| In 2006, UWEB’s 10th year
as an Engineering Research Center, the University of Washington (UW) Department
of Bioengineering secured a Translational Research Partnership (TRP) Award
from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation. This highly competitive award,
won only by 10 schools out of a field of more than 70 applicants, is unique
in that it allows the University to fund translational research projects
in which bioengineers work with medical researchers to co-develop solutions
to unmet medical needs. It was UWEB’s involvement of clinicians on
the Center’s Thrust 3 projects that paved the way for such collaborations.
In fact, UWEB technologies form the core of three of UW Bioengineering’s
Coulter projects, and one of those has already been licensed; thus, the
Coulter Translational Research Partnership is serving to continue the commercialization
of UWEB-created technology. UWEB’s Industrial Liaison Officer prepared
the proposal with the Chair of Bioengineering and currently serves as Coulter
Project Director, managing all operations. The first Phase of the
Coulter TRP provides annual funding of $1 million for 5-7 years and is
followed, upon successful implementation of the model, by a second Phase
in the form of an endowment of $10 million to sustain the program.
UW has already made a commitment to provide equivalent matching funds in
the form of endowment, along with salary support.
In addition to the opportunity
provided by the Coulter award, UWEB is also embarking on an ambitious plan
to create a broader-based translational research model at UW. The
Center has integrated MBA and law students into its technology assessment
processes to aid in project selection. Under the direction of business
development professionals at UW’s Tech Transfer Office, venture capitalists,
and patent attorneys, these students from the Schools of Business and Law
perform invaluable research on intellectual property, freedom-to-practice,
and commercialization concerns before a project is funded. Putting
the horse in front of the cart in this fashion has not generally been the
trend in academia, where research initiatives are often undertaken because
it is possible rather than on the basis of prior consideration of practical
application. Considering the real-world practicalities is one of
the things that ERC program participants learn to do! |
