TECH CONNECT

Turning Ideas into Opportunities

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Monthly news & updates October 2, 2023

Vanderbilt launches Innovation Catalyst Fund to propel translational research and innovation

Vanderbilt is introducing the Innovation Catalyst Fund, a new internal funding program sponsored by Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver and Vice Chancellor for Finance and Information Technology Brett Sweet. The program is aimed at moving translational research and innovation into real-world solutions more quickly.

Inspired by the university’s growing innovation capacity, faculty entrepreneurship and record commercialization output, as well as by recent feedback gathered from faculty, the Innovation Catalyst Fund offers pre-seed funding to faculty from all disciplines across VU and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The money is to be used to assess and mature their ideas for the market and communities of practice, including proof of concept for commercialization, advancement of nascent projects with strong innovation potential and development of research projects with civic and social relevance.

“This new fund is just the latest launch in an ongoing effort to foster our culture of innovation as One Vanderbilt. We are growing resources for our faculty to take the products of their research out into the communities, where they can drive impact through commercialization; new ventures; partnerships with nonprofits, industry and government; and more,” said Vice Provost for Research and Innovation Padma Raghavan. “I look forward to seeing how faculty leverage this fund to enhance their research impact on society through new technologies, practices and policies.”

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The CTTC FY22 Highlights

now available

Our annual Highlights report provides a summary of CTTC’s activities over the past fiscal year, providing a statistical snapshot of our productivity.

In FY23, CTTC saw record growth across many of our metrics while continuing to seek out new ways to bring services and support to our researchers and the Vanderbilt community broadly. In this yearly report, we have highlighted several key statistics that have had a measurable impact on the Vanderbilt community and our innovators over the past fiscal year.

Vanderbilt Innovation Ambassador Spotlight

Get to know our Innovation Ambassadors through a monthly series highlighting individual members and why they became an Ambassador.

The Vanderbilt Innovation Ambassadors Program is an institutional initiative to provide Vanderbilt faculty with improved, peer-delivered access to information and assistance related to innovation and entrepreneurship on campus. The Program achieves this goal by recruiting a faculty Ambassador from each department to act as a liaison between researchers and innovation programs across campus.

Adam D. Yock, PhD

Director of Technology and Innovation
Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology

What motivated you to become an Innovation Ambassador?

I've always enjoyed the excitement and creativity of inventing and trying to develop something new. Becoming an Innovation Ambassador was another great opportunity to be involved in the growing innovation ecosystem here at Vanderbilt.

How do you foster a culture of innovation within your department?

Namely I engage in conversations with colleagues about research projects and discuss new ways for their work to achieve an impact beyond academic publication.

How do you define innovation, and what role do you believe it plays in academia?

I consider innovation to be the real-life manifestation and implementation of that novel spark of creativity and invention that allows someone to achieve something new. I think innovation should be closely integrated with academia as it can represent the translation of the ideas and technologies developed through academic scholarship.

Vanderbilt-initiated startup Zeno Power receives $15M from NASA to build tech to support lunar exploration

Zeno Power, a startup initiated through the Wond’ry, Vanderbilt’s Innovation Center, is one of 11 American companies to receive funding from NASA to develop technologies that could support long-term exploration on the Moon and in space for the benefit of all, according to a NASA release.

Zeno Power is leading a team that will receive $15 million to develop a space-ready radioisotope Stirling generator that will be fueled by americium-241 for use during NASA’s Artemis missions. Artemis is intended to reestablish a human presence on the moon; people were last there more than 50 years ago. For this new era of human space exploration with a goal of sustained lunar presence, missions need a long-lasting, reliable energy source to operate in permanently shadowed regions and to survive the two-week-long lunar night. Such a power source hasn’t been available commercially until now.

Patent #	TITLE
11,745,180	Microfluidic Systems, Pumps, Valves, Fluidic Chips Thereof, and Applications of Same
11,746,317	Massively Parallel, Multiple-Organ Perfusion Control System
11,752,138	Treating Primary or Idiopathic Hyperoxaluria with Small Molecule Inhibitors of Lactate Dehydrogenase
11,763,502	Deep-Learning-Based Method for Metal Reduction in CT Images and Applications of Same

Technology Spotlight:

Targeted photodynamic therapy for S. aureus infections

Staphylococcus aureus is among the most prevalent pathogens in skin and soft tissue infections, with treatments becoming increasingly compromised by the emergence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Vanderbilt researchers have developed a combination photodynamic therapy (PDT) for targeting MRSA infections in skin that is not only effective but also highly specific and less susceptible to resistance, adding a much needed therapy to our quickly depleting arsenal against this pathogen.

Technology and IP Status:

This technology has been validated in vitro and in vivo. We are seeking commercial partners to further develop it for clinical applications.

Patents: US20220080036. US9867879B2.
Other PCT patent applications pending.

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Monthly Interactions

Below is a sampling of the interactions that have taken place in our office and with our staff over the last month.

EXECUTED

Executed an NDA with a large medical device company to discuss a technology developed by Alex Langerman from the Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery

Executed NDAs with two medical companies to discuss a technology developed by Byron Stephens from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Jeremy Walker in the Department of Anesthesiology

Executed agreement with a state agency for the multi-site implementation of STAT™ (Screening Tool for Autism in Toddlers & Young Children) developed at Peabody College by Wendy Stone and colleagues

Executed a CDA with a company to help develop a technology created by Craig Lindsley and others from the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery

Executed a CDA with a small biotech to explore potential collaborations with the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery

Executed a non-exclusive license with a research tool company for a technology created by Charles Manning from the Department of Radiology

Executed a non-exclusive license with a research tool company for a technology created by Dave Weaver from the Department Pharmacology

Executed a non-exclusive license agreement with an international technical professional services firm to use a method of leaching extraction and assessment developed by David Kosson from the Department Civil and Environmental Engineering

MARKETED

Held a meeting with the Nashville Capital Network

Began license negotiations with a surgical device company interested in cochlear implant technologies developed by Benoit Dawant and Jack Noble from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Rene Gifford from the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences

Met with Seth Scholer from the Department of Pediatrics, creator of the Play Nicely program, along with colleagues from VU library to review the development of a new version of the multi-media software program

Held introductory discussions with a UK-based patent monetization firm

Held discussions with an orthopaedic surgeon regarding a new idea for knee implants which subsequently was disclosed as a new invention; currently undergoing due diligence

Held discussions with two researchers from the Department of Chemistry related to a new invention for an insulin analog

Met with the Julia Velkovska, Chair of the Physics Department for introductory discussions on CTTC’s services

Held discussions with a startup company interested in technology related to DBS for early-stage Parkinson’s Disease developed by Malory Hacker and David Charles from the Department of Neurology

Met with a venture backed medical device venture firm to discuss commercialization of technologies from the labs of Nabil Simaan and Rohan Chitale from the Department of Mechanical Engineering

Hosted an Executive Vice President from a medical device company on campus to meet with faculty researchers, tour several research centers, and discuss potential collaboration areas.

Held a call with colleagues at the University of Tennessee technology transfer office to discuss our experience using the Inteum Inventor Portal for the submission of new invention disclosures

Held a development update call with a pharmaceutical company that licensed an anti-cancer compound developed by Steve Fesik from the Department of Biochemistry

Held a call with a Dutch startup interested in multiple therapeutics developed by Eric Skaar from the Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology

Held discussions with a pharmaceutical company interested in the drug repurposing projects of the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical & Translational (VICTR)/Accelerating Drug Discovery & Repurposing Incubator (ADDRI)

ATTENDED

Attended the Innovation Open Mic hosted by The Wond’ry

Attended the Nashville Healthcare AI Sessions

Attended the 36|86 Conference held by LaunchTN

Attended the Venture Atlanta Conference

Attended two case study lectures for Nanoscale Innovation and Making – Josh Caldwell presented on his startup, Sensorium, and Shawn Glinter presented on Pendant Biosciences

Attended the VISE Seminar featuring a presentation by Jim Weimer of Computer Science on “Market-Informed Design for Safe Autonomous Medical Systems”

Attended the Vanderbilt Institute for Software Integrated Systems 25th Anniversary event

Attended Vanderbilt Institute for Space and Defense Electronics kickoff party for the new Crane SCALE workforce development program

Attended the panel discussion Empowering Minds: Women Entrepreneurs and Intellectual Property moderated by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and hosted at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center

Attended the Modern Conflict in Warfare Lecture Series with Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper on campus

Attended Telehealth Academy III, a conference for executives across clinical, financial, operations, technology, and legal compliance areas of healthcare and helped make connections between several participants with CTTC and The Wond’ry

PARTICIPATED

Organized a fireside chat with senior leadership from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Vanderbilt University researchers. Moderated by Ole Molvig, Assistant Professor of History, the conversation was a unique opportunity for Vanderbilt researchers to interact directly with the USPTO and learn more about their latest initiatives being implemented across diverse industries and disciplines

Hosted the quarterly Entrepreneurship Advisory Council Meeting highlighting a Vanderbilt startup, Endotheia

Hosted a Town Hall Info Session for the Innovation Catalyst Fund

Participated in a practice pitch with Finally Skincare, a VU startup from Stacy Sherrod in the Department of Chemistry

Hosted the Fall Innovation Ambassador meeting where we heard from Craig Kuphall of the Civil Military Innovation Institute about the projects they are funding at Vanderbilt and their interest in future research

Presented IP and commercialization talk to Allison Walker’s research group in the Department of Chemistry

Participated in informal mentoring of a new technology transfer professional at St. Jude’s in Memphis

Gave a guest lecture on IP and commercialization for Duco Jansen in ES 1401

Participated in first monthly working meeting with Innovaito; a patent monetization firm under contract with Vanderbilt

Gave a lecture on the fundamentals of IP and Patent Prosecution for the undergraduate course, Nanoscale Innovation and Making, taught by Sharon Weiss from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Led a working group with leaders from Duke University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Arizona to discuss strategies to launch programs at their own institutions patterned after the Vanderbilt Innovation Ambassadors Program