A seminar series titled “The Yale-New Haven Biotechnology Enterprise Forum” will be held at Yale University beginning with a talk on Oct. 28. The five monthly talks, sponsored by The Biotech Committee of Greater New Haven and the Yale University Office of Cooperative Research, will cover the commercial development of biotechnology and are geared toward entrepreneurs and university scientists. All talks are scheduled from 4:30-6:30 p.m. and are open to the public free of charge.
The first speaker will be Reid Adler, patent counselor with the Washington, D.C., firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, where he is a partner in the intellectual property/patent practice group. He will speak on “Patent Opportunities for Genomic Inventions” in Hope Conference Room 216 in the Sterling Hall of Medicine, 333 Cedar St.
Mr. Adler received a B.S. degree from the University of Maryland and a law degree from George Washington University Law School. Following law school, Mr. Adler was law clerk to the Hon. Giles S. Rich, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law, studying biotechnology regulation and protection. He is a former director of the Office of Technology Transfer at the National Institutes of Health — NIH, where he was responsible for the management of federal technology transfer activities, including patenting, licensing, and review of Cooperative Research and Development agreements.
While at the NIH, he developed policy options for the patenting and licensing of human gene sequences, and coordinated development of the Uniform Biological Materials Transfer Agreement to facilitate the exchange of biomedical research materials between academic institutions.
Other speakers and their topics are:
* Dec. 2, 1997 — Susan U. Raymond, director of policy programs at the New York Academy of Sciences, will speak on “The Role of Universities in Economic Growth,” in Bass Hall, Bass Center for Molecular and Structural Biology, 266 Whitney Ave. Dr. Raymond is the former vice president of program operations at the New York Center for Public Resources. She received her Ph.D. degree in economics, political science and public health from Johns Hopkins University.
* Jan. 27, 1998 — Mark Edwards, managing partner at Recombinant Capital, a San Francisco-based consulting firm specializing in biotechnology alliances and capitalization since 1988, will speak on “Trends in Biotechnology Financing” at Horchow Hall, School of Management, 135 Prospect St. Mr. Edwards plays a leading role in the dissemination of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry information through his firm’s publicly accessible web site: http://www.recap.com. He is former director of business development at Chiron Corp. and received a B.A. degree in economics and an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University.
* March 3, 1998 — Jonathan Gorham, managing partner of Gorham Associates, will speak on “University Based Technology Incubators and Venture Funds” in Bass Hall, Bass Center for Molecular and Structural Biology, 266 Whitney Ave. He founded Gorham Associates in 1997, where he specializes in economic development consulting and management of innovation centers. He received his B.A. and M.A.T. degrees from Harvard University, and a master’s degree in public and private management from Yale University.
* April 7, 1998 — Gualberto Ruano, co-founder and chief executive officer of Genaissance, a New Haven-based biotechnology company focused on pharmacogenomics, will speak on “Genomic Strategies and Drug Discovery” in the Hope Conference Room, Sterling Hall of Medicine, 333 Cedar St. Dr. Ruano received a B.S. degree from Johns Hopkins University, a Ph.D. degree in human genetics from Yale University, and his M.D. degree from the Yale University School of Medicine.
The Biotech Committee is a partnership of the City of New Haven and The Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce whose goal is to promote the growth of biotechnology and health-related industry in the region. Membership includes representatives from Yale and other higher-education institutions in the New Haven region as well as business leaders.
Yale’s Office of Cooperative Research pursues the formation of new business ventures with licensing patents and copyrights as its principal development strategies. It also works with other Yale groups on contracting research with the private sector and developing broad technology-based corporate relations. More than 35 companies have been established based on scientific discoveries made at Yale, and the current value of public spinoff companies exceeds $1 billion. Yale has entered into nearly 250 license agreements since the OCR was founded in 1982. During the same period, Yale earned more than $35 million in royalties and expects to earn more than $30 million in the current year. The office is also in the process of securing venture funding for several business plans based on Yale technologies.
