Project T2 Inspires Technology Transfer
November 24, 2003

By James Klein, Larta VOX Editor

The Project T2 conference November 13th at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles featured over twenty-five experts from top universities, corporations and investment firms presenting their views on technology transfer, and showcased thirty research and product developments taking place in university laboratories and corporate R&D departments.

The conference was created and organized by Larta and underwritten by Southern California Edison. A steering committee of tech transfer professionals helped develop the event, which has spurred the creation of an ongoing technology transfer consortium group comprised of university, government, and industry representatives. Larta plans to develop the consortium in the coming year and make it an integral part of next year's "Project T2 2004."

Project T2 promoted technology transfer by bringing together leading experts and practitioners who raised critical issues and shared best practices that will help refine the tech transfer process.

"The goals we've established for this specific conference are to increase the awareness of emerging technologies in universities in order to assist commercializing such technologies, to stimulate a more collaborative exchange and greater communication within universities on technology transfer and commercialization, to prompt concrete transactional relationships between the capital community, industry, and university-based technologies, and to galvanize commercialization growth through a showcase event," explained Rohit Shukla, CEO of Larta.

"It has been around forever, of course, and we are familiar with things in our own lives that have been made possible by the successful commercialization of technologies from labs: the Internet, the browser, laptop computers, bar-code scanners, and scores of life-saving drugs," claimed Shukla.

It would be inaccurate perhaps to describe technology transfer as an "industry" and premature to even call it a "system" but what is clear is that technology transfer - the migration of innovative technologies from public and private laboratories - is increasingly being recognized as a significant engine of economic growth in the United States, which has benefited from a uniquely symbiotic relationship between government research funding and private sector technology commercialization.

Conference speakers emphasized the enormous opportunities that companies, consumers, and society as a whole can realize when technologies developed in formerly closed "silos" of innovation on campuses, in government-funded laboratories, and in corporate Research and Development departments are disseminated through intellectual property contracts and eventual product commercialization.

"The enterprise of research is not what provides this country with its fundamental and unique strength, however," explained Shukla. "It is the fact that the research enterprise is surrounded, challenged, goaded, encouraged, and often given context, by an entrepreneurial economy that is the envy of the world."

Technology transfer has historically not received the recognition that has been due, but the discourse at Project T2 illustrates that this perception is changing, and technology transfer is receiving the attention it deserves. Companies have licensing departments, and leading universities have vice chancellors in charge of economic development that focus on technology transfer and intellectual property value. However, there is still a treasure trove of opportunities that lie dormant in universities, research laboratories and private corporations.

Researchers are - as you read this - creating innovative technologies that could radically improve our quality of life. Revolutionary medical devices and space-age technological advances are being developed in companies, universities and federal government facilities. It's up to the technology transfer process to help those technologies emerge from these institutional silos so people can benefit from them. Yet many observers agree that the technology transfer process is still grossly inefficient.

"The practice and record of technology transfer remains murky and spotty, with little interesting data available to develop a true understanding of its potential," said Shukla. "Hence, our interest in this project. For Southern California, Project T2 has great significance. A treasure trove of research institutions is matched by a dynamic, diverse economy driven in great part by entrepreneurs in technology and non-tech sectors alike. Yet our overall record, benchmarked against other regions of the U.S. is not a stellar one.

"It is this process of technology transfer that we hope to improve through events like Project T2," continued Shukla. "There hasn't existed, until now, a forum for convening the elements needed to successfully and efficiently commercialize research innovations. Project T2 took shape around the intent of stimulating the interaction between our great institutions of learning and research, to be a gathering place for the understanding of technology transfer, and for the development of concrete transactional relationships between various players in the economy: capital providers, industry, university-based technopreneurs, and finally, to galvanize commercialization practice through showcase events."

In his opening remarks, Victor Hwang, COO of Larta, raised some critical and perhaps controversial issues that have emerged in the area of technology transfer. "Why tech transfer?" he asked. "It seems to have hit some level of critical mass just in the past one to two years. At its very fundamental level, one could argue that university R&D spawns new business, it helps create new jobs, and helps keep the economy moving forward.

"There is also a community of people who feel that universities and private businesses really shouldn't be in a position to try to gain from some of the new technology innovations that are happening from all the large public investment and R&D.

"Universities in many ways were developed just in the past century to really focus increasingly on doing research for the sake of research, and the changing role of the university is one that I think we are only beginning to see. There has been a lot of written debate and a lot of verbal debate about exactly how universities should play within the commercial marketplace and this conference is yet one more of these connection points where this debate is taking place."

Hwang went on to address the many economic benefits that can be realized through technology transfer. "The total amount of money invested in pure R&D is well into the billions of dollars. If you look at other countries throughout the world, you'll find that their research bases tend to be quite small and as result, their economies tend to reflect a lot of a lack of innovation," claimed Hwang. "In the United States, we can point to huge amounts of R&D and some of the broader spillovers that are happening into society.

"The question is, are we maximizing that?" asked Hwang. "Are the billions being spent necessarily translating efficiently into business and economic growth?"

"This process has not been one-hundred percent successful, nor has it been a complete failure," continued Hwang. "Part of the process of this conference is to try to get a better grip on exactly how well this is happening at the ground level, and then to try to find new ways to enhance this process. The players here, people all the way from venture capitalists to technologists to business representatives to professional services firms, they all have something to gain from enhanced technology transfer. So the question is, how specifically can businesses work with universities, how can universities work with business, and how can all these players work together to try to grow the economy through technology innovation."

Later, Hwang addressed the changing perspective toward technology transfer in corporate America. "Companies suffered from the NIH syndrome - not invented here," "But it is now being recognized that in the last ten years, the companies that have learned not only to innovate, but to recognize and purchase or license innovations from universities and other companies, are the ones that have succeeded."

Larta brought together and involved the leading research universities in the region in order to bring about the conference, including: UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, University of Southern California, Pepperdine University, California Institute of Technology, Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Lifesciences, the Claremont University Consortium, Loma Linda University, Cal Poly Pomona Tech Transfer Commercialization Center, Cal State Fullerton, and Cal State San Bernadino.

"Can you think of a greater list of research institutions and institutions of higher learning anywhere?" asked Shukla.

Carl J. Schramm, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation gave the Welcoming Keynote Address. "We are all here because we recognize this is a great new frontier that posses enormous potential for positively influencing health outcomes, improving quality of life, and making the American economy much stronger," said Schramm. "Our ability to define and replicate the processes that facilitate the movement of technology from early discover to the arrival in the marketplace is paramount to the success of the American economy. It is thrilling to consider so much untapped potential, and the extent to which our country and our world might benefit."

The Industry Keynote Address was given by Larry Guiheen, President of Baxter BioPharmaceuticals and an expert in the marketing of pharmaceuticals. Guiheen emphasized the importance of technology transfer in the development of new medical techniques, devices and pharmaceuticals, and also discussed the commercialization process, from scientific and technical research, to intellectual property protection and management, to competitive and market issues, and eventual product development and commercialization.

Bill Bryan, VP of Major Customers Division at Southern California Edison, focused on the importance of the event to Southern California. "Each attendee today will walk away from the conference with new insights, new ways these technologies could be innovatively adapted and applied by businesses throughout Southern California," said Bryan. "The ultimate aim of this venture will be to create new jobs, new opportunities, new businesses, and enhance businesses that are existing within our Southern California area today."

Conference sponsors included Southern California Edison, the law firms Latham & Watkins and Morrison & Foerster, the City of Long Beach, Invitrogen corporation, Tech Coast Angels, and BlueHornet.

Consortium of the Willing

One of Project T2's goals is the formation of a consortium group comprised of university, government, and industry representatives that will work to improve the effectiveness of the technology transfer process, address pertinent issues, create relationships, form consensus, and share knowledge of tech transfer initiatives and best practices.

"The collaborative effort that has brought this conference into being will now be devoted to establishing a consortium that will continue to propel excellence in technology transfer," said Rohit Shukla.

Panel Discussions

A morning plenary session, Doing Business with Universities, covered research collaboration and outsourcing, commercialization, and licensing opportunities in the university system. Companies that have done deals in the past discussed their experiences, and how they dealt with university policies and procedures, as well as the bureaucratic and legal issues. Tech Transfer officers dispelled many myths and presented realistic trends and opportunities for companies interested in working with universities. The panel was comprised of: Brian Atwood of Versant Ventures, Faiz Kayyem of Clinical Micro Sensors, Eric Donsky of OcuSense, Inc., Andrew Neighbor of UCLA, and Scott Carter of Caltech, and was moderated by Michael Shockro of Latham & Watkins.

The morning Life Sciences track had a panel format featuring presentations from university researchers and representatives involved in technology transfer in the biosciences, including Alan S. Paau, Assistant Vice Chancellor at UCSD; Vithal J. Rajadhyaksha, Associate Director at UCI; Kevin Scanlan, Professor of Pharmaceutical Development at the Keck Graduate Institute; and Jeff Labovitz, Director of Technology Tranfer, Research and Education Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The panel was moderated by Jill Adler-Moore of Cal Poly Pomona.

A morning panel session, "Working with universities: Sponsored Research and Licensing Policies," featured detailed presentations, discussion, and analysis of UC policies, procedures, and constraints for sponsored research and licensing agreements by Sherylle Mills Englander of UCSB and Emily Loughran of UCLA. In their presentations, Englander and Loughran detailed the core principles of the University of California, which are not always conducive to technology transfer. These principles include academic freedom, the freedom to publish, a responsibility to students.

Englander and Loughran emphasized many fears and myths that hinder the tech transfer process, such as the fear among professors that commercializing their research will hurt their reputations and their ability to attract grants and government funding, and the fear among university administrators that the free flow of intellectual property will endanger the university's financial stability should it become involved in lengthy or costly litigation or dispute resolution. The speakers also emphasized the risk-averse nature of universities; the emphasis on publication among faculty and students, which can delay or interfere with the technology transfer process; the complex intellectual property issues that can impede tech transfer; and discussed university technology transfer best practices and pitfalls.

The afternoon Engineering and Applied Sciences Track featured university representatives who gave short presentations on various research institutes and clusters of excellence, deals they are doing or have done, licensing opportunities for industry, and how to work with their particular institute. Speakers included Dr. Randolph Hall, Associate Dean in the School of Engineering at USC; Dr. Daniel E. Morse, Director of the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies; Klaus Brasch, Executive Director of the Office of Research Development and Technology Transfer at CSUSB; and Ken Polasko, Business Development Officer at UCLA.

An afternoon venture capital panel discussion, "Transforming University Research into Profitable Companies," featured Bill Woodward of Anthem Ventures, Richard Morganstern of Tech Coast Angels, Jonah Schnel of ITU Ventures, and John Babcock of Rustic Canyon Group.

The venture capitalists emphasized the changing environment on campus. "We've found the universities to be fairly cooperative. Five years ago that was not the case," said Richard Morganstern of Tech Coast Angels.

The panel also addressed the tricky nature of working with university researchers, who frequently express a willingness to accept a secondary or advisory role in the management of the company, but are not amenable when the time comes to actually let go of the reins and let the management team take over.

"Any researcher will tell you, will anticipate the question, 'Are you open to an outside management team being brought in?' and they'll always say yes. When you say, 'Are you willing to step down soon?' and you're thinking three weeks and the researcher is thinking two years. What distinguishes the successful VC is understanding when they're serious and when they're not," explained John Babcock of the Rustic Canyon Group.

The panel discussed other concerns in the VC community when working with universities, such as the structure of agreements with professors, and crossing the "death valley" that can occur between Series A and Series B funding.

Company Presentations

Project T2 also helped bring specific technologies to light, through breakout sessions in Life Sciences, and Engineering and Applied Sciences, and a poster session that provided a showcase for early-stage university technologies.

"One of the goals of the conference has been to increase awareness of these technologies being developed by our Southern California colleges and universities," explained Bryan. "And to be able to take these technologies from the research area and get them commercialized out into business, that's what the real benefit is of a lot of the exciting things here at this conference.

"This is a project that culminates in the presentation of thirty some-odd new, emerging new technologies," explained Bryan. "We think you'll be excited about some of the new and creative and innovative things that are going to be presented.

Eight selected bioscience and engineering companies that have emerged from research centers and university laboratories gave presentations to potential investors at the conference. Companies included Balance Pharmaceuticals and Language Weaver from USC; Microwave Bonding Instruments from Caltech; NeoMedix from UC Irvine; Networks in Motion from Caltech-Jet Propulsion Laboratories; Pivotal Biosciences, Inc. from the USC Keck School of Medicine; Robomedica from UCLA and UC Irvine; and TMN Biosystems from UCLA.

Companies that presented in the morning Engineering and Applied Sciences Track included Language Weaver, a company that was formed in 2000 to commercialize a breakthrough method of machine language translation using a system that employs a statistical approach developed at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute; Microwave Bonding Instruments, a company that emerged from Caltech that designs and manufacturers microchip assembly and packaging technology; and Networks in Motion, an innovative software company that grew out of research conducted at Caltech JPL, which provides location-based Mobile Resource Management solutions.

Companies that presented in the afternoon Life Sciences track were: Balance Pharmaceuticals, engaged in the development of innovative products to improve women's health through modulation of hormone exposure; Neomedix, which develops, prototypes, and commercializes medical devices that minimize production time and cost; Pivotal Bioscience, which develops and commercializes innovative cancer therapies using new approaches to immunotherapy and controlling cancer growth and metastasis; Robomedica, which designs, develops and markets innovative locomotion therapy devices that assist people with paralysis to walk again; and TMN Biosystems, which develops instruments and assays for gene or gene expression based diagnostics.

Poster Sessions

The following research faculty and groups exhibited cutting-edge technologies at the conference poster session:

Mark Bachman of UCI has helped developed a small, low-power directional multichannel hearing transducer.

Mike Burkart of UCSD has helped develop a novel method for detecting molecules with a conventional compact disk player.

Roger E. De Filippo of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, who is studying tissue engineering of denovo organs and tissues in the laboratory for transplantation and reconstructive surgery.

David O. Harris of UCSB has helped developed a rapid, inexpensive, and simple colorimetric test for the presence of GHB (the "date rape" drug).

Tom Hedman of USC is working on non-toxic, injectable, crosslink augmentation, which has been shown to improve the durability and stability of lumbar intervertebral discs, suggesting a path-breaking preventative treatment for low-back pain.

Bert Klimer of UCI is developing an organ transport device and preservation solution (blood substitute). MicroRedux of USC has developed a highly sensitive, portable, detection device.

Daniel Morse of UCSB has developed a run-to-run control strategy for glucose regulation using an insulin pump.

Osteoscience of the UCLA Department of Medicine is developing novel, lipid-based compounds for the treatment of osteoporosis and other skeletal disorders.

Pivotal BioSciences, Inc. of UCI, which has produced novel compounds for the treatment of heart disease.

Robomedica, Inc. of UCI and UCLA is designing, developing, and marketing innovative locomotor therapy devices that assist people with paralysis to walk again.

Matthew Barth of UCR is developing Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technology for intelligent shared-use vehicle systems.

Darrion De Meloof the University of California State San Bernardino, is working on REMOTE, a software process management tool that assists a software company to manage and control software development.

Paul Dixon of Cal State San Bernardino is developing ELVIS, The Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrument Suite, a design and prototyping environment for university engineering and science laboratories.

Sossina M. Haile of the California Institute of Technology is working on alternative membranes for PEM fuel cells.

E.P. Muntz of USC is developing the Knudsen Compressor as a small-scale gas pump/compressor with no moving parts.

NumberLinX of Loma Linda University is a new software architecture for rapid construction of interactive Web pages containing mathematical calculations.

Peristat of USC is a virtual online self-test perimetry and psychomotor reflex registry for screening of visual field defects and slowed reflexes in the elderly.

Allan Sauter of UCSD is developing a mechanical device that stores energy on the seafloor in the form of differential pressure potential.

Andrei M. Shkel of UCI is working on a portfolio of inventions on MEMS Gyroscopes, including absolute angle measuring gyroscopes, wide-bandwidth gyroscopes, and distributed mass gyroscopes.

Tom Stahovich of UCR is working on sketch recognition and understanding techniques to enable natural, pen-based interfaces to a variety of software applications.

Nien Sui of USC is developing Trusted Email (TE) and Full Address Verification Service (FAVS), an integrated solution for preventing fraudulent credit card transactions for intangible e-commerce, where there is no physical shipment involved.

Arthur I. Zweben is working at the Harbor-UCLA Research and Education Institute, an independent, nonprofit organization funded primarily by federal research grants through the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as support from industry.

Read about the Project T2 Techology Transfer Awards
Go to the Project T2 website
Go to the Technology Transfer section of Larta's Research Archive