The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce featured UNM researchers and administrators at a luncheon panel discussion recently. The luncheon, with more than 200 attendees, was an opportunity for UNM to talk about economic development activity generated at the university.
Steve Brueck, director of the Center for High Tech Materials, Wilmer Sibbet, professor of Neurology, and Tom Williams, a professor in the Pathology Department at the School of Medicine, all spoke about their experiences in patenting and commercializing research.
Brueck has directed CHTM for nearly 20 years, turning it from a small center of excellence funded by the state legislature into a specialized laboratory that works with federal and private researchers on leading edge advanced materials research.
Sibbet is the president and CEO of Avanca Medical Devices. He formed the company to market the safety syringes that he developed and patented. Williams has worked with Exagen Diagnostics, a local start-up company on a testing system for hepatitis C and breast cancer.
Lisa Kuuttila, chairman and CEO of the Science and Technology Corporation, talked about the challenges of patenting and marketing intellectual property in a university setting. STC is a wholly owned non-profit corporation at UNM that was developed to commercialize the intellectual property of faculty and students.
UNM Regent Mel Eaves also spoke about the problems of adequately funding research laboratories and buying equipment for researchers with a dwindling state investment in the university, as well as the need for greater public funding of research activities.
Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627