Office of Technology Management Encourages Innovation and Partnerships
Advancing medical research and excellent patient care are two key components of the School of Medicine's fourfold mission. Commercialization is one way LSU Health can convert the scientific discoveries that happen here every day into products and services that benefit patients and the general public.
The Office of Technology Management assists faculty, staff and students in their work to advance innovation; supports the research enterprise; and commercializes LSU Health inventions that benefit the public through partnerships with entrepreneurs and industry.
“We really want to get these inventions out to the marketplace so that the public benefits from our advances and inventions,” said Patrick Reed, director of the Office of Technology Management. “We work to get our research from the lab bench to the bedside.”
Reed was recruited to the office in 2012. Since then, new technology, device, and drug disclosures have increased at LSU Health New Orleans to an average of 35 per year. Reed said his office evaluates the patentability and marketability of every potential disclosure that faculty, staff, and students bring to him.
“We average about one disclosure for every $1.3 million in research dollars spent, which is better than the national average,” Reed said.
One exciting new trend Reed is observing is an increased interest from clinical researchers, who were responsible for over 30% of last year's disclosures. A recent success story from the clinical research side came from a licensing agreement with a small company related to using placenta-derived tissues for hernia prevention.
When a researcher thinks he or she may have a viable invention, Reed and Licensing Associate Katie Kuhns will conduct a “prior art search” by analyzing the scientific literature and patent databases to make sure the idea is not identical or similar to something that already exists, or, if it is, determine whether some piece of the idea is still patentable.
Patents are important to LSU Health because they provide exclusionary rights and keep others from replicating the invention.
Reed works with researchers to make sure they understand timelines for announcing research and encourages them to approach his office prior to making any public disclosure of their innovative ideas. For example, in the United States, inventors have one year from the first enabling public disclosure to file for a patent, but elsewhere in the world, a public disclosure (even in a conference setting) before filing a patent application precludes them from protecting their idea.
“My office will never say, ‘don't publish.' But I do urge everyone to let us know first. We can use the draft of a journal article or a grant proposal, for example, as a patent application.”
“Patents put a fence around something. When you have concluded an NIH-funded project, you might still be in the very early stages of your invention. You need to entice a company to invest in additional R&D efforts, and the patent promises a future partner exclusivity, which increases interest among potential industry partners.”
Once the decision is made to go forward with a patent request, the office engages outside counsel to craft and submit the patent application.
The patent process aligns with the marketing process. Reed engages local, regional, and national companies on a regular basis, working to promote the science and innovation on campus so that a company will license it and ultimately sell it.
His office also likes to review research proposals to determine if any intellectual property issues might arise and to make sure the proposal itself is not an enabling public disclosure. Reed also negotiates non-disclosure and material transfer agreements for the university.
Recently, Reed has also added business development to his role as director. “This is really a paradigm shift. In the past, I attended conferences and attempted to 'sell' a particular invention. But now, we are going after industry dollars and industry-sponsored research,” he said. “I promote our research capabilities to other companies, universities and external funders.”
“The more research dollars we get, the more inventions will result,” he added. “We are just prioritizing the top of the funnel now.”
Reed said the trend of decreasing NIH funding with more investigators competing for that funding makes this a critical piece for his office to tackle.
Reed's office also provides assistance to faculty entrepreneurs who want to start a company. He will discuss potential conflicts of interest and potential pitfalls with the faculty member. CM-35 is now in line with NIH guidelines, making it easier for faculty to start a company and driving an increase in the number of start-up companies coming out of LSU Health.
“Because we are in a small ecosystem, start-up companies are often the best way to get technology to the market,” he said. “A small company can sponsor research here at the School of Medicine and even in a researcher's own lab. As long as everything is transparent and we are managing conflicts of interest, this is feasible.”
Reed can also point faculty entrepreneurs to other local resources such as NOBIC and NOLABA who can help them as they start their company.
Reed will also help researchers apply for LIFT2 proof-of-concept funding, which now has a rolling application and an increased maximum award amount of up to $75,000. Applications do require that researchers already have a technology disclosure on file with his office. His office also helps researchers submit to the Board of Regents' Prototype/Proof of Concept Fund.
With all of the services and assistance that Reed and his office can provide, his most important message to faculty is that it is never too early in any process to see him.
“Always come here as soon as possible and have the conversation with us, the earlier the better. We may be able to point out resources the faculty member is not aware of,” he said.