Turning research into real-world impact is a goal for many researchers, but navigating the path to commercialization can feel risky. Uncertainty is both normal and expected because many academics have never been trained to think like entrepreneurs. That is exactly why institutional support matters.

Rather than treating commercialization as a one-size-fits-all approach, successful pathways begin with a more foundational conversation. Before patents, licences or spin-outs enter the discussion, researchers should be clear and upfront about what they want to achieve.

Read more about The First Step in Commercializing Your Research: Start the Conversation.

The university registered 446 technology disclosures, a substantial increase from the 369 disclosures reported in the previous fiscal year. This record number of disclosures is a critical indicator of the translational research being conducted at UF.

“Our record number of technology disclosures is a great sign,” said Jim O’Connell, assistant vice president of commercialization at UF. “Everything we do starts with those disclosures. They are the raw material for potential licenses and startups, everything.”

However, “obvious” does not equal “easy,” and the barriers TTOs face in discovering, collecting, and developing an inventory of all the potentially valuable data they have are significant — issues around PHI, regulations, ethical issues with consent, federal agency requirements, quality, and data management are among the biggest hurdles. In fact, many leading research universities admit that they are still in the very early stages of developing strategies to mine this data “gold.”

“It’s a mess, especially for us commercialization people,” asserts Jim O’Connell, assistant vice president for commercialization and director of UF Innovate at the University of Florida.

When it comes to studying the nation’s shoplifting epidemic, Richelle Ross and Diego Rodriguez have a front-row seat. Working under the guidance of Read Hayes, a research scientist and criminologist at University of Florida, they are part of the Loss Prevention Research Council. It’s located in a high-tech lab inside of The Hub, part of UF Innovate, a business accelerator at the University of Florida.

The Council and the other startups within UF Innovate, as well as the accelerator itself, are vivid examples of what creativity and innovation expert James Taylor, based in Scotland, describes as SuperCreativity—a phenomenon that many business leaders are trying to foster in today’s fast-changing business environment. It is a concept that goes beyond creativity or innovation alone.

Gainesville, FL – On a sunny and fresh fall afternoon, UF Innovate | Tech Licensing hosted its annual event to recognize top innovations stemming out of the University of Florida. More than 150 innovators and entrepreneurs attended the in-person event, and around 40 joined the livestream to celebrate their achievements in fiscal year 2021.

The event started inside UF Innovate | Accelerate @ The Hub, where a new illustration, 42 feet by 10 feet, replaced the mural original to the building. The mural depicts technologies and startups birthed at the University of Florida. (Details on the mural unveiling here.)

After the mural’s unveiling, guests were invited to walk next door to Midpoint Park & Eatery, a food truck park located at the heart of Gainesville’s Innovation District. The modern, outdoor space was the perfect scene to announce the innovator and innovations of the year.

Dr. David Norton, vice president for UF Research, introduced the Innovator of the Year, Dr. William Hauswirth, a UF researcher and pioneer of AAV gene therapy.

“Today I have the pleasure to introduce one of our superstars here at the University of Florida,” said Dr. Norton while he introduced Dr. Hauswirth to the stage. “His work at UF’s Department of Ophthalmology in the College of Medicine resulted in the first FDA-approved gene therapy that cures blindness.”

Dr. Hauswirth has been a UF innovator since 1975. He is an inventor in more than 300 patent application filings around the world. He also co-founded UF startup and Sid Martin Biotech graduate AGTC, a company focusing on using gene therapy for ocular disease, neurodegenerative diseases and otology. The company, located in Alachua, is conducting clinical trials.

“In other words, his body of work is enormous, and the result of that work touches the lives of people around the world,” concluded Dr. Norton.

In addition to the Innovator of the Year, Jim O’Connell, assistant vice president of commercialization at UF and director of UF Innovate | Tech Licensing, introduced seven innovations of the year selected by the licensing teams out of 285 inventions disclosed in fiscal year 2021.

“These seven inventions and their innovators will impact the world in 20 years,” said O’Connell, as he began to introduce the awardees.

• Intratumoral Type I Interferons Sensitize Response to Checkpoint Inhibitors

Dr. Elias Sayour, a pediatric oncologist at UF’s College of Medicine and UF Health, developed an immunotherapy that uses the immune system to fight cancer. The immune system educates against the child’s cancer, and it can remember that cancer for life, providing continual protection. His team includes Drs. Hector Mendez-Gomez, Sadeem Qdaisat, Brandon Wummer, and Duane Mitchell.

• In-Line Ticketing

Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering Department Chair Dr. Juan Gilbert was concerned about people standing in line waiting to vote on the 2020 elections in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. This inspired him to create a technology that could mitigate the situation and make it safer with a ticketing system that would tell an individual when to return to vote instead of waiting in line.

• Gatorbulins – Novel Microtubule Destabilizing Agents

Hendrik Luesch, professor and chair for UF’s department of medicinal chemistry in the College of Pharmacy, discovered a marine organism that produces a compound that can fight cancer. This technology could be a crucial anti-cancer drug candidate in the near future.

• Stable Magnetic Cryopreservation Agents and Long Circulating Blood Pool Imaging Agents

Dr. Carlos Rinaldi-Ramos, chair in the chemical engineering department, and Dr. Andreina Chiu-Lam created a technology that could cryopreserve an entire organ. They modified magnetic nanoparticle coatings to improve stability in harsh cryopreservation environments where particle aggregation can prevent penetration deep into the organ for subsequent uniform rewarming.

• Clear Single-Use Passive Perfusion Enabled 3D Bio-Reactor Well Plate for Cell Culture and Experimentation

Mechanical engineer Dr. Greg Sawyer works with micro tumors created from real cancer material. He invented a 3D culture system that is accessible and easy to use, and it allows researchers to do the work in their own laboratory environments. His team included Drs. Ryan Smolchek, Juan Uruena Vargas, Jack Famiglietti, Duy Nguyen.

• Adaptive Olfactory Measure of Threshold (ArOMa-T)

Dr. Steven Munger, director of the Center for Smell and Taste at UF, found a better way to screen for smell loss by creating the ArOMa-T. This simple, inexpensive test allows a person to self-assess and identify dysfunction in the sense of smell.

• Precision Health Interventions Using Virtual Clinicians

UF’s College of Journalism and Communications professor, Dr. Janice Krieger, and a multidisciplinary group of UF researchers created ALEX, a virtual health assistant that delivers precision messages to the diverse population in Florida. The virtual clinicians replicate real-life movements of what will occur in face-to-face interactions.

The event, sponsored by Wolf Greenfield Intellectual Property Attorneys, concluded with a cocktail celebration and refreshments provided by Taste Elegant Catering and Midpoint Park & Eatery food trucks MexiCocina and Plantology.

About Standing InnOvation:

Standing InnOvation is an annual event to honor University of Florida innovators who have disclosed, licensed, or optioned a technology in the fiscal year just ended. The name of the event intentionally hints at giving a “standing ovation” to UF “innovators” for the work they have done. The event is also a reminder of the “standing invitation” inventors have to work with UF Innovate | Tech Licensing, which protects and licenses research discoveries.

About UF Innovate | Tech Licensing:

UF Innovate | Tech Licensing works with innovators, entrepreneurs, investors and industry partners to maximize the potential of University of Florida innovations through commercialization for the global good. In fiscal year 2020, Tech Licensing received 393 invention disclosures, executed 132 commercial transactions and launched 16 companies. In 2017, the Milken Institute ranked the University of Florida third in the nation for its tech commercialization efforts. In 2020, the George W. Bush Institute and the Opus Faveo Innovation Development consulting firm, named UF the most productive large university in the country at leveraging its research funding into new companies, new jobs and new ideas.

Media contact:
Sara Dagen
UF Innovate
Marketing & Communications Manager
saradagen@ufl.edu
(352) 294-0998

By Veronica Talavera, Public Relations Specialist, UF Innovate

Gainesville, FL – More than 150 innovators and entrepreneurs attended an in-person event, while 40 joined via livestream to unveil a new, lighted floor-to-ceiling mural in the lobby of UF Innovate | Accelerate at The Hub.

All those related to the UF Innovate family – innovators, The Hub and Sid Martin Biotech resident clients, and some special guests – were invited to welcome the new artwork illustrating “The Flow of Innovation.” The 42-foot-tall mural depicts technologies and products birthed from UF inventions.

“This mural is intended to highlight University of Florida’s work from Gatorade to the present day that are making the world better,” said Jim O’Connell, assistant vice president of UF commercialization and the director of UF Innovate | Tech Licensing. “We hoped to capture the past, present, and future in our depiction of technologies and the products startups have created based on them. I think we achieved that.”

Kathy Kinsley-Momberger, art director of UF Research, is the artist behind the beautiful illustration. Kinsley-Momberger was also the artist of the previous mural centerpiece in the same location.

“I am honored to have been a part of this project – for the second time – collaborating with my colleagues at UF Research and UF Innovate. I hope that the mural will be enjoyed by those who work in The Hub and Gainesville’s Innovation District for many years to come,” said Kinsley-Momberger, who has worked at UF for over 20 years.

The curtain was dropped to reveal the new mural at 4:30 p.m. on October 26 at The Hub, a UF Innovate | Accelerate facility. “The Flow of Innovation” includes discoveries made at UF that have had positive, global impacts. From the top of the mural, perhaps the most famous UF invention and first UF technology transfer deal, Gatorade, flows over other UF innovations in engineering, medicine, and agriculture. The mural highlights the hard work and ingenuity of UF researchers and entrepreneurs.

Some of the most recent technological advances pictured are in gene therapies such as the adeno-associated virus. Vibrantly featured in the mural, AAV serves as a taxicab that can deliver DNA and therapeutics to specific targets in the body. Woven throughout the UF research innovations, UF startups and Accelerate residents are also represented in the mural. At the top right, SATLANTIS, a company developing high-tech services for earth observation and teledetection. Mattrix Technologies is represented under the Gatorade bottle by a series of colored panels. The company discovered a way to reduce OLED manufacturing costs for large screens and displays on top-of-the-line smartphones. Agriculture Intelligence, a precision agriculture science company that combines machine vision, machine learning, and AI to provide cloud-based, precision data for specialty crops is also represented at the bottom of the mural.

The new mural stands as a testament to the progress in science that researchers and entrepreneurs at UF have made.

“This new mural is a distinguished artwork that represents all of us, innovators, entrepreneurs, and those who support them,” said Karl LaPan, director of UF Innovate | Accelerate. “Innovation flows in our DNA.”

UF Innovate also announced the innovator and innovations of the year during an outdoor ceremony following the unveiling of the new mural, “The Flow of Innovation” which is now the centerpiece of The Hub lobby.  After the curtain dropped, guests walked to Midpoint Park & Eatery, a food truck park located at the heart of Gainesville’s Innovation District and next to The Hub where the ceremony took place. (Details on the award ceremony here.)

About Standing InnOvation:

Standing InnOvation is an annual event to honor University of Florida innovators who have disclosed, licensed, or optioned a technology in the fiscal year just ended. The name of the event intentionally hints at giving a “standing ovation” to UF “innovators” for the work they have done. The event is also a reminder of the “standing invitation” inventors have to work with UF Innovate | Tech Licensing, which protects and licenses research discoveries.

About UF Innovate | Accelerate:

UF Innovate | Accelerate includes Sid Martin Biotech, the globally recognized biotechnology incubator headquartered in Alachua, Florida, at Progress Park, and The Hub, the award-winning mixed-used incubator in the Gainesville, Florida, Innovation District. The incubation programs have been honored with nine national and international awards for incubator excellence and achievements in technology commercialization, funding access, job creation, and technology-based economic development. UF Innovate | Accelerate is dedicated to mentoring and accelerating the growth of innovative early-stage bioscience and biotechnology companies and supporting the economic growth of the North Central Florida region. For more information, visit UF Innovate.

Media contact:
Sara Dagen
UF Innovate
Marketing & Communications Manager
saradagen@ufl.edu
(352) 294-0998

By Veronica Talavera, Public Relations Specialist, UF Innovate

The University of Florida and the University of South Florida ranked among the top 15 schools in the world to be granted U.S. utility patents last year, according to a new report.

The University of Florida ranked at No. 11 with 140 awarded and USF came in at No. 15 with 123 — a record number for the school.

Jim O’Connell, assistant vice president and head of UF Innovate, said areas like the Silicon Valley and Boston, known for innovation, are largely driven by their universities. He believes universities in Florida could do the same for the state.

But the number of patents a university is awarded, he said, is not the best measure of a university’s contributions.

“The real question is what do you do with that,” O’Connell said. “It’s great that you do this stuff but if the patent just sits on the shelf and never gets commercialized, it doesn’t even serve the basic function of a patent.”

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Listen as Jim shares his background and journey to tech transfer at UF Innovate. He also talks about the true story of the invention of Gatorade, what happens to the money that the recognizable brand generates, and how he and his team manage the expectations that every UF invention will achieve the same blockbuster status.

In his role, Jim also leads two business incubators, Sid Martin Biotech and The Hub, Ventures, and Tech Licensing, which he also directs. Jim works with internal and external constituents to provide strategic leadership and direction in building and capitalizing on facilities, expertise, and technology at the University of Florida.

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