Feature
The University as Instrument of Innovation and Commerce
January 30, 2007
A Q&A with Mark Long, president and CEO of the IU Emerging Technologies Center
Mark Long, president and CEO of both the IU Emerging Technologies Center and the IU Research & Technology Corporation.
As president and CEO of both the IU Emerging Technologies Center (IUETC) and the IU Research & Technology Corporation (IURTC), Mark Long has a uniquely well-informed perspective on how the life sciences can transform Indiana's economy. Long spoke to the IU Life Sciences Initiative about how ideas and technologies that begin in university labs can lead to new businesses, an influx of venture capital to support those businesses, and products that can improve the health and lives of Hoosiers.
Lots of people see universities as out of touch with the "real world." What role do universities play in creating jobs, businesses, and making a difference in people's lives?
It's true that there's a lot of basic science research going on at IU, on things like fruit fly genetics, butterfly wing patterns, and ocean tides, to name a few. But ideas generated from what people see as "academic" research can lead to applied research. And there is plenty of applied research happening at IU, too, in medicine, biochemistry, physics, and biology, that can lead to medicines and other products that affect the lives of millions of people.
And it's your job to help transfer research and technology from the university to where it can make a difference in the world...
That's right, that's what we do. The trick is to recognize research that's leading to a product, then find a market out there for it and locate business and funding partners to help take the idea or prototype and turn it into an actual product that can be distributed to the general public.
How do you know when a researcher has hit on a really good, marketable idea?
Sometimes it seems obvious, like Richard DiMarchi's work on diabetes drugs that we helped become the company Marcadia Biotech. Any time you're dealing with research that could result in a new and effective drug for treating a major disease, there's at least a good chance that there will be a market for it. But sometimes things come out of left field. For example Dick Peterson [professor of anatomy at IUPUI] bred a strain of rats that develop diabetes. That turned into a company — Genetic Models Inc. — that sold rats and licensed the rat diabetes model to drug companies and diabetes researchers. [Eds. note: Genetic Models later became PreClinOmics, Inc.]
Are you seeing more researchers in the life sciences interested in starting businesses?
Yes, absolutely. It's part of a general trend that sees the university as an instrument of economic development. What's driving that trend, to put it simply, is job creation. When an IU researcher starts a company, he or she tends to hire local people. And because the guy who started the company and most of the people that work there are from Indiana, the company is less likely to relocate to another state or somewhere outside the country.
From a technology transfer perspective, where do Indiana and IU stand when it comes to the life sciences?
We've made remarkable progress in the last four years. And if you look at the big picture, we're in the top third of all states when it comes to the industrial and educational infrastructure you need to be a major player in life sciences. Sometimes it's hard for people to wake up and realize that 85% of all orthopedic devices are made in Warsaw, Ind. [by DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., Biomet Inc. and Zimmer Holdings Inc]. What we need more of now is early stage venture capital, early stage management talent, and more lab space for start up companies to do their research. And the way to attract venture capital dollars and management talent is to keep forming businesses at a good clip. That makes people sit up, take notice, and say, "We need to get in on that."
