Spring 2003
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Since 1992, the office has taken on a series of growing responsibilities, all aimed at facilitating the development of commercial products based on innovations that arise through UO research. A number of such products are now sold. In addition, the university's efforts have led to the creation of several start-up companies that are currently operating out of the UO's Riverfront Research Park, a one-million square foot development, where knowledge-based businesses and organizations can start and grow in close proximity to and collaborative association with the research capabilities of the university.
Tenants at the park work in the fields of optics, neuroscience, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, internet-based multimedia, software, web design, behavioral research, teaching, networking productions and solutions, and customer relations management. They include three UO spinoff companies featured in this issue of Inquiry: On Time Systems Inc., Language Learning Systems, and Electrical Geodesics Inc. Getting to the point where they become profitable ventures with worthwhile returns on investment is the real challenge.
"When you take a close look at this, you begin to appreciate how challenging it is to cross the Valley of Death—to move from research to a product that can become a commercial success," says Don Gerhart, director for the Office of Technology Transfer. "It's a tough nut to crack for anyone."
Yet, crossing that valley is what the office's efforts are all about.
At the UO's Monoclonal Antibody Facility (MAF), the first steps are being taken to join those fortunate few that succeed. In research that produces antibodies used in studies of molecular structure, subcellular activities, and cellular differentiation, the antibodies have been marketed successfully through corporate partners such as Molecular Probes, a biotechnology company specializing in the area of fluorescence technology. Fluorescence technology is used for research in various areas of biology, with a practical focus on medical diagnostic practice.
The initial research, explains Rod Capaldi, Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the UO and researcher in UO's Institute of Molecular Biology, showed that antibodies that were developed for other purposes were capable of identifying molecules related to certain genetic diseases whose existence could otherwise only be inferred.
"It's absolutely wonderful," Capaldi says. "After twenty years of being highly focused on basic research with an interest in human disease, seeing an application in human health is incredibly rewarding."
"With this enterprise, as with any, you need proof that it will work in the real marketplace, that it addresses unmet needs," Gerhart says.
That proof is often hard to reach. He sites Taxol, a byproduct of the Pacific yew tree, as one cancer fighting drug developed from as many as 140,000 sample extracts. The process began in 1958 when the U. S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) initiated a program to screen plant species for anticancer activity. Through this program and other efforts, medicinal chemists Monroe Wall and M.C. Wani eventually described the structure in 1971. Yet this compound's journey through the Valley of Death was not completed until Taxol was approved for use in the treatment of metastatic carcinoma of the ovary in 1992.
"It takes long-range work and determination," Gerhart says.
This year, that work and determination has resulted in more than $1 million in licensing revenue to the UO during fiscal years 2001 and 2002, a 93 percent increase over the preceding biennium. Despite the economic recession that has gripped the U.S., the University of Oregon anticipates exceeding $1 million in licensing revenue for fiscal year 2003, the first time that the UO has surpassed this milestone.
"The University of Oregon's Office of Technology Transfer has grown dramatically over the last decade," says Gerhart. "As the program has matured, the UO's performance has joined the top quartile of United States universities in licensing revenue per sponsored research dollar. This is a real testament to the innovation and creativity of the UO's faculty and staff, and I'm proud that OTT has risen to that level of performance and service to the institution."
The UO is also rated in the top quartile for the number of successful startup companies generated in relation to research funding.
"Our hope," Gerhart says, "is that we will sustain that performance—even improve on it. We have a rich growing base of research activity here at UO, and our staff is working hard to make sure that we are the most effective portal possible to the world outside this institution."
| Inquiry © 2003; University of Oregon Office of Research, Eugene OR 97403
Questions? Commments? Contact Jim McChesney, (541) 346-3017 |
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