CALTECH, USC and UCLA researchers ponder big questions. How would you improve cancer treatment? Can solar power be produced more efficiently? Why can’t X-rays be taken with smaller devices? And sometimes they come up with the answers. When that happens, the technology transfer offices at the colleges can then help them spin off their research into businesses that create jobs and progress. T
This special section details recent tech transfer projects, such as John Dabiri’s wind turbines, described below.
CALTECH: Deferring Patent Costs
Caltech’s Office of Technology Transfer files more than 100 patent applications a year. Staff at the prestigious science school’s tech transfer office realize that startup companies are often low on cash, said Hannah Dvorak-Carbone, associate director at the office. By deferring patent costs, for example, alumni can focus on fundraising and product promotion in the early stages of their companies’ existence.
All types of companies come out of the university’s research.
“Our startups are as diverse as our research on campus,” said Dvorak-Carbone.
One example profiled here is Glassimetal, a recent Caltech startup, which makes a material combining glass and metal that is durable enough for use in aerospace, medical and consumer products.
The tech transfer office focuses on getting laboratory discoveries into the community at large.
“The notion is to try and get the technologies out of the university into a venue where they can actually be used for the benefit of the public,” Dvorak-Carbone said.
SCALABLE WIND SOLUTIONS, INC.
Product: Wind Turbine
Founder: John Dabiri
Year Founded: 2011
Location: Altadena
What is it?
Dabiri: A 35-foot-tall, vertical axis wind turbine.
What was the idea that led to the creation of the technology?
Two independent innovations. The first was the discovery at Caltech that vertical axis wind turbines could be configured and spaced in such a manner to derive much more power per acre than was previously known to be possible. The second was to approach wind turbine design starting with a blank sheet of paper and no preconceived notions, asking how one could develop the most cost-effective wind turbine considering not only cost at time of installation but also long-term ownership costs.
What were the biggest challenges?
Looking forward, the challenge will be to ensure that the product is durable enough not to increase the long-term cost of ownership.
What has been the benefit of spinning the company out of a university?
From my perspective as a professor, the benefit has been having an outlet for implementing these technologies in the real world and getting feedback on the nonscientific constraints on the technology, e.g. cost.
How could it change
society?
We could make wind cost-competitive with fossil fuels.
If you could go back in time what would you do differently?
Nothing.
What’s next?
The first turbine is operational. Ensuring quality control is paramount at this point.
CAELUX CORP.
Product: High-efficiency, thin-film solar cells
Chief Executive: John Iannelli
Year Founded: 2010
Location: Pasadena
What is it?
Iannelli: Caelux Corp. is commercializing solar-cell technology that uses a fraction of the silicon material found in conventional cells while achieving efficiencies well above current technologies.
What were the biggest challenges?
Like most early stage technology ventures, the biggest challenge is maintaining the right balance between innovation and commercialization. We conduct a large amount of research and have made quite a few significant discoveries in our field. However, the driving force of our business is to deliver a product to the solar market that provides economic benefits for both Caelux and the customer.
What was the benefit of starting at a university?
Universities can offer early stage companies the opportunity to initially refine their technology without building a large-scale and expensive facility. In the case of Caelux, Caltech was the perfect starting point. It offered state-of-the-art laboratories for outside companies.
What’s been the biggest change since spinning off?
We have grown from a few creative minds in an office into a company with regular strategy meetings, research planning sessions, IT and HR functions. We have built this structure without inhibiting the creative spirit of our employees.
How could it change society?
Our solar cell/module will have the performance and price point that should enable wide-scale adoption of solar technology.
What’s next?
We are currently outfitting our own dedicated laboratory facility in Pasadena, which should allow us to perform research as well as low-scale production. Also, we will continue to recruit the best talent in the industry.
MATERIA
Product: Catalysts for use in materials from pharmaceuticals to composite plastics
Chief Executive: Michael Giardello
Year Founded: 1998
Location: Pasadena
What is it?
Giardello: A catalyst technology that has been developed over the past 35 years. This research served as the basis for the 2005 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
How did it get started?
The company was started off campus and licensed the technology from the university.
How could it change society?
There are new drugs going into phase three trials that are made possible using this technology. The catalysts are being used to convert seed oils into chemicals and fuels. New composites are being prepared using the catalyst for applications in the construction of wind turbines and other areas where strong, light structures are required.
If you could go back in time what would you do differently?
That is an impossible question.
What’s next?
We continue to develop new versions of the catalyst and new applications.
GLASSIMETAL
Product: Technology for fabrication of precision parts from “bulk metallic glass” materials
Chief Technical Officer: David Lee
Year Founded: 2010
Location: Pasadena
What is it?
Lee: Glassimetal is dedicated to the use of bulk metallic glass (an alloy that combines desirable properties of metal and glass) as an engineering material for use in manufacturing of aerospace, medical and consumer products.
What was the idea that led to the creation of the technology?
The discovery and development of bulk metallic glass materials has been the subject of ongoing research in the Materials Science Department at Caltech for the past three decades.
How could it change society?
Metallic glasses offer a new paradigm for the use of metals in commercial hardware. These materials promise to simultaneously improve engineering performance while reducing the cost of manufacturing metal hardware.
What’s next?
Glassimetal is partnering with several “end-user” companies in several fields – aerospace, medical equipment, sporting goods, and other consumer products. The company is working with alloy suppliers and equipment builders. The business model involves patent licensing and joint development work with partner companies.
UCLA: Enabling Campus Entrepreneurs
UCLA spun out 19 startups during its 2011 fiscal year, making it the leader among the University of California campuses in technology transfer. About 90 startups have come out of the campus in the last five years.
Some of the startups to come out of UCLA in the past several years show the wide range of the school’s technological community.
WaveConnex, a recent startup, uses radio waves to connect electrical devices. Tribogenics has a handheld X-ray component that could be of use in developing areas of the world. C3 Jian has a mouthwash that targets harmful bacteria, leaving the kind that is beneficial to the body behind. And PROnoise lets the online community help publicize musicians.
“If you can enable entrepreneurs on campus, it comes back to the university in innumerable ways,” said Brendan Rauw, executive director of entrepreneurship at UCLA’s Office of Intellectual Property.
C3 JIAN INC.
Product: Mouthwash that selectively kills negative bacteria
Chief Executive: Todd R. Patrick
Year Founded: 2005
Location: Marina del Rey
What is it?
Patrick: A specifically targeted drug that will selectively kill bacteria that causes dental cavities. The drug has been shown in preclinical testing to eliminate a harmful bacteria called S. Mutans, while leaving other bacteria in the oral cavity – most of which are beneficial – unaffected.
What was the idea that led to the creation of the product?
Dr. Wenyuan Shi, executive vice president, discovered and patented a pheromone-signaling pathway that was the basis of the drug development. The signaling pathway is used to identify a targeting region that is then linked to a drug. The combination results in a specifically targeted drug (much like an antibiotic) as opposed to a broad spectrum product.
Why was it born at a university?
That is where Dr. Shi was working when he developed the platform technology.
How could it change society?
Dental caries is the most common infectious disease in the U.S. In the U.S. alone, we spend over $60 billion each year on dental cavities.
What’s next?
The company has a rich pipeline that we are exploring. We have 35 employees and expect to have another product in human clinical trials by early next year, with two additional products in the pipeline as well.
PRONOISE INC.
Product: Online music community
Chief Executive: Charles Bergmann
Year Founded: 2011
Location: Los Angeles
What is it?
Bergmann: PROnoise is a free competitive community for musicians and bands, designed with a dual purpose in mind: help emerging musicians get exposure, and help the music industry find new talent and activate consumers with fun, interactive online experiences. Musicians enter battles for a chance to win free studio time, free gear or the chance to collaborate with big-name artists and brands. Fans then vote for their favorites by sharing through Facebook and Twitter, and the musicians receiving the most votes are considered for the prize.
What was the idea that led to the creation of the company?
I am a lifelong musician and music lover. My dad was a professional musician; my uncles all played music. Loving and playing music was central to my life and upbringing. I left Boston to follow my own musical dreams and studied ethnomusicology at UCLA. For better or worse, this means I have known a ton of passionate, talented musicians that struggle to get exposure. (I used to be one.)
What were the biggest challenges in developing the company?
The biggest challenge was transforming myself from performing musician into a tech-savvy CEO. I had always been good with computers, but I had never undertaken a huge technical project like this before. At first there was a huge learning curve, especially because I was managing our team of engineers overseas. Over the past few months I’ve even been learning to code Javascript. Now I’m not just a music nerd, I’m a techno-music nerd!
Why was it born at a university?
Co-founders Chase Smiegiel, Andrew Look and I were close friends in school, and we were all driven to try and create something cool and new that could revolutionize the music industry. UCLA provided me with the team and tools to make my idea a reality.
TRIBOGENICS INC.
Product: Portable X-ray technology
Chief Executive: Dale Fox
Year Founded: 2009
Location: Marina del Rey
What is it?
Fox: Tribogenics develops low-cost, small but powerful X-ray sources for use in the mining, industrial, military and medical industries. Tribogenics technology eliminates the need for high voltage and enables the use of X-rays in a variety of applications and settings that aren’t possible with existing technology.
What was the idea that led to the creation of the technology?
In 2007, the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency and the Army’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center funded an effort at UCLA to explore methods of generating X-rays that would overcome some of their current limitations. During the research effort, the team discovered a new way to produce X-rays through an effect called “tribocharging.”
What were the biggest challenges in developing the company?
One of the biggest challenges of any high-tech startup is hiring the right people; not only people who have the skills and expertise we need, but who also are easy to integrate into our company’s culture. For a company like ours, there’s a particular challenge in that you’re doing things that no one has ever done before.
What has been the benefit of spinning the company out of the university?
Originating at UCLA allowed Tribogenics to receive key R&D funding from both university and other governmental agencies. Since this funding came in the form of grants, it provided a huge kick-start to the process and didn’t result in dilution to the company founders.
How could it change society?
We’re working on lots of exciting projects ranging from pocket-size devices used to detect lead in paint and toys to briefcase-size devices used for medical imaging. Both of them solve enormous problems for society. In the United States alone, there are 38 million homes with lead-based paint, while lead-tainted toys still arrive onshore in alarming quantities. The medical needs are even more profound. There are 4 billion people worldwide with no access to diagnostic radiology. Products using our X-ray technology can bring life-saving medicine to the benefit of people worldwide who are desperately in need of care.
WAVECONNEX INC.
Product: Wireless connection for mobile devices
Chief Executive: Ira Deyhimy
Year Founded: 2009
Location: Westlake Village
What is it?
Deyhimy: The WaveConnex Silicon Connector product line consists of tiny chips that make possible very high-speed data transfer in mobile devices and PCs.
What was the idea that led to the creation of the technology?
The need for contactless connectivity, particularly in mobile devices. Connecting electronics using mechanical connectors and cables is clumsy, expensive, and prone to failure and reliability issues. The emergence of high-performance semiconductor processes opened the door to using new technology to solve on old problem.
Why was it born at a university?
The university had access to the semiconductor processes and other technologies that were critical to developing the early prototype devices. WaveConnex technology is based on an exclusive license from the University of California.
What has been the benefit of spinning the company out of the university?
As a commercial company, the technology can be refined from something that is interesting academically into a product that can be used to improve the performance and aesthetics of millions of consumer devices such as mobile phones and tablet PCs.
How could it change society?
Today’s electronic devices are synced and powered through conventional cables and connectors. Billions of connectors are produced year after year, despite the problems they bring in terms of poor aesthetics; reliability; and all the associated problems that come such as water intrusion, bent pins, and general wear and tear. WaveConnex can change that by providing faster, better and more reliable connections.
If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?
I would attempt to move things along faster.
What’s next?
WaveConnex is working on next-generation solutions that will provide even higher performance, using less power and taking up even less space.
USC: Making It Safe to Fail
The USC Stevens Center for Innovation offers funding for projects and mentors for entrepreneurs who are taking those initial leaps toward starting a company. The goal is to help get innovators on their way to market.
In order to do that people must feel they are in an environment where it’s safe to fail. If they do fail, skills are developed in the meantime to move them closer to success, said communications director Ian Murphy.
One of the latest companies to come out of USC is EvoRx Technologies. It was founded last year and aims to make cancer a disease a patient can live with rather than die from. The company also developed a form of insulin that can be taken orally.
EVORX TECHNOLOGIES INC.
Products: Cancer treatments and an orally administered insulin
Chief Executive: Stephen Fiacco
Year Founded: 2011
Location: Pasadena
What is it?
Fiacco: We have a number of products in the preclinical stage including an oral formulation for insulin and a breast cancer medication. One of the compounds that we are currently developing is a medication that will have a widespread effect on cancer. We expect it to be a very potent molecule in treating breast, bladder and ovarian cancers, just to name a few.
What were the biggest challenges in developing the technology?
Developing the technology took a lot of trial and error. It’s easy to get discouraged and give up, especially when we were at a point where we didn’t know why things weren’t working. However, each failed experiment taught us something new.
How could it change society?
This technology will have a tremendous effect on patient care and has the potential to revolutionize medicine in a number of ways. Imagine how much better it would be for patient quality of life in the case of inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, if the patient could take a small pill rather than being required to receive constant injections.
– Compiled by Bailey Brewer and Adam Popescu
