATEGIES - Tap into a wealth of creative gap funding ideas and get the dollars you need to move promising technologies out of the lab and on a path to the commercial market.

Fabricated material changes color in response to external magnetic field

Marie Powers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:58:33 +0000

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) have fabricated microscopic polymer beads that change color instantly but reversibly in response to external magnetic fields. The beads, called magnetochromatic microspheres, are structurally stable and compatible with various types of dispersion media — including water, alcohol, hexane, and polymer solutions — allowing them to retain magnetically tunable colors in a variety of chemical environments. “Unlike many conventional approaches, the instantaneous color change occurs with no change in the structure or intrinsic properties of the microspheres themselves,” explains Yadong Yin, UCR assistant professor of chemistry, who led the study that included chemists at UCR and engineers at Seoul National University in South Korea. “What changes are the magnetic fields acting externally on the orientation of these microspheres.” Within a certain range, the color of the material may be tuned simply by rotating the microspheres, he adds. Study results appeared online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society . The work provides a new mechanism for inducing color change in materials, enabling stable photonic materials with tunable colors to be fabricated on a large scale. Applications include display units such as rewritable or reusable signage, posters, papers, and labels, as well as magnetically activated security features. The material also can be used to make environmentally friendly pigments for paints and cosmetics as well as ink materials for color printing. “The new technology has a great potential for a wide range of photonic applications because the on/off switching of the diffraction color by the rotating photonic sphere is fast, greatly simplifying the pixel structures,” explains Sunghoon Kwon, a professor at Seoul National University. The color observed in the new materials is “structural color” caused by interference effects rather than pigments, Yin adds, similar to the color effects seen when microstructures in bird feathers, butterfly wings, and beetle shells align in periodic arrays. “The use of magnetic fields as external stimuli has the additional benefits of instant action, contactless control, and easy integration into electronic devices already in the market,” he says. The UCR Office of Technology Commercialization has filed a patent application on the technology and is currently seeking commercial partners.

Go to: Nanotechnology Now

Mayo, doctor squaring off in court over software technology

Marie Powers — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:57:00 +0000

Last summer, Peter Elkin, MD, an internist and researcher, left the Mayo Clinic to join Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. He seemed to part on friendly terms. During his 12-year stint at Mayo, Elkin developed software that could revolutionize medical record-keeping and billing while helping to spot disease outbreaks that might be related to terrorist acts or emerging infectious illnesses. The software could prove to be a commercial blockbuster — especially since computerized medical records are a key component of the Obama Administration’s health care reform plan. However, the relationship between Mayo and Elkin has soured into a legal battle in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, with the Mayo Foundation for Medical Research & Education and Elkin suing each other.

Elkin’s core software, called a “natural language processor,” can read and understand text dictated or typed into a computer by doctors and nurses, recognizing their words and phrases. The result is a standardized medical record that can link patient records to diagnostic and treatment information. In 1996, Elkin was hired by the Mayo Medical School, where he had a hand in attracting more than $7 million in grants to develop his software, including funds from the Veterans Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. In 1999, Elkin says, Mayo became interested in turning his software into a for-profit business. With the help of private individuals, a company called Conceptual Health Solutions (CHS) was born. Mayo, which maintains it owns all inventions and discoveries resulting from its research projects, says it granted an exclusive license to CHS to market the Elkin software in return for a “substantial equity interest” in the company and a continuing royalty stream. Elkin maintains he developed the natural language software before coming to Mayo and that the IP belongs to him. In court documents, he says he assigned a “small part” of his system to Mayo but not the portion that used the natural language software. The agreement also states that Elkin would receive 40% of the royalties, but Elkin claims he never received “a penny” for his work.

After the formation of CHS, Mayo alleges Elkin “actively worked to undermine” the software’s commercialization by privately registering an Internet domain name to his wife, who demanded a company stake to relinquish the name. After Mayo changed the company’s name and subsequently sold it to Cerner Corp. of Kansas City, MO, Elkin attempted to sell a version of the software to Merck & Co. and, last November, to participants attending the American Medical Informatics Association meeting in Washington, DC. The case is pending in federal court.

Go to: Star Tribune

ASU entrepreneurs create anti-theft device for catalytic converters

Marie Powers — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:54:52 +0000

Last August, Ian Monat became a crime statistic when the catalytic converter beneath his Toyota 4Runner — easily accessible because of the SUV’s high ground clearance — was stolen. As Monat and his insurance company prepared to shell out nearly $2,000 for a new catalytic converter, the Arizona State University grad contemplated inventing an anti-theft device for the expensive part. When he walked into the dealership to have his catalytic converter replaced, Monat spotted Eric Menkhus, director of ASU’s Technology Ventures Services Group (TVSG) and clinical professor in the College of Law. The two had previously met when Monat worked in a technology clinic as an MBA student at the school. Ironically, Menkhus was waiting to have the same missing part replaced on his SUV. The chance meeting served as the catalyst to commercialize The Catlock (http://www.cat-lock.com/), a product launched by Monat Technologies, LLC.

Menkhus provided the structure to help Monat put his idea onto paper and into production. Monat and business partner Steve Meislahn — an ASU-educated mechanical engineer whom he met through the ASU Sun Devil Entrepreneurship Network — tapped the expertise of ASU law, business, engineering, and other students enrolled in the TVSG during the 2008-09 school year, as well as local attorneys and a business consultant, to refine and commercialize the anti-theft device. The two brought their product to market in 10 months. “We were able to get the market research and financial analysis done, as well as put a five-year budget in place and initial patent searches performed,” Monat says. “Without the TVSG, our business plan could not have been achieved.” Monat and Meislahn devised nearly two dozen iterations of The Catlock before settling on a simple, user-friendly design, for which a patent is pending. The Catlock isn’t the first product on the market that deters catalytic converter theft, but its adjustable design allows it to be permanently attached to the catalytic converter of trucks and SUVs. Constructed from carbon steel, the product is cheaper, lighter, and easier to install than competitors, Monat says, and it features a steel cable that is virtually saw-proof and impenetrable without a special tool. “We wanted to build a better mousetrap,” he says.

Go to: ASU News

Three high-value distance learning events for tech transfer professionals

David Schwartz — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:53:22 +0000

We’ve got three timely, high-value distance learning events lined up over the next month. Click on any of the titles below for complete details or to register, and Click here to see our schedule through the first quarter of 2010 — and save with our custom Distance Learning Subscription program.

Time Saving Tactics for Technology Transfer Professionals: Achieve Success While Doing More with Less - June 25, 2009 ~ 1:00-2:30 pm EDT
IP Bundling: Establish Effective Partnerships to Increase the Value of Your Innovations - July 9, 2009 1:00-2:30 pm EDT
Conflict of Interest in University Research: Strengthen Your Process and Policies - July 22, 2009 1:00-2:30 pm EDT

When prioritizing IP, look to green tech

Marie Powers — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:48:49 +0000

Venture capitalists expect green technology to grow faster than traditional areas of VC investment in the coming years, according to the 2009 Global Venture Capital Survey of 725 venture capitalists sponsored by Deloitte Research and the National Venture Capital Association. More than 60% of participants expect investments in green tech to increase over the next three years — twice the level of optimism expressed for most investment categories. More than 35% of respondents indicated that medical devices also offer growth potential, but only 22% were bullish about software, 15% about telecommunications, and 6% about semiconductors. “The venture capital community continues to glom onto truly groundbreaking technologies and is starting to leave the technologies they believe have done as much as they can,” says NVCA president Mark Heesen.

Despite the optimism, early forays into green technology have revealed some of the financing challenges. For example, energy-related businesses are expensive to commercialize. Over the past few years, some VCs have put tens or hundreds of millions of dollars into solar or biofuels companies — a great deal more than the typical IT or social-networking investment. Since VCs don’t expect to have more money to invest, small companies and their backers need to partner with large companies, such as utilities or fuel refiners, to bring their technologies to market, according to survey respondents.

Overall, about half of the respondents called the current economy a “terrific” time to invest in promising entrepreneurial companies, with slightly fewer than half calling 2009 a “fair” opportunity. Most respondents are optimistic that the second half of 2009 will see a higher level of investment after a sharp drop-off in the first half of the year. Overall, however, the VC industry is contracting. Large funds — those with $500 million or more under management — are generally shrinking. Only smaller funds — those with $99 million or less under management — are growing. Funds in the Americas (excluding the U.S.) and Europe expect the greatest growth, and investors expect to spend more money outside the U.S. in developing markets such as Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

Go to: CNET News

Allied Minds backs spinoff commercializing treatment for tinnitus

Marie Powers — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:46:57 +0000

Boston-based Allied Minds, a seed investment corporation specializing in early-stage university business ventures, has partnered with the University of California at Irvine (UCI) to establish SoundCure, LLC. The company plans to commercialize a treatment for tinnitus, a ringing in the ears that affects nearly one in five people and is the number one disability reported by U.S. troops returning from combat, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs. While tinnitus can affect anyone, the condition is more common with increasing age and occurs at higher rates among individuals who work in noisy environments or listen to loud music for prolonged periods of time. SoundCure, which will be based in California, plans to commercialize an acoustic therapy developed by researchers Fan-Gang Zeng, research director in UCI’s Hearing and Speech Lab, and Qing Tang, a researcher in the department of otolaryngology. The treatment, which uses customized sound frequencies and pulsed tones to counter the effects of tinnitus, has been demonstrated to provide long-term suppression of the syndrome. The technology would replace simple masking of tinnitus with louder sounds or therapies that involve long retraining regimens or drug treatments carrying side effects.

Go to: Mass High tech Business News and PR Newswire

Reduce cost, not quantity, of foreign patent filings

Marie Powers — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:44:37 +0000

In a down economy, smart TTOs are squeezing costs from every function they can, and foreign patent filings should be no exception. But merely cutting back on the number of filings, rather than focusing on the cost of the work itself, will only cost you more later when the potential revenues from international licensing go unrealized. Outsourcing the foreign filings may offer advantages both in terms of cost and speed. One firm focused squarely on this task is New York-based Inovia. Founded by patent attorneys, the company helps university TTOs with two parts of the patent process: national stage entry at the end of the Patent Cooperation Treaty process and European validation at the end of the European patenting process. With both services, Inovia helps clients convert a single application or patent into multiple applications or patents in foreign countries. The firm is a smart option for recession-pressed TTOs, maintains founder and executive director Justin Simpson, because those two steps are often the most expensive parts of the patent process, during which TTOs or their licensees can incur huge attorney fees and translation costs.

Inovia says it can reduce the cost of foreign patent filing for its clients by an estimated 20% to 40%. The company has spent a number of years and millions of dollars, Simpson reports, to build patented automation systems for just the two parts of the process it specializes in. “Our systems do a lot of the work that is normally done by both the local patent paralegal and the foreign patent paralegal,” he says. The automated (and patented) Inovia systems pre-prepare all the forms that must be signed for all of the countries, so the TTO receives them in one e-mailed bundle. The firm can also simplify the invoicing side of the process, Simpson adds. It’s fairly typical for foreign associates to invoice local attorneys, who then pass on the bills to the university in summary form — and those bills can be a nightmare to sort through, reconcile, and allocate. His company, by comparison, is “very transparent about costs,” he says, “providing instant up-front cost estimates so universities know in advance exactly how much they will pay.”

Some of the savings Inovia clients see come from its buying power, Simpson continues. “Compared to any law firm in the world,” he says, “Inovia handles the most PCT national stage entries. We use that buying power to negotiate lower filing fees and guarantee that our agents will not bump up the prosecution costs down the track. The savings are real and permanent.” Those savings can then either be retained by the TTO, or used to increase the number of countries filed in, or the number of technologies applied internationally. “Licensees are often keen to see many countries covered, but aren’t too keen on the high filing costs,” Simpson observes. “Our university clients find that they do their licensees a favor by stretching their IP budget further, but also benefit themselves by receiving licensing revenues from countries they otherwise could not afford.” A detailed article on cutting the cost of foreign patent filings appears in the May issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. For subscription information, CLICK HERE.

Device detects heart disease using less than one drop of blood

Marie Powers — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:42:20 +0000

Testing people for heart disease might be just a finger prick away thanks to a credit card-sized device created by researchers from Harvard and Northeastern Universities in Boston. A research report published in The FASEB Journal describes how the device can measure and collect endothelial progenitor cells — needed to build vascular tissue — using only 200 microliters of blood. The development allows scientists to collect these cells more easily than with current techniques, bringing laboratory-created tissue for vascular bypass surgeries a step closer to reality. The device works in similar fashion to Velcro or a magnet. The inside is coated with antibodies that bind only to endothelial progenitor cells. When blood flows through the device, the antibodies attract and capture the endothelial progenitor cells. In addition to allowing researchers to collect cells from a tiny amount of blood, the device’s design provides researchers with a new model to study the effects of blood flow on cell binding — such as the formation of clots in arteries. “This could be a new tool to assess cardiovascular health that cuts the amount of blood needed down to a pinprick,” says Gerald Weissmann, MD, editor-in-chief of The FASEB Journal. “Its compact size might make it an excellent tool for use in developing countries where access to medical laboratories does not exist. In addition, this moves much closer to a future where new blood vessels, veins, and arteries for transplants no longer need to be grafted from patient’s bodies,” significantly reducing pain and recovery times for bypass surgeries.

Go to: Nanowerk

New ‘electronic glue’ promises cheaper semiconductors

Marie Powers — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:40:27 +0000

Researchers at the University of Chicago and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed an “electronic glue” that could accelerate advances in semiconductor-based technologies, including solar cells and thermoelectric devices that convert sunlight and waste heat, respectively, into useful electrical energy. Commercial solar cells, computer chips, and other semiconductor technologies typically use large semiconductor crystals, but the expense can be prohibitive for large-scale applications such as rooftop solar-energy collectors. For those uses, engineers see great potential in semiconductor nanocrystals, which sometimes contain just a few hundred atoms. Nanocrystals can be readily mass-produced and used for device manufacturing via inkjet printing and other solution-based processes, but the crystals can’t transfer their electric charges to one another efficiently due to surface ligands — bulky, insulating organic molecules that cap nanocrystals. The “electronic glue” developed in Dmitri Talapin’s laboratory at the University of Chicago solves the ligand problem. The team described in Science how substituting the insulating organic molecules with novel inorganic molecules dramatically increases the electronic coupling among nanocrystals. The University of Chicago has licensed the underlying technology for thermoelectric applications to Evident Technologies, Inc., a Troy, NY, firm that commercializes quantum dot semiconductor nanomaterials and related products.

Go to: ScienceDaily