First row (l-r): Pavel Afonine, Yoshinori Kohwi, Terumi Kowhi-Shigematsu, Hye-Jung Han, Martha Stampfer, Robert Nordmeyer, Greg Newman
Second row: Alex Zettl, Cheryl Fragiadakis, Nigel Moriarty, Paul Adams, Paul Alivisatos, Ulli Weier, Geoffrey Bell, Sumit Mukhopadhyay, Lehua Pan, Tianfu Xu
Third row: Richard Brown, Eric Page, Stefan Finsterle, Thomas Richardson , Joel Ager, Petrus Zwart, Daryl Dickerhoff, David Bailey, Bill Kolbe, Steve Holland, Jin Jian, Robert Cheng, Mair Dieudonne, Derek Yegian, Jinsong Chen
On Jan. 27, Lab Director Paul Alivisatos recognized Berkeley Lab researchers who have earned royalties through the successful commercialization of their technologies. Out of the Lab’s $3.8 million in licensing income for FY09, an 18 percent increase from the previous year, over $1.2 million went directly to 128 scientists and authors from the Lab.
The Technology Transfer Department negotiates the right to use Berkeley Lab inventions with organizations from Fortune 500 firms to small start-ups. Offering exclusive or non-exclusive rights to the technologies ensures that the Lab’s inventions are successfully commercialized and, ultimately, meet society’s needs.
Royalties are an added bonus. After patenting costs are reimbursed, the bulk of royalty income is returned to the Lab for research and development, with the researchers themselves receiving a share. This year, distributions to inventors averaged $9,712 with the largest single check totaling $104,000.
Not all researchers elect to receive cash in hand. Each year, the developers of TOUGH+ software devote their personal share to the ongoing enhancement of their technology, a suite of simulation programs for analyzing geothermal reservoirs, geologic carbon sequestration sites, aquifers and other sites. Over 40 companies and institutions have licensed TOUGH+ since Berkeley Lab started licensing it in 2005.
At this year’s event, Director Alivisatos encouraged researchers to share their positive technology transfer experiences with fellow Lab scientists. Alivisatos, a veteran of start-up companies himself, pointed out that licensing yields not only additional research funds but also the satisfaction of seeing technologies put to beneficial use.
Licensing Manager Viviana Wolinsky recognized inventors in attendance by describing their technologies and licensees. One of the newest technologies to be recognized is SATB1, a key factor in the formation and endurance of the metastatic phenotype of breast cancer. SATB1, licensed by Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, may be used as a new prognostic marker and therapeutic target for aggressive breast cancer. The technology was developed by Hye-Jung Han, Terumi Kohwi-shigematsu and Yoshinori Kohwi.
Another newcomer in FY09 is a license negotiated with start-up company Fluigence. The young firm offers products based on a technology developed by Dieudonne Mair and Emil Geiger to connect plastic microfluidic chips with macroscale devices without the use of glue or fasteners. Besides reducing time and labor, the technology eliminates the risk of chemical contamination resulting from adhesives coming in contact with organic solvents. The microfluidic chips are also suited for high pressure applications, so they accommodate on-chip chromatography and use at high flow rates.
Go here to learn more about how the Lab’s Technology Transfer Department works with researchers and their inventions.
Following is a complete list of technologies that generated royalty income in FY09 from exclusive and non-exclusive licenses, copyrighted software and book publications, and transfer of biological material:
Advanced blood lipoprotein testing for diagnosis and treatment of heart disease
ApoA-1 peptide mimetics for treatment of cardiovascular disease
Aerosol-based duct-sealing system
Analog transient waveform digitizer for analog storage
CCD used in portable gamma camera for cardiac imaging
Cell senescence research reagents
Diagnostics for tumor metastasis
Disposable, high pressure microfluidic chips
Energy efficient fume hood
EnergyPlus, energy simulation software for building design
Energy saving architectural glass (electrochromic or “smart” glass)
Evanescent microwave probe
Field-emitting, thick-film materials containing carbon nanotubes for use in flat-panel displays
Gas-filled panels for building insulation and shipping containers
Gene therapy for Parkinson’s Disease
Geo-hydrophysical modeling software
Hard disk carbon coatings deposition
High performance, energy-efficient table lamp
High resolution monochrometers and spectrometers
Highly sensitive room temperature semiconductor radiation detectors
Home Energy Saver energy use calculator
Human mammary epithelial cell lines for cancer research
Ion mobility analysis technology for cardiovascular disease indicators
Life sciences library images
Low cost water purification
Low NOx burners for industrial use
Low resistance tunnel junctions for high efficiency tandem solar cells
Multi-band semiconductors for high efficiency solar cells
Nanocrystals for electronics
Nano-enabled photovoltaics technology
Nanostructured polymer electrolyte for rechargeable lithium batteries
Nano-tech enabled screening of proteins, nucleic acids and other biological molecules
Quantum dot fluorescent probes for biological systems
Robotics for nanovolume protein crystallography
New materials through combinatorial synthesis
Parallel array oligonucleotide synthesizer
Phenix software for automated macromolecular crystallography
Software for oil and gas exploration
Star-P software for parallel computing
Structural proteomics for drug discovery
Transgenic mice for sickle cell disease research
Visual servoing optical microscopy for biological applications
Zinc air fuel cells
Books authored by Berkeley Lab researchers
A complete list of start-up companies based on Berkeley Lab technologies can be found here.
The following researchers received royalties in FY09:
Adams, Paul D.
Adler, Thomas C.
Afonine, Pavel V.
Ager, Joel W.
Alivisatos, Paul
Andres, Andre
Arasteh, Dariush K.
Bailey, David H.
Balsara, Nitash P.
Bankiewicz, Krystof
Bell, Geoffrey C.
Benner, William H.
Bielicki, John K.
Blanche, Patricia J.
Brennan, Thomas
Briceno, Gabriel
Brown, Richard E.
Bruchez, Marcel
Buhl, Walter F.
Cairns, Elton J.
Callahan, Daniel E.
Campisi, Judith
Carrié, Francois (Remi) J.
Chen, Fanqing F.
Chen, Jinsong
Cheng, Robert K.
Cohen, Marvin L.
Colvin, Vicki L.
Commer, Michael
Cork, Christopher P.
Cornell, Earl W.
Coughlin, Katie
Curtil, Dimitri
Dickerhoff, Darryl J.
Dimri, Goberdhan P.
Doughty, Christine
Duewer, Fred W.
Eberling, Jamie L.
Echols, Nathaniel
Eitouni, Hany B.
Ellman, Jonathan A.
Erdem, Ahmet E.
Feustel, Helmut E.
Fromer, Neil A.
Gadgil, Ashok J.
Gao, Chen
Gauna, Kevin
Geiger, Emil J.
Ghiorso, Albert
Goldstein, Avery N.
Gomez, Enrique D.
Griffith, Brent T.
Grosse-Kunstleve, Ralf W.
Gur, Ilan
Hale, Frank V.
Han, Hye-Jung
Hoffman, Darleane C.
Holland, Stephen E.
Huang, Y Joe
Hughes, Steven M.
Husbands, Parry
Jaklevic, Joseph M.
Jin, Jian
Johansson, Jan
Jones, Arthur L.
Kinoshita, Kim
Kleinfelder, Stuart
Kohwi, Yoshinori
Kohwi-shigematsu, Terumi
Koike, Masato
Kolbe, William F.
Krauss, Ronald M.
Lee, Luke P.
Li, Liang-shi
Liu, Gang L.
Liu, Haitao
Luke, Paul N.
Macgill, Robert A.
Madden, Norman W.
Mair, Dieudonne A.
Manna, Liberato
McLarnon, Frank R.
Milliron, Delia J.
Mills, Evan
Modera, Mark P.
Moriarty, Nigel W.
Narla, Mohandas
Newman, Gregory A.
Nordmeyer, Robert A.
Olshavsky, Michael A.
Orr, Joseph R.
Page, Erik
Parvin, Bahram
Paszty, Chris
Peacocke, Monica
Peng, Xiaogang
Pinckard, Margaret J.
Richardson, Thomas J.
Robinson, Richard D.
Rockenberger, Joerg
Rubin, Edward M.
Sadtler, Bryce F.
Santarsiero, Bernard D.
Sauter, Nicholas K.
Scher, Erik C.
Schlamp, Michael C.
Schultz, Peter G.
Selkowitz, Stephen E.
Siminovitch, Michael J.
Singh, Mohit
Stampfer, Martha R.
Stevens, Raymond
Sun, Xiaodong (Ted)
Tsang, Chin-Fu
Walukiewicz, Wladyslaw
Wang, Kai-An
Wei, Tao
Weier, Ulli
Weiss, Shimon
Winkelmann, Frederick C.
Wong, Karen
Wu, Junqiao
Xiang, Xiao-Dong
Yang, Haitao
Yegian, Derek
Yu, Kin Man
Zettl, Alex K.
Zwart, Petrus
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