Not too many years ago, "technology transfer" on university campuses was a foreign concept. Everywhere, that is, but on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where pioneering minds have created a model of tech transfer that brings the benefits of academic research to private industry. Today, that model is being put to use not only in its home state of Wisconsin but in the global marketplace as well.

The model is the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), which was founded in 1925 as a separate, not-for-profit organization to commercialize new technologies and support research at UW-Madison. The income generated by that commercialization is used to fund still more research at the university...something akin to the concept of perpetual motion.

Today, WARF continues to serve as a national model for universities looking to turn academic discoveries into profits that in turn support more research. That's a financial tool of considerable value to public universities whose revenue sources have been under pressure to keep up with the cost of maintaining their margin of excellence as major research institutions.

Once again, WARF is pushing the envelope.

Once again, WARF is pushing the envelope. Building on the momentum of the thousands of patents and license agreements on UW-Madison technologies it has so far established, WARF is looking beyond its Midwestern borders, while it continues to focus on its first priority of serving Wisconsin businesses. WARF is now reaching out to the coveted West Coast — home to many of the heavy hitters in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

(See accompanying sidebar for how WARF continues to focus on Wisconsin companies.)

In early June, the West Coast offered a unique opportunity for WARF and the university to showcase their expertise in the biosciences when the third annual international biotechnology conference — called BIO 2004 — was held in San Francisco. A contingent of UW-Madison faculty, plus members of the WARF staff and the UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations, attended the conference and staffed a special booth within a group of Wisconsin biotech companies and organizations. The UW booth made the bold statement: "We Know Bio. We Do Bio. Just Ask Us." The event attracts over 20,000 people each year, so BIO 2004 was a tremendous opportunity for the university and its many related bioscience entities to network with biotech and business representatives from around the world.

(See an overview of UW-Madison's expertise in bioscience.)

The new West Coast branch of WARF set up shop in the fall of 2002. Paul Radspinner, a WARF licensing manager closely involved in the endeavor, says that the opening of a satellite office was a natural progression. As university administrators and research faculty have become more market-savvy, he explains, the drive for more sophisticated partnerships between these two arms has paved the way for a burst of tech transfer. Organizations like WARF typically first look to local and then regional business communities for interested partners in the licensing of patented products and technologies. Yet imagine the potential for growth by broadening their range and sweeping a wider area of potential clients and capital. That is precisely the view held by WARF when it set out to turn its vision into marketplace reality.

WARF's second office location in downtown San Diego was chosen after much deliberation, according to Radspinner. "We realized that San Diego is in fact home to more companies in line with the types of early inventions coming out of the UW, than say the Silicon Valley, or the Boston area," he says.

Matt Bohlman, a licensing representative with WARF in Madison, was the first pioneer sent out in 2002 to get the new office off the ground. From the get-go, Bohlman has pounded the pavement, or, the equivalent for the West Coast lifestyle — driven many miles on California freeways — to build some name recognition for WARF in that area. Radspinner still views this as the infancy stage. "This business is a long-term business — we make our investments early on, and then wait a long time for the payoff," he says. The initial goal in its first full year of operation was to focus on growing the number of West Coast companies with which WARF could connect. Bohlman stayed busy and succeeded in meeting with more than 200 potential companies. In addition to prospecting for new business, he called on existing licensees in the region to convey the message that a WARF representative was now there — in their territory — to better serve them and offer support.

The next phase of WARF's mission in San Diego is evolving, and it promises to be exciting. Along with a different focus comes a new representative — Corinne Steffen — a Madison native and graduate of UW-LaCrosse. Steffen has replaced Bohlman as he moves back to the UW-Madison campus to complete his master's degree in business administration. Steffen will devote more time to what WARF calls its "focused technologies." According to Radspinner, WARF identifies and compiles approximately 20 separate key areas, or mini portfolios, of technology coming out of UW-Madison. These specialties include drug discovery, chemical synthesis technologies, protein expression, and telecommunications. All are considered the hottest prospects for gaining commercial licenses.

After extensive searching for compatible matches in the San Diego area, the WARF representative pays a visit to that company and establishes contact. Explains Radspinner, this strategy is designed to first generate a promising lead that might eventually result in a deal. "To some degree this is a home run kind of business," he says. "We didn't expect any licenses in the short term, but we have already generated three licenses out there." The successes included licensing agreements for a cell line with a San Diego pharmaceutical company and cancer marker genes with a San Francisco biotech company.

One reason for the initial success that WARF is enjoying on the West Coast stems from the foundation's flexible and accommodating manner of conducting business. "We view our interactions as a two-way street," says Radspinner. For example, prior to forming the West Coast office, a pharmaceutical company based in San Diego might have had to travel to Madison to meet with UW inventors and WARF licensing representatives. Now WARF is just as able and willing to send the inventors out to San Diego to meet on the interested business' home turf. "We let them know that whatever they need, UW will do it," he says. "We're very customer-focused."

So far, Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of WARF, is pleased with the progress of the West Coast office. Yet he is realistic. "This is a long-range experiment for us. Something like this takes time," he says. He also emphasizes that WARF representatives will continue to work on generating additional licenses for the research tools that WARF currently owns. Gulbrandsen stresses that of hundreds of technologies WARF has available for licensing by businesses, the majority are on a non-exclusive basis. "That is a win-win situation for Wisconsin businesses who may need the same technologies, and for WARF as well since the only way we're going to make reasonable money to support more research at the university is to gain more licenses." Gulbrandsen is hopeful that the satellite office will lead to other paybacks for WARF such as the development of new relationships with the large number of influential research foundations in that region of the country.

Already, WARF's dual office strategy is attracting interest from other universities. Both the Madison and San Diego offices are receiving phone calls from institutions that would like to emulate their novel model. Further geographic expansion is not unrealistic either, as the managers at WARF keep an eye on the East Coast with its big pharmaceutical market, as well as Japan where WARF has already made some valuable inroads. "The sky's the limit," says Radspinner. "We have to first prove that our model works, but it's still early, and I think we will prove it."

Visit our archives to read articles from previous issues of the UW Business Wire.

WARF Pursues Licensing Opportunities in Wisconsin

By Nicole Resnick

From its very beginnings, WARF has worked hard at partnering with the business community in its own home state of Wisconsin.

That effort got a special boost in 2003 when a new campaign — "What's In It for Wisconsin Business" — was launched last fall specifically designed to build more bridges between WARF and Wisconsin-based companies doing R&D in areas that overlap with research spawned by the UW System.

So far, WARF has been effective in its mission, and in less than one year the foundation has established connections with more than 50 new companies around the state.

There's a lot going on outside of Madison — especially around Milwaukee — and many of these companies have great ideas and technologies, says Emily Bauer, Wisconsin licensing representative at WARF.

The establishment of new relationships is a two-way street. Not only does it enable WARF to gain new clients, but by educating companies about the wealth of homegrown potential, it allows them to stay ahead of the game.

"Ultimately, in the end, these relationships will help to build the standard of living for the state," says Bauer.