University Forges Academia-Industry Partnerships

“Traditionally, universities have tried to shy away from industry—but that’s rapidly changing,” reported John Langell, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor and executive director of the Center for Medical Innovation at the University of Utah, at the MPO Summit on June 5. “Universities now see dollar signs, to put it bluntly. Just like funding is drying up for medtech so is it for higher education. We are all about education, so we’re looking for better ways to find new revenue streams to fund that education.”

The University of Utah in Salt Lake City now is heavily involved in fostering medtech science and innovation and partnering with local (and other) companies to bring that technology to market. These programs also encourage students to stay in the city.

Medtech research at the university started among faculty, Langell explained, but it soon became apparent that students were more entrepreneurial than faculty. The school tapped into the student body, a group that Langell called a “great resource.”

The university also started three student educational programs: Utah Bio Design, Bench-2-bedside, and Utah Bio Innovate. Bench-2-Bedside found funding from Zions Bank, and is an interdisciplinary effort between students in the medical sciences, nursing, architecture and design, engineering, business and other disciplines. Utah Bio Innovate is a master’s degree-track program. The key at the university is building groups of people from different backgrounds to nurture new ideas. The Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR) facility on the university’s campus has a cafeteria centrally located for the specific purpose of bringing faculty and students together from different backgrounds.

Within the past three years, the school’s programs have helped launch five companies in the local area and are “on the verge” of more, Langell said.

“These are not sophomoric ideas,” said Langell of student innovation. “These are tremendous ideas.”

Students have the ability to think in new ways about existing technologies and what kinds of technologies are foreseeable in the future, partly because of their relative inexperience. For instance, students working in USTAR’s Brain Institute—another interdisciplinary group—built a high-powered X-ray microscope device for its imaging lab from scratch with help from engineering students and faculty. If they had bought it, it would have cost $2 million, but students built this highly complex piece of equipment which is now fully functional and being used to image animal brains. One graduate student who spoke with MPO Summit attendees on a tour of the facility described how he is using the device to study root causes for epilepsy. His excitement was palpable as he talked about how common the disease was, and how he hopes to one day find its cause and then prevent it altogether.

Langell also talked about a mechanical leech developed at the university. Leeches, which often are used to clear venous congestion that occurs in a free flap, are difficult to work with because hospital personnel don’t like using them, and they are not (and cannot be) standardized. The mechanical leeches produce the same anticlotting chemicals that leeches do, can provide standardized care, and are far more pleasant to work with than real leeches.

The key to brining educational institutions and industry together for meaningful partnerships is for each to know what they can bring to the table. Langell described how the university can provide clinical access, lab and animal testing, key opinion leaders, well-trained human capital, tailored, professional educational development, and help identify clinical deficiencies. In return, he asked for a willingness from industry to provide mentorship, early development partnerships, non-IP based ventures, bridge to commercialization, technology licensure, and start-up acquisitions.