As the old adage goes, it’s good to be the king, but apparently it’s not too bad being his graduate assistant either.
The Mass. Institute of Technology ended the first day of its annual Emerging Technologies Conference Sept. 22 with a keynote address by professor and inventor Robert Langer, who spoke at length about creating breakthrough medical technologies.
The 45-minute address by the 61-year-old professor touched on six of his more celebrated inventions which were spun into companies, including the amazingly quick turnaround of Advanced Inhalation Research Inc., which was acquired by Alkermes in 1999. The nearly $90 million deal had a 1,000 percent rate of return for investors such as Polaris Venture Partners LLC (no wonder they love the guy). While the company hasn’t produced as promised (Alkermes tabled the project in 2008), AIR was founded and run by Langer’s graduate assistant David Edwards.
Langer recalled the invention of the AIR technology and his work with Edwards as one of his favorite stories.
In fact, many of Langer’s former graduate assistants have been instrumental in helping the professor innovate, he said.
Citing his work with John Santini Jr. in founding Bedford, Mass.-based drug delivery company MicroCHIPS Inc., Langer said it was the result of inspiration he got from watching a PBS show about computer chips. In fact, almost all of the six companies he mentioned were the result of collaborations between Langer and his graduate assistants, which begs the question: How do you get that job?
Langer pointed out at the start of his address that there are five questions he asks himself while innovating a new medical technology. Among those are, “Is it a platform technology that can be used for multiple purposes? Can you get the technology into a reputable journal like Science or Nature? And can you tie that paper to a blockable patent as formulae?
And while it seems that most of what he touches turns to gold in the form of large exits, Langer downplayed his role in the creation of some 24 companies over the years.
“All we’ve done is provide the catalysts and patents to get these companies going,” he said.
The I-Team Formula
Here’s a way to save some money on that MBA from the Sloan School. Just copy the formula the school’s Innovation-Teams program uses to foster entrepreneurship.
The I-Team program, offered every semester at MIT’s Desphande Center, brings together graduate students from the business school and the engineering program to work on commercializing technology developed at the university.
It’s had some notable successes, including Pervasis Therapeutics and Brontes Technologies, a 3D dental imaging maker that was bought by 3M Corp. for $95 million in Nov. 2006.
Dr. Luis Perez-Breva, a lecturer for the I-Team program, described the formula as innovation through discussion. Here’s how it works:
- The principal investigator offers a paper and agrees to dedicate a significant amount of time to the project.
- The program assembles highly motivated students from cross-disciplines through competition, who will discuss the technology using questions such as, “Is the research too fundamental? Is it sustainable? Is it adaptable to other uses and different markets?”
- The group reaches out to the established business community to solicit coaching.
- Finally, after it’s all said and done, the group offers next steps for commericalizing the technology.
Breva said the I-Team program’s goal isn’t to write business plans as much as creating applicable business models for commercializing technology. The fact that so many companies have spun out of this group is just the cherry on the sundae, apparently.
The EmTech conference is slated to continue through Thursday at MIT.
