Expanding Collaborations |
UNL is bolstering its industry relations and technology development efforts, expanding opportunities for the university and private companies to collaborate.
Since its launch in 2008, UNL’s Industry Relations Office has established or broadened partnerships with numerous state and national companies, including Boeing, LI-COR Biosciences, Teledyne Isco and Lincoln Industries. The office is the "front door" for companies interested in working with the university, connecting them with faculty, facilities or students.
UNL’s Nebraska Innovation Campus will create new opportunities for companies and entrepreneurs to work closely with UNL faculty and students, said Ryan Anderson, director of Industry Relations. Fostering these relationships is a priority.
Industry Relations and NUtech Ventures, the organization responsible for commercializing university research, work closely. Together, they offer companies a range of options, from consultations with faculty to licensing and start-up opportunities involving UNL-developed technologies. Recent collaborations with an Omaha company provide one example:
In spring 2010, Streck Inc., which manufactures clinical laboratory products, acquired Philisa Technology Corp., a start-up company owned by UNL’s Hendrik Viljoen, chemical and biomolecular engineering professor; Joel TerMaat, a doctoral candidate; and Scott Whitney, a postdoctoral fellow. They had developed a portable, high-speed polymerase chain reaction instrument that rapidly extracts and replicates small segments of DNA.
This deal included intellectual property owned by Philisa, NUtech Ventures and UNeMed, the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s technology development organization. UNL worked with everyone involved to facilitate the acquisition.
Connie Ryan, Streck’s president, said the acquisition wouldn’t have been possible without UNL’s cooperation.
In another collaboration, Industry Relations arranged for UNL virologist Charles Wood to conduct sponsored research for Streck on its Cyto-Chex® blood collection tubes, which preserve samples from HIV patients longer than traditional vials. Wood found that the stabilizing agent in the tubes inactivates HIV within 24 hours, enabling safer handling of samples.