2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office. This month we highlight the first disclosure received at Emory.
When Dave Lambeth, MD, PhD first came to Emory University in 1980, his mind was brimming with ideas about research on stress hormones and then how this might translate into commercially available anti-stress treatments down the road. But when he presented his first idea to the University, he found there were no formal resources for technology transfer.
“I had come from Duke, who had a small tech transfer office at the time,” Lambeth remembers. “Since I was familiar with the process, I went to Emory and said, ‘I have this invention that I’d like to develop.’”
The rest, as they say, is history. Over the next several months, Lambeth, a consultant from Duke, and a number of Emory staff worked to develop a more formal technology transfer program at Emory. Although his initial proposed invention hit a dead end, Lambeth’s disclosure sparked the process for what has now become Emory’s Office of Technology Transfer. “The invention never came to much, but the program, as you can see came to something,” Lambeth tells OTT.
Emory has remained a hotspot for innovation with more than 3,000 invention disclosures and 30 products on the market over the past 30 years. Dave Lambeth, who is currently a professor of pathology, notes that Emory and OTT have evolved significantly since the early days. “I think Emory has become much more entrepreneurial,” he says. “The whole office has become very professional over the past decade.”
Today, Lambeth himself continues his research and entrepreneurial spirit and has submitted more than 20 disclosures over the years. There are two NOX technologies that are licensed exclusively. He has two research tools, related to compound screening, that have been transferred dozens of times. Lambeth also has more than half a dozen active technologies focused on NOX inhibitors and their use for the treatment of various disease conditions.
To see what technologies Emory OTT has available now visit our website here.