Finally, schools take their ideas to market

Finally, Washington State University and the University of Washington have put their multitudinous heads together. In unprecedented joint applications to the state and federal governments, our leading research universities are seeking funds to improve their unimpressive record of bringing to market the ideas spun out of their laboratories and classrooms.

For WSU in particular, the cooperation and a critical new hire signal the end of a two-year effort to revive an almost moribund technology transfer effort. Keith Jones says he already finds new enthusiasm among faculty members and community leaders perplexed by the school’s casual regard for the economic potential of its research in everything from shock physics to sleep.

“I see an enormous opportunity,” says Jones, who last month was named executive director of the university’s Office of Intellectual Property Administration, as well as its Research Foundation.

He took the WSU job after six years with Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties Inc., where he oversaw the evaluation, patenting and marketing of the university’s life-science research. With a doctorate in plant pathology, Jones earlier worked as a scientific consultant to a San Diego law firm with one of the largest intellectual property practices in the United States.

He says WSU and Virginia Tech are alike in their focus on biotechnology. But there is no parallel between the performance of Intellectual Properties and WSU’s Research Foundation.

A recent study done at Eastern Washington University found that WSU scored relatively well among research universities for patent applications and recent licenses, but less well on income from licensing university-generated technology.

By comparison, Virginia Tech ranked among the top five schools surveyed for income from in-state licenses.

WSU, where more than $50 million in research is conducted annually, collects only $200,000 in licensing revenue from patents based on campus research. That is not enough to support the foundation, let alone the university.

Jones has spent his first month on the job circulating through the university and business communities. Both, he says, are anxious for WSU to exploit the commercial potential of its formidable research capabilities.

“It’s almost an untapped resource,” he says.

Vice Provost Jim Petersen, the man charged with overhauling the WSU technology transfer process, says Jones has the energy and experience to make Pullman an economic engine for all of Eastern Washington. Not that WSU has not been without its success stories, he adds.

Three companies in three years have been started based on WSU technology: Fruitgard LLC, Amplicon Express, and MetapHoresis LLC. Fruitgard, which makes a spray that prevents tree-fruit sunburn, already has revenues of more than $1 million.

As other members of the university community see their success, Petersen says, more will want to test the market value of their research. “It’s an exponential process,” he says

Jones says he sees potential in three ongoing WSU programs. The most exciting may be Palouse Piezoelectric Power, or P3. Touted as the world’s smallest engine — paper-thin and smaller than a Lifesaver hole — the P3 could replace the batteries U.S. soldiers and Marines carry to power phones, radios and other electronic equipment. The military has already provided $7 million for its development.

“It’s ready for a good company to take over, or for a company to be formed around it,” Jones says.

Bio-processing and plant biotechnology are more obvious WSU strengths.

But Petersen accurately points that technology transfer is not the task of the university alone. Building new companies takes entrepreneurs and capital. That’s where the new alliances with UW kick in.

Petersen and his UW counterpart, James Severson, in January applied for a five-year, $4 million federal grant that could help establish the commercial potential of as many as 150 research projects selected by panels of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and local businesses. The funds, together with other government and corporate matches, could create 1,500 jobs within the five-year period, and more later.

In Olympia, the two schools propose a technology transfer alliance focused on genomics, infectious diseases, health-related byproducts and sustainable food systems. With $7.1 million in state funds with federal and corporate matches, a Center for Integrated Biotechnology would be created, with a team of top scientists to address each of the four priority issues.

That proposal would seem to dovetail nicely with Gov. Christine Gregoire’s legislative initiatives, which include a $350 million Life Sciences Discovery Fund.

All those dollars would be welcome. But the new collaboration between WSU and UW, and renewed enthusiasm for technology transfer, will themselves go a long way to harnessing a little intellectual P3 to Washington’s economy.