As UCSD’s Technology Transfer & Intellectual Property Services office reaches the 10-year mark, it is being credited with playing a pivotal role in bringing technologies and discoveries to the local and global marketplace. Since its inception, TechTips has generated more than 400 active U.S. patents, more than 250 active license agreements and more than 70 startups using UCSD technology as the foundation. About 220 companies have been spun off from UCSD, including firms created by alumni, faculty and staff.
TechTips, the central clearinghouse for companies and venture capitalists who are interested in licensing UCSD inventions and technologies, celebrated its 10th anniversary last month at the UCSD Innovators Showcase. The event was attended by more than 200 San Diego entrepreneurs and corporate executives, as well as friends and alumni of UCSD. “University-industry partnerships have been critical to UCSD’s success as a generator of innovation and new technologies,” says Marye Anne Fox, chancellor of UCSD.
Some of the most innovative UCSD technologies licensed to San Diego companies over the last few years include the inventions of biology professor Martin Yanofsky. His research, which is focused on improving crop yields, has resulted in more than 30 invention disclosures and over a dozen patents. Dr. Lowell Parsons, a professor in the School of Medicine, has developed novel methods for detecting and treating interstitial cystitis which are now in use throughout the world. The research of Steven Constable, a professor at UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has focused on the electrical conductivity of rocks and minerals, sea-floor instrumentation, satellite electromagnetic studies, and sea-floor electromagnetic studies for petroleum exploration. His work has resulted in a half dozen innovation disclosures. A patent in sea-floor oil exploration has been licensed to a U.S. company.
“The San Diego region is home to more than 400 biotech and medical device companies as well as over 500 high-tech businesses,” says Alan Paau, assistant vice chancellor and director of TechTIPS. “The life science sector alone employs over 35,000 people with an annual payroll in excess of $2 billion. The success of these clusters depends on the availability of basic research from institutions like UCSD and the ability to transfer discoveries to our partners in the private sector.”
No comments on record for this story.
This is a public form for the free exchange of comments. Foul language, threats and anything overtly mean or nasty will be removed.