Office of Technology Transfer

New partnerships, new faces

In view of the new OTT approach to establishing partnerships with faculties, some OTT satellite offices directly located in faculties have been created. OTT is pursuing a prudent expansion of its staff to cover its main areas of activities. These new liaison and business development officers will help researchers in their quest for contracts, whether from government or industry, in structuring major inter-disciplinary research activities and in the early evaluation of the commercial potential of inventions.

They will have most of the OTT officers' responsibilities but will be able, in addition, to rely on the central office for more complex and long term issues, such as licensing and spin-off structuring. In fact, they will also play an important role in promoting the research capabilities of our researchers in their own Faculty.

We are very pleased to welcome them. Tanya Glavicic-Théberge joined us in August and brings a strong background with a BEng and an MBA, both from McGill, and over 12 years experience with Noranda, SNC-Lavalin and the Canadian Electricity Association. Tanya is located in the Faculty of Engineering.

Andrea Mueller will join us in November. She has obtained both her BSc and MSc (microbiology) from McGill and has gained industry experience at Advanced Bioconcept and Caprion Pharmaceuticals Inc. Andrea will be located at the McIntyre building and will serve the Faculty of Medicine and the McGill University Health Centre

Finally, Chantal Quiniou joined OTT in August as an OTT Officer in the life sciences area. Chantal graduated with a BSc from Université de Montréal in biology, obtained a law degree from the University of Ottawa and practiced for four years in the private sector. In addition, she sat on different research ethics boards (institutional and private companies). After having completed graduate studies in pharmacy at U de M, Chantal Quiniou participated in research projects on the commercialization of the human genome.

With the addition of these new talents, OTT will be able to better provide technology transfer and contract services to McGill researchers and establish a more pro-active linkage with industry and governments.

A few thoughts and opportunities

Industry is demonstrating a welcome willingness to support university-based researchers through different methods (research labs, chairs, scholarships, CFI leverage, research contracts, etc...) so long as the researchers are active in areas of interest to industry.

Thanks in part to lobbying from the private sector, the government just announced a $300 million annual program to create 2000 new chairs and defy the laws of brain gravity to the south. Hot topics, these days, are in genomics, advanced materials, GPS and telecommunications, photonics and micro-chips, imaging, encrypting and software engineering, new tech ergonomics and cognitive science, and by-and-large cross-disciplinary research, just to name a few.

The bottleneck could be the availability of graduates and post-graduates since they are lured by attractive job opportunities. Thus, industrial concerns want to have their cake and eat it too. They want the research, the graduates and the students.

Also, some programs such as the Technology Partnership Program from NSERC, still have funding available (up to $350,000 per project) for technology transfer from University to industry. OTT will help you structure your proposal.

Remember that you and your industrial partners must have an agreement with respect to the intellectual property of the ensuing technology. Such agreements may result in the difference between succeeding or not having commercial success.

We recently experienced a less structured option to license that turned into a dead end. While the company was too small to commercialize on its own, it did not wish to enter a partnership with a venture capitalist. A year later, the window of opportunity eroded. So, to be able to effectively accompany you in this strategic step, please discuss the issues with OTT ahead of time. It is always commendable to involve OTT sooner rather than later.

Many people on campus have followed the outstanding climb of the Lumenon stock on NASDAQ. When OTT signed an agreement with Lumenon, about a year and a half ago, the stock was worth 25 cents. Now it is around $US 9.

When Mark Andrews from the Department of Chemistry and Iraj Najafi from École Polytechnique met with OTT, no one could anticipate such developments. In fact, their new approach to multiplexing with a silicon waferboard has captured the imagination of investors. But really, the strategy was to find appropriate partners and to devise an aggressive financing strategy. Lumenon rapidly won over an American partner, Mollex Inc., also a NASDAQ listed company. A plant is being built in Ville St Laurent. Other developments are contemplated and the researchers have been surfing since. I use this expression since all those that have gone the route of structuring a spin-off will tell you that it is an enduring challenge. Even if the reward may appear to be sweet, think of the many hurdles and the commitment and openness to advice that is required. Remember, OTT is there to help you. But unfortunately, all spin-offs are different. Rare are those that can display the kind of pattern Lumenon has so far.

Alex Navarre
Director, OTT