TECH CONNECTTurning Ideas into Opportunities
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| Monthly news & updates April 1, 2024
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| FY 2024STATISTICS
YEAR TO DATE
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| U.S. Patents
Issued
49
*includes end-user software and materials licenses along with conventional technology licenses
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| Driving Innovation Forward - Spring 2024 edition now available!
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Over the past decade, Vanderbilt’s strategic investments in faculty research, academic programs and departments, and trans-institutional institutes and centers have produced more than eighteen hundred new innovations, leading to more than nine hundred licenses generating over $250M in commercialization revenues, and deep corporate collaborations that have increased industry research support by more than $100M. The time frames are long for translating basic research discoveries to practical applications; moreover, it generally takes more than a decade for a licensed product to achieve market success. Thus, continual investments in academic research and efforts put forth today will pay dividends for Vanderbilt – and society - long into the future.
In this issue of Driving Innovation Forward, we showcase programs that have successfully translated from early stage ideas in to impactful products and companies. From startups born out of our academic research to strategic collaborations that ignite economic growth, this report highlights our commitment to nurturing an ecosystem where entrepreneurship and innovation flourish.
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| Rethinking drug efficacy: research aims to improve drug development
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ASPIRE to Innovate Postdoctoral Fellow Catherine Leasure is the co-author of a comment article published this month in Nature Reviews Bioengineering addressing the pressing obstacle faced by modern drug development: worryingly poor success rates of pharmaceuticals progressing to clinical phases.
She and corresponding author Gregor Neuert, associate professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, pharmacology, and biomedical engineering, indicate that this problem is partly because dose-response experiments conducted during the pre-clinical phase do not accurately mimic the fluctuating conditions of drug exposure in humans, resulting in incorrect forecasts of a drug’s effectiveness and safety.
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| Taking a Bite Out of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease
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“Around the year 2000 I decided I wanted to overhaul my lab’s research to focus on human membrane proteins that are known to cause disease” Vanderbilt University Professor of Biochemistry and Vice Dean of Basic Sciences Chuck Sanders said. “But I wanted to start with a protein and a disease that no one else in my broad area—biochemistry, biophysics, and chemical biology—was already working on. I stumbled onto peripheral myelin protein 22, an integral membrane protein that causes most cases of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, and thought it was just what I was looking for. Only much later did I realize how very common CMT is, even though many people have never heard of it.”
The disease named for the three physicians who identified it in 1886 doesn’t affect the brain or spinal cord, just the peripheral nerves, causing muscle weakness and atrophy in all of the limbs. It can result in foot deformities, loss of hand or feet muscle, foot or lower leg weakness, or numbness, tingling, or burning sensations in hands and feet. At present, there is no known cure, although CMT is rarely fatal. Physical and occupational therapy, orthopedic devices, and pain medications can help mitigate the risk of injury from falls or disease progression.
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| GNVCA hires eminent association leader Judith Byrd as inaugural executive director
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The acting board of the Greater Nashville Venture Capital Association is excited to announce Judith Byrd as the inaugural executive director of the new member association effective April 8.
Byrd is a seasoned executive with experience in business, government, trade association, health policy and journalism. Most recently, she was director of Community and Government Relations for Ardent Health Services.
“It is a privilege to serve the industry in this role. We have a lot of work to do to build and create value for the venture capital community in support of a shared vision to further economic growth in innovation in Middle Tennessee,” said Byrd.
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| Four Vanderbilt Technologies Earn Patent Protection in March
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Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Sheets for Efficient Microwave Heating with Dispersed Wavy Carbon Nanotubes
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Pan-Ebolavirus Neutralizing Human Antibodies and Methods of Use Therefor
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Continuous Automated Perfusion Culture Analysis System (CAPCAS) and Applications of Same
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Technology Spotlight: Nanostructured Molybdenum (IV) Disulfide (MoS2) Electrodes for use in Solar Cells
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Quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) are a widely studied system for harvesting light and converting it to electrical energy. Quantum dots (QDs) are an attractive photoabsorber because they have large absorption coefficients and their energy of absorption in the visible region can be tuned based on their size. Molybdenum (IV) disulfide (MoS2) is a naturally occurring semiconductor found in nature as the mineral molybdenite that can be synthesized from inexpensive, earth-abundant materials for use in solar cells.
Technology and IP Status:
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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 a license agreement with a biotechnology company for a protein developed by Walter Chazin from the Department of Biochemistry
- Executed a license with a biotechnology company for a mouse model developed by Robert Macdonald from the Department of Neurology
- Executed a non-exclusive license with a biotechnology company for a stem cell technology developed by Lauren Woodard and Julie Bejoy from the Department of Medicine
- Executed a master agreement with a research tool company for non-exclusively licensing several small molecule compounds
- Executed an NDA with a medical device company interested in learning more about a post-operative rehabilitation device developed by Justin Stehr from the Department of Plastic Surgery
- Assisted setting up a research collaboration between Vanderbilt Mouse Neurobehavioral Core with an early-stage pharmaceutical company
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- Met with a biopharmaceutical and a patient advocacy foundation interested in partnering to develop the compound and gene combination therapy for the treatment of mutations in neurotransmitter receptors developed by Katty Kang from the Department of Neurology
- Met with Cancertools.org, a research reagent distribution company, about adding a variety of Vanderbilt research materials to their marketplace
- Held Vanderbilt startup discussions with Stout Street Capital
- Met with Tech Coast Angels to discuss marketing Vanderbilt startups
- Held a call with a prominent mid-west venture capital firm focused on life science and medical device startups
- Recruited a pair of executive coaches, investors and operators for our Entrepreneurship In Residence Program
- Coordinated a meeting with Unorthodox Venture Studio and a VUMC startup
- Held a call with a software development company to learn about new technical capabilities available for developing digital technologies involving AI
- Held discussions with a medical device company interested in deep brain stimulation for early-stage Parkinson’s disease developed by David Charles, MD and Mallory Hacker, Ph.D from the Department of Neurology
- Held an introductory call with the head of US operations for a Swiss orthopaedic implant company for marketing an implant technology from Ryan Martin from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
- Held a call with a major medical equipment manufacturer and research partner to discuss the inventorship analysis for jointly-developed intellectual property
- Met with a patent monetization firm to discuss the results of their analysis and selection of patents they would like to license
- Held a call with Nyxoah to discuss their development plans for the nerve stimulation for obstructive sleep apnea technology developed by David Kent from the Department of Otolaryngology
- Held a call with Laurie Cutting and Scott Crossley from the Department of Special Education with a major publishing company regarding the utilization of a variety of Vanderbilt education tools, including DSyM, a decodability metric invented by Cutting and others at Vanderbilt
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- Attended cybersecurity tabletop exercise event hosted by VUIT
- Attended an AUTM Mentorship professional development workshop entitled “How to have an Effective Mentorship”
- Attended Health Tech Nashville
- Attended UpRise Continuation
- Attended LIfe Science Tennessee C-Suite and Ecosystem Building Breakfast
- Attended the Partnerships in Industry and Education Center Tour & Discussions
- Attended the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council (TAEBC) 2024 annual meeting brings TAEBC members and stakeholders together to connect assets with opportunities and inform policy that expands and strengthens Tennessee’s growing advanced energy economy.
- Attended the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office symposium on AI and IP. The event featured panel discussions around patent, trademark, and copyright law and their intersection with authorship, inventorship, and litigation in relation to generative AI
- Attended the School of Engineering Chambers Lecture featuring serial entrepreneur and VU alum Ben Whittle discussing how to evaluate a startup idea, common mistakes when developing new products, and how to acquire the first ten customers
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- Presented a talk on IP and commercialization to Linda (Dan) Lin’s research group
- Hosted theVanderbilt Innovation Ambassador Spring 2024 meeting
- Led a quarterly working group meeting with leaders from Columbia University, the University of Arizona, Baylor College of Medicine, and the University of Utah to discuss strategies to launch and run programs at their own institutions patterned after the Vanderbilt Innovation Ambassadors Program
- Facilitated a call with the Plug In Play Tech Center supply chain team and a Vanderbilt software startup
- Coordinated a strategy session with a local CTO developer
- Participated in Webinar: Navigating Our AI-Augmented Future in National Security & Other High-Stakes Domains
- Participated in Tech Club Nashville
- Hosted a meeting regarding the CTTC/Owen Interim Executive Program
- Participated in the Lab-to-Table seminar “Biotech Entrepreneurship: Stories & Strategies” sponsored by School of Medicine Basic Sciences featuring CTTC's own Margaret Read
- Participated in Women in STEM Symposium 2024 at Vanderbilt University
- Participated in a quarterly meeting with a global biopharmaceutical company to discuss their 2024 priorities for academic research partnership
- Initiated potential research collaboration discussion with a company focused on lifestyle interventions in diabetic patients
- Interviewed candidates for a variety of open positions at CTTC within the New Ventures and Licensing teams
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