Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Students
Celebrate UCSD’s Economy-Building Partnerships

Paul K. Mueller | July 13, 2009

The sun-splashed courtyard of UCSD’s Faculty Club bustled and buzzed with a trade show’s blend of tabletop demos, handouts both technical and whimsical, enthusiastic product pitches and gee-whiz reactions from the early-evening crowd.

UCSD’s Nobel winner and prolific inventor Roger Tsien talks to another inventor, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox.

The university scientists who create new product concepts; the local, state and national entrepreneurs who develop and market them; and the students who will one day do both, recently gathered at the club for a “Salute to Innovation – A Biennial Celebration of Technology Partnerships.”

The exhibitors, both UCSD start-ups and licensees of UCSD inventions, were demonstrating more than glossy brochures and high-tech graphics. They were also proving that the university’s Technology Transfer Office continues to successfully facilitate the transformation of research into useful products that benefit society.

And, according to Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, that’s happening at an incredibly rapid rate. “In the last year,” she told the standing-room-only crowd, “UC San Diego averaged one new innovation a day for every day of the year, adding to the campus’ exceptional portfolio of more than 2,600 active technologies, including inventions, research materials, and copyrighted materials from research disciplines across campus.”

In fact, she said, UCSD had more invention disclosures than any other UC campus last year, as well as the second-highest patent and licensing rate in the UC system.  “The university’s licensing income last year was around $30 million,” she told the crowd, “and when you factor in the sales generated, the workforce and jobs created, and the companies that were started, the full impact of this university on California is astounding.”

Chancellor Fox shows off a colorful fish handout provided by members of Fish & Richardson PC, who helped sponsor the event.

Also impressive were the companies represented at the event – companies founded with UC San Diego technologies such as Avanti Tech, Inflammagen, RedXDefense LLC, Senomyx Inc., Urigen and Taaz.com; along with licensees such as Active Motif Inc., MaXentric Technologies, Life Technologies Corp., Sierra Analytics Inc. and Nirvana ®, a division of General Atomics.

Among the start-up demonstrations was Taaz.com, an online makeover service that lets customers upload photos of themselves, then see how alternate hair colors, hair styles, and makeup differences might transform them. This offshoot of Jacobs School of Engineering research even brought Chancellor Fox over for some experimentation.

The chancellor mentioned the start-up and other exhibitors when she spoke, and she cited the recent Economic Impact Report’s finding that UC San Diego contributed $7.2 billion to the California economy in fiscal year 2006-07, created more than 39,000 jobs, and, over time, created 193 companies, 67 of which are active public companies which generate more than $10 billion in annual sales.

Chancellor Fox hears about the features of the UCSD spin-off company Taaz.com, an online makeover service developed at the Jacobs School of Engineering.

Vice Chancellor for Research Art Ellis emphasized in his remarks that, despite the current challenging environment, the university continues to “create, communicate and curate” new knowledge. Taking a recent two-week period in May, he pointed to the research advances the university had made in that brief period: a new target for treating retinopathy in newborns; the first direct observation of biological particles in high-altitude ice clouds; a better music search engine; and a new bioengineering company whose product focuses on early detection of cancer.

“These are impressive items in themselves,” said Ellis, “yet they barely touch upon the breadth of innovation and activity underway at our university.”

An exemplar of that innovation and activity, keynote speaker, UCSD professor and Nobelist Roger Tsien could take credit for contributing to at least three of the exhibits at the event – he helped found Senomyx, and his discoveries are licensed to Millipore Corp. and Life Technologies, among others. Tsien was introduced by Kevin Kinsella, a managing member of Avalon Ventures, one of many savvy investors who watch UC San Diego and its research enterprise for promising technologies and disclosures.

One of the event’s surprises was provided by Vice Chancellor Ellis, who revealed in introducing Chancellor Fox that she, like many at the event, is an inventor, and holds several patents related to optoelectric memories with photoconductive thin films, and to the use of photoelectrochemistry for catalysis and synthesis.

Sponsored by Fish & Richardson PC and Gavrilovich, Dodd, and Lindsey LLP, the Salute to Innovation concluded with the chancellor presenting Tsien with a Lifetime Innovation Award.  Those applauding with the most enthusiasm were the dozens of undergraduate and graduate students in attendance, some of whom are likely to be accepting similar awards in the not-too-distant future.