TECH CONNECTTurning Ideas into Opportunities
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Monthly news & updates September 5, 2023
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| FY 2024STATISTICS
YEAR TO DATE
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| U.S. Patents Issued
10
*includes end-user software and materials licenses along with conventional technology licenses
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CTTC Announces the Awardees of the 2023 Master Innovator Recognition Program
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Each year, the Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization (CTTC) recognizes excellence in innovation through its Master Innovator Recognition Program.
The yearly recognition program acknowledges Vanderbilt’s top innovators and entrepreneurs for their contributions to the creation, development, and commercialization of intellectual property. Awardees have demonstrated excellence in a select number of key commercialization categories, including new inventions disclosed, patent applications filed and issues, new companies formed, technology licenses executed, commercialization revenue generated, and products on the market - all based on the candidate’s innovations created at Vanderbilt. Awardees are memorialized as a member of the CTTC Innovators’ Hall of Fame.
This year we are recognizing Richard Caprioli, C. David Weaver, Susan Eagle, and Franz Baudenbacher as Master Innovators at Vanderbilt.
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Vanderbilt engineering professor’s company makes successful first-in-human clinical study using novel device for endoscopic surgery
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A medical device company co-founded by a Vanderbilt engineering professor recently announced the completion of a successful first-in-human clinical study using its innovative technology that radically improves minimally invasive endoscopic surgery.
Robert J. Webster III, Richard A. Schroeder Professor of Mechanical Engineering and associate professor of medicine and urology at Vanderbilt University, is co-founder and president of EndoTheia, Inc. Earlier this year the company received a breakthrough device designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Webster said the new technology answers the FDA’s call to transition to duodenoscopes with innovative designs to enhance safety, particularly in the treatment of biliary disease, which affects about 700,000 patients domestically each year.
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The Vanderbilt Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization raked in $96 million in licensing revenue in the 2023 fiscal year, exceeding last year’s record income totals (as measured on a cash basis). That revenue total is the largest amount generated through technology licensing in any year since CTTC’s establishment in 1991.
The achievement comes on the heels of 2022 being a record-setting fiscal year according to the Association of University Technology Managers, which publishes the premier source of academic tech transfer data in the country. The AUTM FY22 Licensing Survey reports that Vanderbilt ranked sixth nationally for adjusted gross income from technology licensing, totaling $86.7 million. This figure is the best showing in the university’s history and suggests that the FY23 $96 million licensing revenue total is expected to rank Vanderbilt in the top 10 for a second year in a row.
These numbers reflect the growth of output and activity being completed by the CTTC. In support of research within the university and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in FY23 CTTC completed more than 1,100 material transfer agreements; reviewed more than 160 industry funding and clinical trials agreements; completed nearly 100 confidentiality agreements; evaluated 183 invention disclosures; filed more than 300 U.S. patent applications; and facilitated the launch of eight new ventures—tying its highest recorded total. The quantity of invention disclosures is more than 10 percent higher than in FY22. As part of the university’s compliance obligation under its federal funding agreements, CTTC reported nearly 150 new inventions to the government and completed nearly 2,000 compliance reports to government agencies.
“While generating knowledge is as vital as it has ever been, a research university in the 21st century needs to translate that knowledge into applicable solutions for society’s most urgent problems,” Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said. “By continuing to break records for licensing revenue, Vanderbilt has once more demonstrated our growing capacity for making a difference in the world.”
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llumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN), a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, in collaboration with Nashville Biosciences, LLC, a leading clinical and genomic data company and wholly owned subsidiary of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), today announced the five founding members of the Alliance for Genomic Discovery (AGD). The multiyear agreement aims to accelerate development of therapeutics through large-scale genomics and the establishment of a preeminent clinical genomic resource. Member organizations AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, and Merck will co-fund the whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of 250,000 samples and have access to the resulting data for use in drug discovery and therapeutic development.
"We are thrilled to welcome these esteemed companies as the founding cohort in the Alliance for Genomic Discovery," said Joydeep Goswami, chief financial officer and chief strategy and corporate development officer of Illumina. "Together, we aim to advance genomics and multiomics-based methods for finding therapeutic targets that are more actionable in the treatment and curing of diseases, while also improving the speed, probability of success, and efficiency of the discovery and development process."
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Technology Spotlight:New Optical Tweezers for Rapid Control of Nanoscale Objects
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Vanderbilt researchers have developed a novel technology for trapping and dynamically manipulating nanoscale objects. Control over miniature objects like proteins can aid in applications such as biological sensing, single molecule analysis, and size-based sorting of nanoscale objects.
Technology and IP Status:
A prototype of the device has been fabricated and experimentally tested. A patent application has been filed.
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Five Vanderbilt Technologies Earn Patent Protection in August
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Surgical Device Tip with Deflectable Joint
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Methods of Treating Cancer
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Plasmon Coupling Materials, Methods of Making Plasmon Coupling Materials, Methods of Using Plasmon Coupling Materials and Systems and Devices that include Plasmon Coupling Materials
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Indomethacin Analogs for the Treatment of Castrate-Resistant Prostate Cancer
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Rigid Phantom for End-to-End Verification of Adaptive Radiotherapy System
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Below is a sampling of the interactions that have taken place in our office and with our staff over the last month.
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- Executed end user license agreements with an educational institution for the Latin American Public Opinion (LAPOP) data sets developed by Elizabeth Zechmeister and colleagues in the Department of Political Sciences
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- Held a call with a biotechnology company interested multiple anti-cancer compound programs developed by Stephen Fesik from the Department of Biochemistry
- Held a call with a pharmaceutical company interested multiple anti-cancer compound programs developed by Stephen Fesik from the Department of Biochemistry
- Met with the Scipreneur and Smart Mobility Challenge group to discuss the program and identify potential technologies for the program
- Held discussions with colleagues at University of Nebraska regarding operational and strategic benefits of VUEInnovations portal
- Held discussions with a large medical device company interested in licensing a mechanical ultrasound arm developed by Rajnish Gupta from the Department of Anesthesiology
- Assisted in the drafting and submission of Greater Nashville Regional Council’s grant proposal to the EDA Regional Tech Hubs funding opportunity
- Met with global communications company regarding collaboration opportunities around 5G technology
- Held initial meetings regarding a transportation sponsored research study involving the I-24 MOTION testbed
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- Attended organizational meetings for the ACCESS BioFoundry collaboration in preparation for grant submission to create a BioFoundry for enabling access to infrastructure and resources for advancing modern biology and biotechnology
- Attended an executive connection event hosted by Oracle
- Attended the Tennessee Tech Transfer and Cluster Economic Development Council quarterly meeting
- Attended the VU Legislative Reception in Washington, D.C.
- Attended the Vanderbilt School of Engineering Town Hall with Dean Roy
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- Hosted the Vanderbilt Life Science Showcase event on July 19th
- Hosted a table at the New Faculty Resource Fair
- Hosted a visit by a patent monetization firm who is analyzing a select set of issued but unlicensed US patents using a proprietary review process to find potential commercialization partners
- Hosted a visit by Analog Devices to discuss efficient processing of clinical trial agreements as to explore potential collaboration projects with Jim Weimer from the Department of Computer Science
- Interviewed candidates for CTTC’s open positions for (1) Licensing Analyst, and (2) Executive Director of New Ventures
- Served on a VICTR grant review panel to assist Dr. Lisa Lancaster with her SBIR application aimed at commercializing her oxygen management technology
- Participated in discussions with BioTN regarding the upcoming Scipreneur challenge
- Conducted training of ASPIRE fellow related to intellectual property and university technology transfer
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