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The Ins and Outs of Technology Transfer at UM-St. Louis

Every U.S. research university is involved in discovery and technology transfer. University inventions are translated through commercial development into a wide variety of products and services that benefit society. The technology transfer process also can yield economic benefits for the inventor, his or her department and campus, the university and society.

Intellectual property (IP) developed at universities also can become the proprietary foundation of new companies, creating significant economic development benefits (e.g., new companies and high-paying jobs). Furthermore, many top scholars in scientific, medical, computer science, education and other fields want to create impact beyond the laboratory and classroom. Providing quality technology transfer services helps UMSL attract and retain such talented people. Read Product Stories and The Better World Project for examples of the benefits of academic technology transfer.

Universities engage in technology transfer for five basic reasons:

  1. To promote the application of scientific research results for public good;
  2. To recruit, reward and retain talented faculty interested in seeing their technologies further developed;
  3. To provide opportunities for collaborations with industry;
  4. To promote economic development; and
  5. To generate income for reinvestment into research and teaching.

Of course, the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act requires that universities actively attempt to commercialize inventions created under federally funded research. UM follows the same principle for all university inventions.

Characteristics of University IP

  • Discovery usually takes years of research and experimentation.
  • It is typical for faculty to develop technology "solutions" independent of market-defined needs or problems.
  • A significant amount of university IP is considered "raw technology" -- incomplete, unrefined and years from being formulated into products or services ready for market.
  • Faculty inventors optimize their research for peers and funding sources, which is typically different than commercial drivers.
  • Much like in research, where a small fraction of faculty are responsible for most funded projects, in technology transfer, a small fraction of faculty are responsible for marketable inventions.

Technology Transfer at UM-St. Louis

To better facilitate the protection and further development of technologies developed by faculty and staff at each UM campus and better support the University's fourth mission of economic development, the UM System decentralized tech transfer activities to each campus in July 2006.

At UM-St. Louis, tech transfer activities are managed out of the Office of Research Administration (ORA). Staff includes one .5 FTE Director of Technology Transfer (Tamara Wilgers) and one accountant (Randy Gress, .2 FTE for tech transfer matters).

Technology transfer is a service provided to faculty, staff and students at UMSL; this service is funded by royalty revenues from licensed inventions and patent funds distributed annually by the UM System to each campus. In many cases, patent fees are covered by licensees.

p MEASURING SUCCESS

Early numerical measures include the number of patents filed, license agreements executed and new companies formed. Later numerical measures include revenues from license fees, royalties and cash from equity investments paid to the academic institutions and the numbers of products successfully introduced to the market. Success is also demonstrated by the impact the products have on our lives.

Other non-numerical results of technology transfer include a university's ability to retain entrepreneurial faculty, attract outstanding graduate students, contribute to the institutional reputation for innovation, augment its research program through interaction with the private sector and enhance its reputation for providing highly trained students for the industrial work force.

Since decentralization, UM-St. Louis activity, including invention disclosures, patent applications and license revenue, has increased significantly (see Technology Transfer Report, FY2001-FY2008).

p CURRENT UMSL PROJECTS

From Gatorade (University of Florida) to Google (Stanford University), some of today's best-known technologies, products and companies are the result of university technology transfer. For examples of innovations from academic research that have been commercialized into real-world applications, visit The Better World Project.

At the University of Missouri-St. Louis, researchers are working on a wide variety of projects with commercial viability. Some examples follow:

  • A non-invasive blood glucose monitor for pain-free testing and better blood sugar control for diabetics to help avoid long-term negative health outcomes. There are nearly 24 million diabetics in the United States alone, along with another 54 million pre-diabetics. Diabetes is a leading cause of death, the leading cause of blindness, kidney failure and non-traumatic leg amputations. A startup company will be established around this technology. (Zhi Xu lab)
  • A therapeutic to eliminate the human papilloma (HPV) 16 virus, the leading cause of cervical cancer. The investigator is co-found of NanoVir LLC, which is working with the University to commercialize this pharmaceutical. (Jim Bashkin lab)
  • A device (the Q3D or "Quantitative 3 Dot" test) to quantify visual suppression in patients, allowing doctors to track treatments over time. The University is currently marketing this device to industry for licensing. (Carl Bassi lab)
  • An improved immunoassay to detect colon cancer. In the early stages of commercialization, the University is beginning a marketing campaign to industry to license this technology. (Keith Stine lab)
  • Software that centralizes training calendars, which formed the basis of a startup called Calare LLC (Eric Aplyn).

Disclosures have come from traditional units, such as chemistry, biology and optometry, but also from the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, the College of Education, and even the Department of History.

p MORE INFORMATION

Visit the Technology Transfer section of the ORA web site or contact Tamara Wilgers (516-6884).