From the Lab
to the Marketplace
The next time you quench your thirst with a sip of Gatorade,
consider this: some of what you paid for the drink is
supporting research at Florida State University. That's
because FSU scientists developed the sports drink's
formula. University officials then licensed the formula
to a private-sector company that marketed the product
with stunning success. Gatorade is the jewel in the
crown of Florida State's technology-transfer effort
that, in 1994, brought the university a cool and
refreshing $6.7 million in royalties. For FSU, the
tastiest news of all is that, as if from a bottomless
bottle of Gatorade, the money flows in year after year.
The UO has its eyes on the same prize and is working to
commercialize products ranging from biosensors to
computer-memory devices.
"Some businesses have realized that there is money to be
made by turning advances made in university laboratories
into products for the marketplace," says Lynnor Stevenson,
director of technology transfer at the University of Oregon.
"And, in these days of tightening federal support,
universities know that such partnerships can generate
much-needed funding for research programs."
Stevenson says the UO has a simple strategy for
encouraging and supporting technology transfer.
"After we identify promising research," she explains,
"we bring in investors or corporate partnerssometimes
early on, while the technology is still being developed.
This support allows the technology to mature. When the
time is right, we shepherd the invention through the
paperwork process required to obtain patent protection.
Then we either offer to license the patent to an existing
company or to a spinoff company for further product
development."
Recently, most technology-transfer efforts at the UO
have followed the spinoff path. Advanced MicROBOTICS,
for example, is a high-tech start-up that uses the
research findings of two university professors in
developing miniature chemical- and biosensors.
"These small start-up companies add value to the
product, often making it attractive to larger
companies," says Stevenson whoin addition to having
a Ph.D. in biochemistryis CEO of Cascade Oncogenics,
a biotech firm.
Technology transfer at the UO has three main objectives,
she explains. "We want to get new inventions into commercial
use so the public and participating companies benefit.
We want university research to get additional funding
and, therefore, to have additional opportunities. And
we want to give preference to economic development in
Oregon. Working with Oregon firms has the added
advantages, beyond royalties and research funding, of
employing University of Oregon graduates and other
Oregonians as well as pumping more money into the
state's economy," she says.
How much money? Nationwide, forty-one universities
brought in $1 million or more from technology transfer
in 1994. One hundred and twenty institutions brought
in a combined $265 million. One top research school,
Stanford, earned $38 million.
The University of Oregon is a relative newcomer to these
kinds of partnership opportunities, having formally begun
its technology-transfer efforts in 1989. Nevertheless,
the UO already holds about sixty patents, including five
added last year. In 1995 the products generated about
$90,000. Obviously these revenues are not comparable to
those generated by Gatorade, but, Lynnor Stevenson points
out, "we're working hard to change that."
Back to INQUIRY, Spring 1996
©1996 University of
Oregon