Thirty years ago technology transfer was just an experiment. The theory was that a lot of innovation was coming out of federal funded research, but it was all owned by the federal government and sitting on their shelves. So the country embarked upon a pretty novel approach outlined in the Bayh-Dole Act – putting ownership of these innovations in the hands of the university. That birthed the profession of technology transfer. Over the years, there has been a paradigm shift in the field. When I started 25 years ago, tech transfer professionals were really just transactional support staff. As tech transfer professionals we could help get a patent filed, market a technology, and negotiate an agreement. Today we are now expected to also be value creators. With every day, every week, every month that we work on a technology its value should continue to increase as we do things to help reduce risk and increase potential viability. Another significant shift in the field has focused on how start-ups are spun out from the University. Originally the accepted practice was that in order to spinout a start-up the faculty member had to leave the institution and go run that start-up. What
Continue readingAuthor: Linda Kesselring
SORTing it Out
Throughout January we will be highlighting Emory’s and OTT’s work in infectious disease and vaccines. The ground breaking work begins in the Division of Infectious Disease and the Emory Vaccine Center. The Division of Infectious Disease has 59 faculty and 13 fellows, 5 administrators, and 89 research staff. There are 14 Professors, 7 Associate Professors, 34 Assistant Professors, and 4 Senior Associates or Instructors. The Division is proud of its outstanding accomplishments in a broad spectrum of research, including basic, translational, clinical, and epidemiologic sciences. The Division had more than $30 million in research funding in fiscal year 2013. (For more information: http://medicine.emory.edu/divisions/infectious_diseases/.) The Emory Vaccine Center is an epicenter of academic research and development of vaccines for both chronic and infectious diseases. With more than 250 faculty members and staff, it is the largest and most comprehensive academic vaccine research center in the world. The Center is making fundamental advances in immunology, virology, and vaccine research to search for life saving cures against the world’s most threatening diseases plaguing millions of individuals around the globe. (For more information: http://www.vaccines.emory.edu/.) The first technology we are highlighting is SORT. There’s a very real fear in the healthcare world that during a
Continue readingThe Return of the Coulter Translational Fund
In 1999 the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation was created with a goal of improving health care and making such improvements available and affordable. Because Mr. Coulter was an alumnus of Georgia Tech, the Foundation made a $25M grant to support the unique joint Biomedical Engineering Department between Emory and Georgia Tech in 2001. Included in that grant was $8M endowment to fund translational research. This Coulter translational funding program had, until recently, been on hiatus but is now ready to re-launch and accepting applications. In early November two kick-off meetings were held, one at Emory and one at Georgia Tech, to provide details of the new funding process. The first round of applications are due at the end of January and for those approved, money will be granted in July 2015. One of the key benefits to Coulter funding is that it does not preclude receiving grants from other funding sources. Below are some specifics: Project assessment criteria: Unmet or underserved clinical need Improvement over current standard Intellectual property position Reasonable or achievable milestones Ability to attract follow-on funding Team commitment Project eligibility: Two PIs – one technical expert and one clinical expert At least one of the PIs must
Continue readingTech Transfer Jingle Bells
Dashing through the lab In my new lab coat Cleaning pipettes I go Can’t find my lab notebook Filling out the disclosure Making spirits bright What fun it is to laugh and sing A tech transfer song tonight … [Chorus] CER reports, CER reports Triage all the way Oh! What fun it is to write these Every single week CER reports, CER reports Triage all the way Oh! What fun it is to write these Every single week Dashing through the prior art Please no public disclosures First to file I go God please let it be enabled Useful, novel, non-obvious Making spirits bright What fun it is to laugh and sing A tech transfer song tonight … [chorus] Dashing through the literature Writing that old tech brief Through the database I go Sending lots of marketing Finding that perfect partner Making spirits bright What fun it is to laugh and sing A tech transfer song tonight … [chorus] Dashing through the agreement Can’t read all these definitions Red lining I go And hoping that they’ll sign Bells for signed licenses Making spirits bright What fun it is to laugh and sing A tech transfer song tonight …
Continue readingOTT Internship Program 2.0 – Revamped, Refreshed & Reinvigorated!
With any program, no matter how successful, there is always room for improvement. Several months ago we decided to take a close look at our already successful internship program for ways in which it could be improved. We knew we could build upon earlier success, learn from other universities and create something that is unique to Emory OTT. We began with our end goal in mind – through a robust training program, prepare fully capable interns who would require little day-to-day instruction and be capable of creating our foundational documents – the Commercial Evaluation Report and Technology Brief on Day 1. We felt this goal met both desired outcomes from a successful internship program: 1. Provide valuable real-world training for our interns and 2. Receive valuable work product that benefits the Office in a meaningful way. So we broke down our program into parts and laid it bare on the table for inspection – we decided what we loved more and what we loved less, what was working well, and what was not. Then we picked up the phone and called some friends from other TTOs to see how they did things.[i] We took all these pieces and analyzed them
Continue readingP-O-C Fund Gears Up to Help Bridge the V-O-D
Those in technology transfer know all too well “The Valley of Death” between basic discoveries and proof of concept as well as the challenges involved in bridging this gap. Here at Emory OTT we’re fortunate to have a new tool in our toolbox to help promising discoveries take that next step. Its official name is the “POC Fund” Or “Proof of Concept Fund.” Yes – we know the name isn’t that creative but you might be surprised at how difficult it is to create a jazzy name that everyone agrees upon. Having said that, one thing we can all agree on is that we have made our first investment and we’re pretty excited. Take a look below for some details on the fund itself and our first investment. The Fund The POC fund was launched to provide support for prototype development and proof-of-concept testing of biomedical innovations, medical devices, and software technologies. The goals for the fund are to: Improve the patent position of promising new disclosures by further reducing them to practice; Prepare early-stage biomedical technology for support from other translational funding opportunities such as Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), Coulter, and ACTSI grants (read our two previous blogs on ACTSI here:
Continue readingRandom Thoughts from Annual SEBIO Meeting
This month in Atlanta, SEBIO held their 16th annual conference and Southeast Investor & Partnering Forum. In addition to being a sponsor we were honored to have our own Todd Sherer, Executive Director, serve as conference co-chair. This year’s event at the beautiful W Hotel in midtown Atlanta had more than 300 attendees. The conference has a history of successfully showcasing promising companies and connecting them with investors and this year was no exception. More than 25 companies presented during the early stage shootout, emerging company presentations, and the BIO/Plan competition. Emory was privileged to have five companies presenting: Cambium Medical Technologies and Metaclipse Therapeutics in the early stage shoot out, Accuitis Pharmaceuticals in the emerging companies, and NovAb in the BIO/Plan competition. Emory also had a special participant QUE Oncology who earned an opportunity to present at SEBIO by winning the Georgia BIO 2014 shark tank competition. Staying true to the character of the meeting, the startups were able to speak with venture capital firms and other potential investors. Emory OTT had three staff in attendance and below are some of their thoughts and take aways from the event. According to the venture capital panel, technologies directed to increasing
Continue readingInterns: Atlanta BEST Program
Last year Emory’s Laney Graduate School in collaboration with the Georgia Institute of Technology received one of the first ten NIH Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) grants to strengthen the biomedical research workforce. The program aims to better prepare PhD graduate students and postdoctoral scientists for the breadth of possible careers in the biomedical research workforce and to establish a networkand disseminate widely best practices for the community. More specifically, the program’s goal is to expose pre-doctoral and post-doctoral trainees to career choices outside of the traditional tenure track academic position. At Emory, the program accepts a small cohort of trainees each year (approximately half each from Emory and GA Tech) into a two year-program. Year one aims to broaden the participant’s exposure to alternative careers and provide leadership training. Year two allows the participant’s to immerse themselves in a specific career track including an internship. The six tracks are: Business and Entrepreneurship Communications (scientific writing, journalism, public policy) STEM Education and Outreach Law, Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Research (non-tenure track, governmental and contract research organizations) Industrial Science (biotechnology, pharmaceutical) Emory’s OTT is working in partnership with the Atlanta BEST program by providing internship opportunities for participants who
Continue readingHelping our Faculty Navigate the World of SBIRs & STTRs
On October 27th, OTT held an SBIR/STTR educational panel focused on answering questions and clearing up misconceptions about these funding programs. Kevin Lei, our Director of Faculty & Startup Services, served as moderated for a distinguished panel, consisting of a group of professionals with a great deal of experience in applying for and obtaining SBIR and STTR federal grants. On the panel were Juliana Cyril, the director of Office of Technology & Innovation and SBIR Program Director at CDC; Connie Casteel from the State of Georgia’s SBIR Assistance Program; Vince LaTerza, serial entrepreneur and President and CEO of Aiye BioPharma; and Ernest Garcia, Emory Professor and Scientific Founder of Syntermed. From that seminar we realized there were a lot of FAQs, so to help clear up some confusion about SBIR and STTR grants for those that couldn’t attend, we’ve put together this handy table! SBIR vs. STTR SBIR STTR Who applies? For-profit U. S. small business For-profit U. S. small business Principal Investigator Employed at least 51% by the small business with at least 10% effort May be employed by either the small business or non-profit with at least 10% effort Intellectual Property (IP) Requires the small business and
Continue readingFrom the Director: The Highs and Lows of Fiscal Year 2014
Overall fiscal year 2014 has been a good one for OTT. As to be expected with some highs and lows. OTT processed 225 disclosures, had an all time low of 7 days in processing material transfer agreements, and had received almost $10 million in licensing revenue. Licensing Making deals is the heart and soul of a technology transfer office. OTT completed 40 licensing deals this year that will help seed Emory’s future with new product and revenue opportunities. Three of these deals were with new start-up companies, a cause for celebration when you consider the success our existing startups have had in the past year. A further six of those agreements were what we consider to be high net worth licenses, or those that will lead to a clinical or commercial product with a lifetime revenue to Emory of over $1M. Start-ups Two of our start-ups, Apica Cardiovascular and Velocity Medical Solutions, were acquired by publicly traded companies, Thoratec and Varian Medical Systems, respectively. These acquisitions are an indicator that significant value is being created around Emory technologies. We look forward to working with these companies in the future to help assure that new products advance to the marketplace. Our
Continue readingQuick Reference of the Common Types of Intellectual Property Rights
“Intellectual property” or “IP” generally refers to exclusive rights granted to owners under U.S. intellectual property laws to a variety of intangible assets covering creations of the human mind. Common types of IP rights include copyrights, trademarks, patents (utility and design patents) and trade secrets. Type of Right What it Protects How to Obtain Copyright Original works of authorship, including writings (including computer software) music (including any accompany words and/or music), and works of art (e.g., pictorial, graphic, and/or sculptural works) that have been tangibly expressed Copyright exists immediately and automatically when the work is created, that is, when it is fixed in a tangible copy for the first time A notice of copyright may be designated on the work of authorship by the following: The symbol © (the letter “C” in a circle), or the word “Copyright” or the abbreviation “Corp.”; The year of first publication of the work; and The name of the copyright owner (e.g., Emory University) No publication, registration or other action in the U.S. Copyright Office is required to secure copyright Trademark Word, name, symbol, logo, image design, or any combination used or intended to be used to identify and distinguish the goods/services of a
Continue readingRounding Up Our Take on Georgia Bio’s 2014 Innovation Summit
For over 13 years, Georgia Bio has been bringing the Georgia Life Science’s community together at a summit in Atlanta. As part of that community we have always appreciated the opportunity to participate in this event and be an active part of Georgia’s expanding biotech universe. The 2014 edition of the Summit focused on innovation and brought together senior executives, scientists, and public policy officials from all over the state while showcasing Georgia’s leadership in innovation, from basic research to manufacturing, within the life sciences. Emory and OTT staff had the opportunity to participate as members of various panels focused on commercializing university innovations. Emory surgeon Felmont Eaves served as moderator for a panel focused on new models of asset development for University-based intellectual property. That panel also featured Jack Tillman, the Executive Director of Emory Innovations as well as George Painter, CEO of Emory’s unique drug development spinout – DRIVE. Our Executive Director, Todd Sherer, also moderated a panel addressing the top myths of academic collaboration, which featured the VPs of Research from Georgia’s largest research universities, including Emory’s VP of Research Administration, David Wynes. Lastly, three Emory start-ups, 4C Health, DiaSyst, and QUE Oncology participated in the Shark
Continue readingACTSI and Emory: Setting the Stage for Biomedical Commercialization
In 2007, Emory partnered with neighboring institutions the Morehouse School of Medicine and the Georgia Institute of Technology to establish the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute (ACTSI). This multi-institutional alliance was launched via a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) obtained from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). ACTSI, CTSA, NCATS? All these acronyms may be hard to keep straight, but one thing is for sure: they mean big opportunities for Atlanta. The mission of the NCATS is to revolutionize clinical science in order to more effectively develop treatments and cures for disease. CTSA grants are awarded in order to improve and accelerate the bench-to-bedside process and have been granted to only 60 institutions in the entire country to date. Emory University’s own David Stephens, M.D., Vice President for Research and Department of Medicine chair is the principal investigator of the award that funds ACTSI. This funding source, renewed in 2012, has made available more than $36 million dollars that ACTSI is using to advance patient care via improved scientific discovery. The work of ACTSI has had a profound impact in short life. To date, ACTSI has contributed to supporting 673 investigators, 520
Continue readingFrom the Director: The Biggest Challenges in Technology Transfer – Today & Tomorrow
There is no shortage of people from outside of our industry discussing what we do and how we can improve. Although many of those groups may have their own agendas, views, and biases, it is difficult to deny that we as a field face a number of changes. As the leader of Emory’s technology transfer efforts, and a former President of AUTM, I am often asked what I think the biggest challenges facing our industry are: here are my thoughts… Now and going forward, the biggest challenge is and will continue to be managing expectations. When I got into technology transfer 24 years ago, the biggest complaint by tech transfer professionals was that no one cared about what we were doing. We cared. We loved what we were doing, and we were perhaps the only ones that believed we had important roles and responsibilities. Now 24 years later, it’s quite the opposite scenario. Everyone is interested in technology transfer. Today, managing expectations is more critical than it has ever been. We are more commonly in the public eye and yet, not everyone understands our profession. There are a lot of debates going on, and unfortunately most people in these discussions
Continue readingDeveloping New Tools to Drive RSV Research Forward
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of bronchiolitis, viral pneumonia, and viral death in infants both in the U.S. and worldwide. Almost all children will have been infected with RSV by their second birthday. And yet, this killer of 200,000 infants annually was not the focus of as much laboratory research as might be expected. Martin Moore, PhD, an assistant professor in Emory’s infectious disease unit has developed two model systems. The first is a mouse model of RSV pathogenesis that replicates some features of RSV bronchiolitis, including the proliferation of mucus in the airways. The second model is an efficient RSV reverse genetics system, to study RSV molecular biology and develop novel live attenuated RSV vaccine candidates. Moore has gone beyond basic research, however, to a creative type of lab entrepreneurism, inventing and distributing the tools needed to study RSV. “We have a culture of invention in the lab,” he says. “Everyone in the lab is involved in technology development. We talk about tech transfer every week, it’s central to the lab, and I actually think it creates optimism and excitement for trainees in a time of prevailing pessimism due to funding.” These materials—largely research reagents and
Continue readingDermatology Tools Utilizing Quality of Life Instruments
Dermatologic conditions can be embarrassing and stressful for those affected. Skin diseases can affect the way people see themselves, as well as how they project themselves in society. Emory dermatologist, Suephy Chen, MD, associate professor in dermatology, has developed three instruments that measure how a patient’s quality of life is affected by particular skin diseases. The three instruments, ItchyQoL™, RosaQoL™, and Scalpdex™, are surveys that assess how chronic itch, rosacea, and scalp psoriasis and seborrhoeic dermatitis, respectively, impact a patient’s quality of life. Rosacea and psoriasis are both chronic skin diseases. Rosacea typically involves recurring redness on the cheeks, nose, chin, or forehead. Psoriasis occurs when the immune system sends out faulty signals that speed up the growth cycle of skin cells typically causing raised, red patches on the skin that are covered with a silvery white buildup of dead skin cells. While there are treatments to control and reverse symptoms for rosacea and psoriasis, there are no cures. The symptoms that accompany these ongoing conditions can impact a patient’s day-to-day activities, affecting a patient’s quality of life, or QoL. Chen says instruments that measure QoL are important in treating a disease. Health services research investigates how patients are impacted
Continue reading