From the Director: COVID-19’s Impact on Technology Transfer

Todd Sherer, PhD is the Associate VP for Research and Executive Director of the Emory Office of Technology Transfer. In this article, Todd Sherer discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the technology transfer industry and on the Emory Office of Technology Transfer specifically. Humankind has longed for better ways of doing things for centuries.  More recently, this phenomenon to make products that solve problems, as well as to create jobs and wealth, has been termed the “innovation economy”.  The demand for technology innovation is global, and there is always the desire to make people healthier and happier. However, Read More …

Meet the 2021 Annual Celebration Awardees

Each Spring, Emory’s Office of Technology Transfer hosts an Annual Celebration of Technology and Innovation. Though we weren’t able to gather in person to celebrate this year, we are extremely proud of the 2021 awardees. We took time to interview several of this year’s awardees to learn more about their technologies and their reaction to winning an award! 2021 Innovation of the Year – Serological Test for SARS-CoV-2; John Roback, MD, Ph.D. Can you introduce yourself? “John D. Roback, MD PhD.  I am a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medical Director of Emory Medical Laboratories, and Executive Vice-Chair for Read More …

Interviews with 2020 Annual Celebration Awardees

Each Spring, Emory’s Office of Technology Transfer hosts an Annual Celebration of Technology and Innovation. In preparation of announcing the 2021 awardees, we spoke with several award recipients from 2020 about their experience with OTT’s Annual Celebration. 2020 Innovation of the Year – Autonomic Formation of Large-Scale Wireless Mesh Networks; Sergio Gramacho, Ph.D. Can you introduce yourself? “I am Sergio Gramacho, an avid learner and applier who had the opportunity to formally study Electrical Engineering (BS), Business (MBA) and Computer Science (Master, PhD) in different moments of my career.” What did you enjoy about winning an award? “This award was Read More …

Annual Celebration: Where Are They Now?

Each Spring, Emory’s Office of Technology Transfer hosts an Annual Celebration of Technology and Innovation. In preparation of announcing the 2021 awardees, we spoke with several award recipients from previous years about their experience with OTT’s Annual Celebration. 2009 Innovation of the Year – Novel PET Imaging Agents; Mark Goodman, Ph.D.  Can you introduce yourself? “I am Mark Goodman; I am a professor of Radiology and Imaging Sciences. I have secondary appointments in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology. I am the Emory Endowed Chair in Imaging Science.” What did you Read More …

The Institutional Review Boards 101

New discoveries of therapies and drug mechanisms are not always the daily news headline, but today ethical guidelines exist to continue to keep a standard of the production of any new medication or treatment. However, the history of clinical research has not always been so ethical. For instance, the PHS Syphilis Study in Tuskegee, AL and the Willowbrook Hepatitis Experiments, are only two of many notorious examples of horrifically unethical clinical trials. The purpose of this article is to bring light into the role of the Institutional Review Boards (IRB) in relationship to on ongoing clinical trials today to ensure Read More …

15 Good Minutes: Hari Trivedi

After completing an undergraduate degree in engineering at Georgia Tech, Emory Assistant-Professor Dr. Hari Trivedi began medical school with an open mind about what field to specialize in. While exploring different fields, Trivedi began to grow interested in the intersection of medicine and technology. He eventually settled on his chosen field, radiology, after witnessing how it combined his interests in both medicine and engineering. “During radiology rotations, I thought radiology was just so cool because radiologists get all the newest toys,” Trivedi said. “I remember seeing my first 3D reconstruction of a CT scan, and that’s when I was like, Read More …

Understanding AI Lingo in Healthcare

With the ever-growing incorporation of technology into medicine over the past decade, healthcare industries have advanced to integrate novel technology innovations. Such innovations include artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), 3D-printing, robotics, and so on. One of these innovations, artificial intelligence (AI), holds promise in improving patient care while reducing costs. This technology has been applied in areas such as patient diagnosis and monitoring, treatment protocol development, radiology, and drug development. While some of this might seem like science-fiction, it’s being incorporated every day in the healthcare field. To help introduce you to this new world below, we’ve compiled a Read More …

15 Good Minutes: Ichiro Matsumura

For Emory Professor of Biochemistry Ichiro Matsumura, PhD, inspiration to pursue a career in research came from an unlikely source: a concussion. When Matsumura was in college at MIT, he got into a bike accident that left him hospitalized for several months. After being released from the hospital, Matsumura was prepared to retake all his courses from that semester over the summer. However, one of Matsumura’s professors, Harry Lodish, gave him the option to write a report from a list of topics instead of retaking the course, given that he had done well on the class’s first midterm. The topic Read More …

Algorithms and Healthcare: The Future is Coming

Computers are everywhere it seems, even in our healthcare. While they aren’t quite at the level of (find some movie reference with something futuristic) they are making significant contributions. One of those contributions is algorithms which are contributing in areas from imaging, diagnosing, and predicting. To help solve dilemmas such as this, healthcare professionals are increasingly turning to algorithms, which use machine learning techniques that enable computers to learn information without human input. Algorithms create a formulaic process for healthcare professionals to evaluate patient symptomology and decide on the best course of treatment. While they cannot replace human decision-making or Read More …

15 Good Minutes: William Wuest

Antibiotics have been one of the most consequential innovations in human history, allowing us to treat a wide variety of bacterial diseases that could otherwise be damaging or fatal. However, bacterial resistant to these antibiotics is on the rise, necessitating a constant drive to discover new antibiotic drugs as older ones are rendered less effective. One of the scientists on this forefront of this push is Emory Associate Professor and Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator, William Wuest, PhD. Wuest runs a lab that is focused on finding novel antibiotics to fight bacterial infections. Recently he and his team have made Read More …

Be Ware of Preprints: Protect Your Intellectual Property First

Who owns the rights to a new innovation described in a research paper? If a patent is in place, the answer is simple: the owner. Generally, the lengthy, and confidential, peer-review process means that authors of unpublished work have ample time to submit an invention disclosure and to have their technology transfer office review and if necessary, file a patent, ensuring that any new invention is protected prior to any public disclosure. However, the rise of “preprint” services, which allow authors to publish preliminary findings ahead of peer-review, has complicated this process. Preprints can severely hamper the ability of authors Read More …

15 Good Minutes: Cassandra Quave

When most people think about medicine, plants are not what immediately jumps to mind. However, for Emory Assistant Professor Cassandra Quave, PhD, the relationship between plants and medicine is career-defining. Quave is an ethnobotanist, meaning she studies human interaction with plants and their potential medical properties. Her work has led to important discoveries including treatments for eczema and skin infections. Quave describes her research as investigating compounds on a fundamental level, derived from their source in plants. She and her lab then determine whether the compound has properties that would allow it to be used in medicine. “In a single Read More …

The Differences between SBIR and STTR Cheat Sheet

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs both provide Small Business Administration (SBA) grants to small businesses for research. The two programs share the same three phases, with separate federal contracts awarded for Phases I and II. Phase I is innovation and research, where the scientific merit and commercial viability of an innovation is studied.  Phase II focuses on the innovation’s development, demonstration and delivery. Phase III involves preparation for commercial rollout and is funded by outside sources rather than the SBA. While the two programs share many similarities, they have some important differences Read More …

Clinical Trials 101

Any time a new drug appears on the market, the final product is a result of years of research and testing. The time from conception to FDA approval for medications takes 12 years on average. An important and time-consuming aspect of this process are clinical trials. By testing a drug on gradually increasing numbers of patients and volunteers, researchers are able verify that it is both safe and effective in treating the disease or condition. Only when the first three steps of this process are complete can the drug be approved and commercially distributed. Phase 1 is the shortest of Read More …

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare

The healthcare industry generates a lot of data. X-rays, pathology slides, patient vitals, clinical trial information; we have mountains of information accessible at the touch of a button. But it’s costly and time-inefficient for humans to manually pour over it. So what do we do with all of this data? The field of intelligence (AI) allows not only to let us analyze all our data, but to find subtle and complex patterns in them. Machine learning algorithms are particularly responsible for these advancements. Engineers have developed software that’s able to look at a dataset, find relationships between a bunch of Read More …

Faculty as Start-up Founder: One Man’s Experience

Raymond Dingledine, PhD is Emory professor of Pharmacology and co-founder of Emory’s screening facility. His research focuses on the pharmacology of glutamate receptors and the causes of epilepsy. Dingledine’s has received numerous awards such as the ASPET’s Robert R. Ruffolo Career Achievement Award in Pharmacology and election to the National Academy of Medicine. He has published over 200 research papers, served as editor of “Molecular Pharmacology,” and sat on the editorial board of “Molecular Interventions.” Ray is also co-founder of Emory start-up NeurOp. In this interview he shares some of his thoughts and experiences as co-founder of a company. Tell Read More …

Emory Start-ups Continue to Have Impact, Success, and Products to Market

In 2014, OTT published a comprehensive survey of all start-up companies founded on Emory intellectual property. The results proved Emory to be an economic hub in the South, generating not only private and public investment capital, but also job growth and life-saving products. Across the 72 companies surveyed at the time, 1,200 workers had been employed at peak, mostly in the areas of drug development, diagnostic materials, and software-based products. These start-ups cumulatively raised more than a billion dollars in funding and brought 30 different products to market. Now, five years later, OTT has updated its survey, unquestionably demonstrating the Read More …

An Introduction to Investor Pitches

You’ve filled out all the paperwork, organized all your patents, developed your prototypes, and maybe started selling products. Your company has reached the point where if you want to get any further, you’ll need some money. It’s time to pitch to investors. The biggest mistake you can make when developing a business pitch is thinking that what you’re pitching is simply a business or a product. Investors hear of great ideas and promising businesses constantly. A key element that distinguishes one company from the next is the people running it. Try to pitch the team behind the company. A great Read More …

The Small Business Administration: Its Resources and Opportunities

Getting a startup off the ground is a grueling task. What’s harder is working through the process alone. Luckily, the U.S. federal government recognizes the value in entrepreneurship and as such, works to support small companies through various resources offered by the Small Business Administration (SBA). In this article, we will highlight the key resources offered by the SBA broken into four categories. Funding Programs For its funding programs, the SBA mostly acts as a mediator between lenders and small businesses. For instance, interested entrepreneurs can utilize the SBA’s Lender Match service, an online referral tool that connects small businesses Read More …

Business Plan Example

This is the companion post to our introduction to business plans, you can find that post here. Executive Summary MotionBud Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets a practical and portable non-pharmaceutical approach to motion sickness that prioritizes style, comfort, and effectiveness. Our mission is to lead the motion sickness relief market in the development of novel solutions that target the inner ear, our brain’s motion sensor, directly. Our FDA approved device is the first of its kind on a market that traditionally favors OTC drugs and acupressure wristbands. As roughly 50% of the world’s population suffers from motion sickness in some Read More …