For the 3rd year in row, OTT is using September to promote our research tools by highlighting these innovations in our blog, on our website, and on social media. This year introduces a new twist with several of our colleagues in other university technology transfer offices joining us. On Twitter, look for the hashtag #researchtool to follow this month’s campaign.
Each year hundreds of new innovations are disclosed by the faculty here at Emory. It is our role to manage these innovations, guiding them from the lab bench to the hands of a commercial partner. An often overlooked piece of the commercialization puzzle is the numerous research tools (cell lines, antibodies, plasmids, research software, etc.) that are also created and shared with many groups and other researchers. We receive more than 20 new research tool disclosures annually and currently have more than 170 tools available for licensing; over a third of those are antibodies.
These tools form the workhorses of bench research and are critical components in facilitating discovery. Additionally, they can serve as an additional financial resource for both the University and the scientist in support of the research enterprise. The University has averaged $500,000 in revenue from research tools over the past ten years and in the last two years we’ve hit record highs.
This revenue also supports the scientist and their lab by providing additional discretionary revenue in support of their research. Over the past ten year’s more than $1 million of this revenue has been distributed back to research labs.
Stay tuned for more on research tools this month!
If you are interested in learning more about what research tools are currently available to license, a listing can be found here.