Tucson Tech: UA Takes Record Innovations to Market | Business

Tech Startup Arizona, UA’s technology marketing division, registered 303 new faculty innovations in the fiscal year ending June 30.

Doug Hockstad, UA’s vice president of tech startups Arizona, has been a longtime goal of more than 300 annual invention filings, citing the importance of such faculty submissions as raw material for successful licensing deals and startups.

“I’ve been here 9½ years, and I’d say more or less from the day we got here, our goal was to hit 300, so it’s really exciting to hit that mark,” said Hockstad, who joined TLA as director. The Office of Technology Transfer was named head of the TLA in February 2013 and 2017.

But with the number of startups TLA helped launch dropping to 10 last fiscal year, down from 17 in fiscal 2021, there’s still work to be done.

Hockstad says this is partly due to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“All the projects that come into the office that go into the starting hole, they have decreased a lot in the last few years, we believe because of COVID,” he said. “And so we’re going to focus a lot on this year, rebuilding that starting lineup.”

Other TLA results from the 2022 budget:

The agency filed 389 patents for new inventions and received 87 patents for registered technologies in the past years, and 391 documents and 100 patents were granted in fiscal year 2021.

The office has executed 116 licenses and options for UA technologies, down from 124 in fiscal 2021 but the second most since 2013.

Royalty and other licensing revenues were $10.4 million, compared to $8.6 million in the prior fiscal year.

Hockstad said TLA is resuming in-person tutoring sessions that moved online during the pandemic.

A lack of personal interaction may have reduced participation in orientation sessions, where faculty learn about the technology marketing process and are encouraged to present innovative presentations.

But the virtual sessions may involve some faculty members who don’t want to attend in person, Hockstad said.

“So it’s kind of good and bad — you don’t get a lot of interaction or a lot of contact, but you get to meet people who don’t,” he said.

Despite its challenges, a recent report shows that TLA is having a positive impact not only on campus, but the Tucson community as a whole.

Startups and businesses created through the office supported more than 2,500 jobs and $561 million in labor income between fiscal years 2017 and 2021, generating more than $1.6 billion in economic activity since 2016, according to an economic impact report released by TLA in May.

Since TLA’s inception a decade ago, the number of new UA initiates has nearly tripled from 73 to 200.

And over the past eight years, according to TLA, startups have raised more than $600 million in grant and equity funding — an indication that startups are attractive to foreign investors and poised for success.

For example, last November UA startup NeuroID raised $35 million in a second round of venture-capital funding to help commercialize technology that reads online users’ behavior to fight fraud.

In April, UA startup Accelium Technology Group won a $300,000 award, sponsored by Australian mining giant BHP, as one of two finalists to build a demonstration plant to produce a foam-coated product from mine tailings.

Check out the startup companies that helped launch TLA in FY 2022 and the UA people behind them:

BG Networks Inc., Developing a Cybersecurity Framework for Optimal Risk Assessment and Automated Mitigation. Founded on technologies invented by Professor Jerzy Rozenblit and College of Engineering Professor Emeritus Roman Lysecki.

Clad Therapeutics Inc., advancing a platform that uses pluripotent stem cells as the basis for developing off-the-shelf cell transplant therapies. (Arizona Cancer Center Professor Deepta Bhattacharya and College of Medicine – Tucson Research Specialist Hannah Pizzato)

MetFora LLC, Using Metabolite Biomarkers to Detect Chronic Lung Disease, Heart Disease and Cancer in Their Early Stages. (College of Medicine Associate Professors Ruslan Rafikov and Olga Rafikova)

FAKnostics LLC, developing diagnostics and therapeutics around focal adhesion kinase, a key cancer protein. (Inventors include Dr. William Kahns and assistant professor Tim Marlowe of the Arizona Cancer Center and College of Medicine – Phoenix and research scientist Warren Weiner of the College of Medicine – Tucson.)

Fringe Metrology LLC, developing radiation measurement system software for high-precision fringe projection metrology. (Doctoral student Joel Berkson and senior research associate Justin Hite of the James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences)

CarbeniumTec LLC, organic based redox flow battery technology for consumer, commercial and residential use. (Assistant Professor Thomas Giannetti, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Postdoctoral Research Associate Jules Mouette)

Corea Therapeutics, Inc., specializes in cancer immunotherapies and antibody-based drugs used to treat solid tumors. (Dr. David Bull, Associate Professor Young-Wook Won and Postdoctoral Researcher Daniel Lee College of Medicine and BO5 Institute)

Arizona Helper, LLC, a member-driven marketplace that provides connections between University of Arizona sports fans, programs and players. (Originally established to market the names, images and likenesses of UA basketball players)

Teleport Pharmaceuticals LLC, developing glycopeptide drugs that penetrate the blood-brain barrier to treat degenerative neurological diseases and conditions. UA Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Robin Polt and Associate Professor Michael Hein; Thorsten Falk, associate professor of neurology and pharmacology, and John Streicher, associate professor).

Gloss Institute Inc., tools and procedures developed by College of Education Professor Samuel Supala, based on American Sign Language Gloss, ASL Signing, to assist deaf students in learning and writing English.