Featured Innovation Writing Process: Overcoming the Challenges – Part 2

Whether is coming up with an idea or grasping the technical aspects, writing a feature for a new technology can be daunting. No one knows more about a new innovation than the inventor themself, but even with access to the inventor, there are difficulties encountered. Here are a few challenges and tips to be aware of as you help bridge the gap between the inventor and general audience in communicating new innovations (part one of this series can be found here). Understanding the Research The initial assignment is met with a mixture of excitement and anxiety; a new technology and the chance to interview its inventor is thrilling, but occasionally the technologies are highly complex and become somewhat difficult to understand without a PhD. A good place to start is a quick Google search on that area of research—look for references from reputable sources, including Wikipedia or YouTube, to gain a basic understanding of the science. Also look for previously published papers from the inventor as a resource. Sometimes you can even find a past interview with the inventor which can be very helpful in thinking about how to approach the piece. Crafting the Questions At this point, it is

Continue reading

Featured Innovations: Conveying the What? Who? How? And Why? – Part 1

Discoveries are made every day; some discoveries have vast implications, while others might only impact a small group. Some innovations emerge through a serendipitous accident, and others are the product of a lifetime of work. There is incredible variability in how discoveries are made, and that variability should be represented in the narrative of the scientific innovation. The role of technology transfer is to help researchers  move their discoveries and inventions to the marketplace. What we call a “featured innovation” is an opportunity to explain a new technology in an accessible and engaging way. The audience is broad, from the general public to potential investors, lawyers, inventors, academics, and OTT professionals. These pieces should answer four main questions–What? Who? How? Why should I care?–while simultaneously including the inventor’s journey. When writing a featured innovation piece, the first step is to do some preliminary background research on the new technology. This research will allow one to craft specific interview questions for the inventor and gain a greater understanding of the new technology and its purpose. Next, it is usually most productive to interview the innovation’s case manager. Case managers oversee the process of moving the innovation out of the University to

Continue reading

STTR Funding for Your Start-up

Early stage start-ups are often looking for resources to advance their company and products. Start-ups from institutions like Emory are no different. The Small Business Administration’s Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) program might provide a solution for these entrepreneurs. The STTR program was created in 1992. All federal agencies with extramural research budgets over certain thresholds must participate in STTR and set-aside a required portion of their funds for these programs. Currently there are five agencies with STTR programs. The intent is for domestic small businesses to participate in research and development with commercialization potential. The STTR is described as a program, “that expands funding opportunities in the federal innovation research and development arena.” The initiative is sponsored by various Federal agencies, like the National Science Foundation and the Department of Health and Human Services, with the goal of forming partnerships with the private sector through the support of commercialization of research. The STTR support fund is formed by the participating agencies which have to set aside portions of their budget for small business technology transfer research awards. After an agency accepts a small business’ proposal for funding, it enters into the three-phased program. In the first phase, the

Continue reading

Marketing in South Africa

During the summer of 2016, I was asked to teach a class on marketing in technology transfer in South Africa—which was both exciting and intimidating. It would be a three-day class with me as the primary instructor. There would also be two guest speakers and the final day would be dedicated to practice technology pitches. The class would be comprised of more than 80 people—primarily from technology transfer offices across South Africa and a handful of start-up companies all told. I would need to prepare a day and half of instructional material including exercises. I spent many a weekend on my screen porch working on course material. It all had to start with an outline and establishing a flow for the topics. There were so many subjects to cover a) tech briefs (non-confidential summaries), b) market summaries, c) the value propositions, etc. For each major theme there were definitions to be created, examples to prepare, and exercises to generate. In the end there were eight slide decks and 160 slides with speaker notes and references—holy smokes! Once on ground, worry melted away; the participants were welcoming, lively, and eager. There were lots of questions and conversation during exercises and breaks.

Continue reading

2017 Annual Celebration of Technology & Innovation

Each year, the Emory University Office of Technology Transfer hosts an Annual Celebration of Technology and Innovation. This event brings together Emory administration, researchers, industry and many others from our local community to celebrate the research and innovation of Emory’s faculty. Each year brings a new lineup of guest speakers and presentations. Last year’s Celebration included two inventor presentations, including a videos and a few words from inventors of two successful Emory University technologies. Emory’s Associate General Counsel, Chris Kellner, shared a few words and became the first recipient of our OTTer Award. We also heard from former Provost and current President of Emory University, Claire E. Sterk. Most importantly, we celebrate our inventors! Emory University faculty members are awarded for, based on the previous calendar year: Deal of the Year, Startup of the Year, Innovation of the Year, and Significant Event of the Year. Join us on Thursday, March 2 at 4pm to celebrate the work of our inventors and congratulate our 11th Annual Celebration of Technology and Innovation awardees. You can visit our Annual Celebration page to find more information about past Annual Celebration’s, including award recipients, pictures and videos. You can also RSVP for this year’s Annual

Continue reading

From the Director: Highlights from Fiscal Year 2016

2016 proved to be a very productive year for the Office of Technology Transfer. For starters, we completed our first year as a combined office with Emory’s Industry Contracting Group. Altogether we executed a total of 2,144 contracts — most of them with industry –on Emory’s behalf. While material transfer and confidentiality agreements far outnumber other contract types, it is those other contracts that take the most time and effort to negotiate. Not only have the two offices gotten to know each other much better, but we created additional tools that have improved our ability to more effectively manage our business. Industry funding continues to be crucial component in the support of the academic research enterprise and in 2016 we saw an all-time high of $52.5M in funding from companies. Of this total, $35.5M was received in support of clinical work needed for the approval of new therapies and medical devices. Focusing on products, Emory sub-licensee Blue Earth Diagnostics, received FDA approval for Axumin™ to diagnose recurrent prostate cancer. This technology was invented and disclosed in 1995 by Mark Goodman, PhD from our Department of Radiology. On a similar note, Baxalta received European approval to market Obizur™ for acquired hemophilia

Continue reading

Holiday Season: There’s an App For That

There is always a long to-do list during this time of year —from party planning to shopping for gifts. Even with all the holiday cheer, the endless tasks can sometimes seem daunting. Luckily, there are numerous apps that can ease stress and streamline countless holiday tasks. Here at OTT, we know we need all the help we can get so we have compiled a list of the best apps to download in preparation for the holidays: Giftfund: Are you planning on getting a joint gift? Planning a joint gift can be difficult; it is hard to choose just the right gift, follow up to make sure everyone contributes, and physically purchase the item. With the Giftfund app, all of these details are taken care of in one app. It’s very simple: first, pick a person and choose a gift or amount of money. After this, invite those who want to contribute through email or text. As soon as the funds are collected, the gift is shipped to the recipient, conveniently including a gift receipt and a full list of all the contributors. ParkWhiz: Living in Atlanta already makes commuting and parking quite the challenge, but the holiday season only worsens

Continue reading

SBIR Funding for Your Start-up

Entrepreneurs and small business owners at Emory who are looking for an alternate source of income can tap into Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funds administered by the federal government. In association with some of its largest and most influential agencies, the U.S. government is looking to support innovation and growth by funding the newly seeded businesses involved in research and development. The SBIR program was founded in 1977 when two men, Roland Tibbetts and Senator Edward Kennedy, recognized the importance of small business growth in the economy. Birthed out of the National Science Foundation, success in the first few years led to its adoption by the Small Business Administration which mandated that government agencies should set aside SBIR funding. Each federal agency, which have research and development budgets greater than $100 million, are required to commit at least 2.8 percent of these budgets to SBIR funding. The eleven agencies that participate in the program have their own guidelines for acceptance under Congress’s established legislation. They are listed below along with links to their SBIR pages: Department of Agriculture National Institute of Standards and Technology National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Department of Defense Department of Education Department of Energy Department

Continue reading

EIDD & DRIVE: A Drug Developer’s Dream Brought to Life

Emory Institute for Drug Development (EIDD) has a mission of early stage discovery, pre-clinical drug research, and training new generations of researchers in a drug discovery environment. The primary focus is on developing small-molecule therapeutics for commercially neglected diseases and rapid response to emerging infectious disease threats. Recently EIDD joined the fight against the Zika virus by attempting to identify and develop antivirals to treat the infection caused by the virus. The EIDD facility is an interdisciplinary space designed to promote drug discovery and development by co-locating equipment for Medicinal and Process Chemistry, Virology and Molecular Biology, Bioanalytical Chemistry, Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics including dedicated teams in each area. The facility was opened in 2012, and is currently home to both office space and fully equipped laboratories to enable research teams to focus on cutting-edge research and drug development. The facility is 12,000 sq. ft. which includes a 3,500 sq. ft. chemistry suite for medicinal chemistry, ability to support resynthesis efforts, a separate NMR room, and a hydrogenation lab. In addition to their current work with the Zika virus, the Institute is working in a number of other areas and the following three projects illustrate this (find additional information here).

Continue reading

Funding Your Start-up

Every start-up founder hopes one day for their project/technology to succeed, reach the market, and quite often improve patients’ lives. Funding is just one of the critical hurdles in the early stages. The following list will explain just a few of the many sources of investment. Bootstrapping: Sometimes the best source of funding for a small business can be its entrepreneur(s). Bootstrap financing is starting a business with minimal capital mostly provided by a person or group of people from the start-up team. This often includes dipping into savings, retirement, personal loans (including home equity), or accessing credit cards. This is the most common type of financing in small business. Given the costs involved with a pharmaceutical or medical device company this approach can be challenging, but for a software company can be a successful approach. Friends and Family: Sometimes the best way to gain access to funding is through the people who are closest to you. Tapping your family and friends to invest in your start-up can strain relationships and is only advisable if they fully understand the risks involved with your start-up. Forbes suggests that a loan from friends and family is sort of like a “grant with

Continue reading

We’re Now on LinkedIn – Be Sure to Follow Us!

Our new LinkedIn Showcase page will provide information regarding Emory technologies, start-ups, successes, office news or events, and cool research from Emory. This page will allow us to share the happenings of technology transfer with the business community in a convenient location. We hope you will follow us at http://bit.ly/EmoryOTT_LinkedIn. We look forward to connecting with our business partners. LinkedIn is the largest professional and business orientated social media sites, connecting millions of individuals across the globe. The platform continues to seek new ways to connect individuals and companies in meaningful ways. One of the options available to large, multi-unit companies are Showcase Pages. These pages are an extension of a company page and provide an organization to “showcase” a sub-unit or product. A showcase page has its own followers and status updates independent of the company.

Continue reading

AUTM 2016 Eastern Region: Marketing Takeaways

While AUTM’s annual meeting offers a superb opportunity to immerse ones’ self in our industry, the busy schedule and large number of attendees can be a lot to take in; AUTM’s regional meetings however offer a more intimate environment to delve deeper into specific topics impacting our world and build new connections. For two days, technology managers and business executives who manage intellectual property met in Philadelphia, PA for the 2016 AUTM Eastern Region Meeting. In attendance from “team Emory” were our Director, Todd Sherer, as well as our Marketing Manager, Quentin Thomas, who was also a part of a panel on Guerilla Marketing. Here are a few tactics and tips from the Guerilla Marketing panel picked up at AUTM’s Eastern Regional meeting. Email Tracking Tracking your emails can provide valuable information beyond just open rate. Knowing who opened your emails and how often they were opened can provide ideas as to whom you should, and sometimes more importantly, should not follow-up with, as well as how to follow-up. Resources for tracking emails include services such as MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, and Emma, as well as plug-ins for Outlook. Licensing Deals from Marketing There was conversation around the ability to track

Continue reading

OTTer on my Summer Vacation 2016

Around four years ago, the finance & administration team including Sr. Program Associate Connie Newsome and Sr. Accountant Maritta Allison, came up with the idea of using a stuffed OTTer as the office mascot. Many members of the OTT team referred to themselves as the OTT-ers or “otters,” so no other animal could be a better choice. This summer, members of the office took the mascot abroad on travels all over the globe. Rome: First, the OTTer went to Italy and decided to Rome around a bit. Ireland: While in Ireland, the OTTer even decided to test the quality of Irish beer and explore the countryside. He can neither deny nor confirm that the grass is always greener on the Irish side, but it certainly was green. England: The OTTer investigated Stone Henge and contemplated how many otters it took to build such a structure. Back in London after the long wait to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace, the OTTer decided a life of royalty did not suit him. Germany: OTTer tested out the local automobiles in Germany, and may or may not have tested them out on the Autobahn. South Africa: After fulfilling his need

Continue reading

Inventor Becomes Patient: My Tool Was Like a Trusted Friend Telling Me What Was Wrong

Ernest V. Garcia, PhD, or better known as Ernie, is an endowed professor in cardiac imaging and the director of Emory’s Nuclear Cardiology R&D Laboratory. He specializes in medical imaging and bioinformatics, particularly quantitative analysis of cardiac images. Ernie has received numerous awards and honors but to highlight a few he was named a Medical Imaging Industry Top 10 Nuclear Medicine Researcher by the Medical Imaging Magazine and was named to the Council of Distinguished Investigators of the Academy of Radiology Research. What lead you to pursue cardiac imaging as part of your profession? I was trained as a scientist, a physicist. And I had a great deal of experience with computers and computer software, which was unusual for a scientist working in the 1960s. Back then, cardiology was the most quantitative modality that existed and it probably still is today. Meaning that the cardiologists were and are interested in numbers and quantitative data. So, I thought that I would apply my scientific background to the art of image interpretation. Who has impacted you the most in your career and why? That’s a tough question, there is the physicist part of me. So, I am definitely motivated by the life

Continue reading

The Ever-Confusing World of Contract Lingo – Part 2

While much of OTT’s work deals with the review, protection, and management of the inventions made by our faculty, there is a whole other side that is of equal importance: negotiating contracts with industry, be it for licenses, clinical trials, collaborations, sponsored work, or confidential discussions. Just as the world of patents has its own set of jargon and terms, contracts do too. Below we’ve compiled a helpful list of some common terms you may encounter in contracts. You can find part 1 of this blog here. Common Contract Terms & Concepts Continued Representation: A fact that one party states with the knowledge that the other party is relying on that fact to make an agreement. If one makes a false representation, it can allow the other party to have the contract be voided or seen as a fraud in the inducement, meaning that an intentionally untrue fact was construed in the contract. For example we often represent that we have the ability to enter into the contract, or that to the best of our knowledge we are owner of a certain technology. Warranty: A promise of the reliability of a given product or service. If a warranty is incorrect,

Continue reading

Research Tools as Building Blocks

Every great invention requires two things: an idea and the necessary resources. Life science and research are no different. For every novel compound, new vaccine and therapeutic, there is a research tool that helped advance the idea and hopefully becoming the next innovation in health. “Research tools are reagents, kitted products and even services which enable researchers to make new scientific discoveries,” says Rob Burgess, VP Global Business Development at RayBiotech, Inc. “Research tools streamline and normalize the scientific discovery process.” Research tools come in many forms, including antibodies, assays, cell lines and more. Erwin Van Meir, PhD, Professor in the Emory University School of Medicine and Director of the Laboratory for Molecular Neuro-Oncology describes these tools as “the researchers’ equivalent to the mason’s trowel used to put together bricks and mortar into house walls.” Research tools are often developed from scratch in the laboratory, but can also be purchased from companies which specialize in their development and manufacturing. “Research tools are created by a variety of techniques, one of them being genetic engineering,” says Van Meir. Often the development of the tools is in order to fill a specific need in the lab. “We buy and design plasmids, cell

Continue reading