Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), an NCRR-supported CTSA grantee, is one of eight institutions willing to bundle a subset of its technologies for marketing and licensing through the West Coast Licensing Partnership, which was formed in 2006. Operating under a memorandum of understanding, each partner is able to package a bundle of technologies from the collective portfolio of the eight partners. The benefits are many. For example, nonexclusive licensing makes research tools globally accessible through the eight institutions. All the institutions save time and money through the negotiation of multiple licensing agreements, and the bundled technologies yield net cost savings compared with licensing individual tools and technologies. The menu of technologies includes animal models, biomarkers, medical imaging, and medical devices, but the partnership foresees several new bundles of animal models becoming available soon for the study of neurodegenerative diseases, neuroendocrinology, and stress and anxiety disorders. More information is available at www.westcoastlicensing.com.
The relationships among academic institutions, federal-funding sources, industry, and the community are vital to the discovery and dissemination of innovations. The advanced technologies, methods, and interactions that are developed, refined, and adopted through NCRR programs may be among the most important resources for the strategic and efficient use of precious capital and, ultimately, the commercial dissemination of discovery. Therefore, it is essential that these relationships be fostered in a strategic manner to optimize potential return on scientific opportunity and investment.
Today’s climate of financial constraints and limited resources encourages organizations with similar interests to collaborate to achieve their goals. Together, NCRR resource centers often can accomplish tasks that are mutually beneficial and can do so in a cost-effective manner, especially if undertaking them can attain an economy of scale.
Action Items: NCRR will:
The partnerships of the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) capitalize upon the strong clinical, translational, training, and basic discovery programs at the CTSA grantee Emory University as well as the health disparities, training, and community outreach focus of its RCMI partner, the Morehouse School of Medicine. By 1) capitalizing on the engineering and bioinformatics achievements of Georgia Tech, the nonhuman primate resources available through the Yerkes NPRC, and the excellence in pediatrics of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and 2) collaborating with the private nonprofit Georgia Bio organization, the Georgia Research Alliance (a state-sponsored academic-industry partnership), and the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (an NCRR resource for medical glycomics and integrated glycotechnology), the Atlanta-CTSI is poised to become a leader in clinical and translational research. In addition, this strategic multi-institutional alliance is creating dynamic community, public health, informatics, and population studies programs through partnerships and collaborations with Kaiser Permanente of Georgia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. More information is available at www.med.emory.edu/research/ctsa.
A major goal of NCRR clinical research programs is to stimulate alliances of medical research and research training efforts and to promote sharing of information and best practices that will lead to improved translation of research into clinical practice.
NCRR is committed to engaging groups who are at increased risk of disease or are living in areas that historically have been medically underserved. Through its community-based clinical and translational research undertaken through the CTSA, IDeA, and RCMI programs and via collaborations with other government agencies, NCRR is ensuring that populations experiencing higher rates of premature death and disability are represented in research populations and have access to cutting-edge research. Bidirectional communication is the best means of ensuring that communities’ needs are reflected in the nation’s research agenda, developing appropriate and relevant guidelines and best practices, and finding the most effective conduits for bringing new research into the clinic. (Photo Credit: iStockphoto)
Action Item: NCRR will support activities to:
Since its establishment in 1982, the SBIR program at NIH has fostered the participation of a variety of small businesses in federally supported research and development within the biomedical sciences, and it has encouraged commercialization by the private sector of technology developed through federal support. With an SBIR grant, awarded by NCRR’s Division of Biomedical Technology, physician Geoffrey Hart, M.D., and biomedical engineer David Chastain at the consulting firm Design Continuum came up with a solution to an important problem: giving needed anesthesia to apprehensive, suffering children without increasing their fear or discomfort. They designed and developed the PediSedate—a medical device that looks like a brightly colored toy but is actually a system for delivering anesthetic gas and monitoring vital signs. The child-sized headset connects to a CD player or a handheld video game, both of which can have a calming effect on the pediatric patient, while one of the earpieces monitors oxygenation of the blood. The snorkel itself monitors respiration, delivers mixed oxygen and nitrous oxide through a semitransparent purple mouthpiece, and scavenges exhaled gas. (Photo Credit: Continuum)
Scientists are seeking wider applications of breakthrough biomedical technologies developed with NCRR-funded resources. As difficult as it is to develop useful new methods or instruments, it also is challenging to transform them into finished, easy-to-use products and put them in the hands of researchers and clinicians worldwide. This process can often be expedited through partnerships with private industry, philanthropic organizations, or other government entities. NCRR is exploring all of these collaborative approaches as a means of efficiently bringing technologies into mainstream use.
Action Items: NCRR will:
NCRR participates in two federal grant programs that provide funding to small businesses—the SBIR program and the STTR program. Both programs seek to increase the participation of small businesses in federally supported research and development (R&D) and to increase private-sector commercialization of technology developed through federally supported R&D. Both of these programs provide opportunities to integrate public and private initiatives.
Action Items: NCRR will:
NCRR resources support more than 30,000 investigators who have primary funding from other NIH ICs. It is imperative that NIH program staff understand the infrastructure that underlies NCRR-funded research and, at the same time, that NCRR grantees understand the other NIH ICs’ research endeavors and resources.
Action Items: NCRR will:
One of the ways that NCRR supports biomedical research is by engaging communities in clinical and translational science. To achieve its purpose, translational research must include members of racial and ethnic minority groups and people living in rural and inner-city areas, who face much higher rates of disease, premature death, and disability than other populations. The key to this engagement, regardless of the type of program or population served, is two-way communication that establishes partnerships among researchers, health practitioners, and their community members.
Action Item: NCRR will further enhance relationships with the AHRQ, CDC, HRSA, IHS, and other government agencies by sponsoring workshops and other joint activities.