USM's biotech stature growing
Hattiesburg American.
Dec. 4, 2006
If Lisa Kemp has her way, her lab work today could translate into a lucrative business venture tomorrow.
The Picayune native and University of Southern Mississippi polymer science graduate student already has incorporated with two partners a company called Ablitech that is developing futuristic heart stents that can deliver drugs and help distressed arteries heal.
Ablitech is in the early stages of patenting its work, and hopes eventually to bring the new technology to market - a feat for which Southern Miss recently was ranked among illustrious international company.
The Milken Institute, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based independent economic think tank, recently released a study examining universities' ability to market biotechnology research as commercial products and services and receive biotech patents.
Southern Miss ranked 86th in the world, higher than domestic powerhouses including Northwestern, Louisiana State, Tufts and Case Western Reserve universities and several European and Australian institutions.
"The growth in the biotech area has represented the largest part of our growth in research funding," which has soared from about $40 million annually to more than $100 million in the last year, said Ken Malone, chair of the department of economic and work force development.
Contributing to Southern Miss' efforts to bring research ideas to market is Noetic Technologies, the university's licensing and marketing arm that matches business people with researchers to launch commercial ventures, said Noetic President and Chief Executive Officer Les Goff.
Noetic now is actively promoting between 50 and 60 patents, he said.
"Our industry partners take technology that would normally sit on a shelf and really make it into something," Goff said. That way, the partnerships profit and royalties come back to the university and its research foundation. "Everyone has what I would call a little skin in the game," he said.
And licensing income can mean big money for universities battling budget woes.
While polymer science, biochemistry and marine science are Southern Miss' main opportunities for new patents, Goff said a bevy of other disciplines have much to offer as well.
A recent success came out of the forensic science department, when instructor Dean Bertram's partnership with researchers at Forrest General Hospital yielded a new way to enhance fingerprints taken from desiccated human tissue. The method was marketed as a kit after partners incorporated KDL Solutions, LLC - and it's been used by coroners after Hurricane Katrina and the U.S. Department of Defense in Iraq, Goff said.
Noetic also is marketing research from the mathematics, construction, computer science and disabilities studies fields, he said.
For Kemp and Ablitech, Southern Miss' recent distinction in the world is a confidence-booster.
"Hopefully, we'll be able to use the same resources that made us 86th in the world," Kemp said.
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