Innovation Ventures Expands Scope in Providing Essential Bridge from Ideas to Commercial Markets
Innovation Ventures, Formerly Known as the Center For Technology Commercialization (CTC), is Launching a New Era Befitting its New Name
It launched several new startup companies this year, and welcomed new leadership in Vice President Andrew Wooten, MST, MTM.
The office manages the commercialization of new discoveries via industry partnerships, licensing, and new ventures, and is adding an acceleration function to enhance its ability to speed up the development of promising innovations.
The group reported approximately 150 new innovation disclosures this year and total commercialization revenue of more than $6 million.
Innovation Ventures’ reorganization came at a critical time. Its new model focuses on co-innovation—leveraging a wide range of stakeholders (industry, venture, foundations, government, etc.)—to develop projects to the next value inflection.
The center encourages our researchers and clinicians to collaborate and share their results with other institutions through confidentiality agreements and material transfer agreements. It plays a key role in patent protection.
One of the new start-ups, Xact Medical, launched in May, will significantly improve precision vascular access. Cincinnati Children’s teamed with Ben Gurion University in Israel to commercialize the FIND system—Fast Intelligent Needle Delivery.
FIND helps clinicians place a needle tip at a point in the body that improves odds of successful vascular access on the first try.
Wooten says the center will be focused on four high priority areas in the months ahead: small molecules, tissues and biologics, diagnostic devices and IT/digital.
Commercialization support continues for five innovations developed by Cincinnati Children’s experts in recent years: suicide prevention, bone marrow and blood disorders called myelodysplastic syndromes, a genetic disorder called Fragile X syndrome, organoid tissue growth, and sickle cell disease gene therapy.
“One of our top priorities at Cincinnati Children’s is sharing our ideas, our discoveries and our advancements so that children in Cincinnati and around the world can thrive,” says Margaret Hostetter, MD, Director, Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation. “Innovative Ventures is critical to our success in this arena.”
