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It’s all BIO All Week!

Emory OTT will be at the BIO International Convention, the largest conference for the biotech industry, in San Diego, CA this week. Three members from our office, Executive Director Todd Sherer and Lisa Matragrano and Cliff Michaels from the licensing team, will be there. It looks to be a busy and productive week!

Our booth will be within the Georgia Pavilion again this year. Someone from the team will be there each day and we look forward to visiting with old friends and making new ones. If you want an easy way to find us, click here and use BIO’s handy interactive map. The team has more than 25 partnering meetings set-up prior to flying west. We expect to have many great conversations about Emory research, technology, and start-ups.

This week’s blog will be a bit different – each morning our blog will be updated with highlights and points of interest from the BIO meeting the previous day. We will also be tweeting up a storm too (@EmoryOTT), starting conversations & joining in on others. We hope you tune in each day to see what’s new!

Monday’s takeaways

  • A nod to the past, while looking to the future – amazing reception on the deck of the USS Midway featured performers in period costumes from the WWII era. Reminds me of the unprecedented level of innovation and technology developed during that time that continues to be felt today and that today’s innovations can have a profound impact on lives tomorrow.

  • Technology Transfer (TT) is not a dirty word – we do good things! Met other’s in the profession from the States (e.g., Notre Dame, Binghamton) and overseas (e.g., Norway) and we need to embrace what we do.

  • Excited to be in the Georgia Pavilion with Emory start-up Metaclipse Therapeutics and our sister offices in GA (e.g., GA Regents Univ., Univ. of GA, GA State Univ., Morehouse, GA Tech).

Tuesday’s takeaways

  • The truly global nature of the biotech  industry. Meeting tech transfer colleagues from not just around the U. S., but the world & potential business partners from Asia, Europe, & Latin America!

  • Are tech transfer offices starting to look alike? It seems so chatting with my colleagues.

  • Big pharma companies appear to be more interested in earlier stage opportunities than in the recent past. Is this a sign of good things to come for tech transfer?

  • Interesting to learn how big companies (e.g., Sigma Aldrich) are structured and how they are involved in things such as therapeutic research.

Wednesday’s takeaways

  • At a conference one can actually live off of coke products, peanuts, dark chocolate, and caffeine!  So busy sharing the exciting research and innovations from Emory that there is barely a moment to eat!

  • Trying to squeeze every drop of industry knowledge, and feedback, and intelligence about our technologies from our partnering meetings. Feedback can only make our opportunities and technologies better.

  • Our appreciation for the size and scope of the Georgia Value Chain has only grown by being part of the GA Pavilion. From the rich research infrastructure of our fellow GA research universities, as well as our own, to clinical trials expertise, manufacturing and logistics, we come away with an overwhelming sense of optimism for our local biotech industry. It feels as though Georgia is reaching that critical mass where all the components are in place for success in biotech.

  • The opportunity to meet the high school students from the BioGENEius Challenge; it was refreshing and exciting to meet so many young people excited and engaged in science and research.

Final thoughts