Life of a Faculty Entrepreneur©:  Discovery, Development, Translation

Instructors:  Michael Ladisch and Nathalie Duval-Couetil

Introduce graduate students and faculty mentors to the intellectual, financial, and management processes for translating research into tangible products through university initiated, early-stage commercialization (start-up) activities. Lectures will present case studies of technologies and their different pathways to commercialization.

Goals of lectures are to address:

1. Processes through which research is translated from laboratory to products.

2. A framework for analysis of when and how to launch technologies into a translational pathway.

3. Case studies that illustrate business principles, models of the translation, and commercialization strategies.

Lectures will be given by Professors Ladisch and Duval-Couetil, as well as guests who are experienced entrepreneurs. These lectures will illustrate the startup process and approaches for managing entrepreneurial activities, intellectual property and conflicts of interest in a university environment. Examples of start-ups will include information technology, software analytical instrumentation, biopharmaceutical and biomedical products, biofuels, and bioproducts.

Course materials: Notes and directed readings provided by the instructors and guest lecturers. Papers will be assigned from selected technical and business journals, websites, Harvard Business Review and Wall Street Journal. The course is intended to address the questions involved in launching a university-originated research into a commercial venture and upscale the base innovation or technology.

3.00 credit hours