Science Park firm to distribute by Products
Yale has entered into an agreement with a start up biotechnology firm to distribute reagents, which are by-products of research at the University.
The reagent access agreement is between Yale's Office of Cooperative Research (OCR) and Recombinant Technologies LLC (RT), which will be based in Science Park.
In the course of life science research conducted at Yale, findings are often published that describe the results and observations obtained using novel biologic reagents, says Ben Muskin, associate director of OCR. "Some of the biologic reagents, specific to a reported technique or process, can be in immediate high demand by other researchers seeking to repeat and expand upon the reported work," he notes.
According to Muskin, Yale currently makes the reagents available to the research community under a Material Transfer Agreement, or, in some cases, will enter into either a supply or license agreement with a reagent retailer.
The advantages of working with RT, he explains, are that the company will actively identify Yale reagents of commercial value; will have the infrastructure in place to produce, store, package and ship high quality biologic reagents; and will attract and close deals in a timely manner. Ideally, RT expects to have reagents available to the scientific community soon after the Yale research is reported in a scientific journal.
The founder of RT is Pazhani Sundaram, associate research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. The company, through its close relationship with the academic research community, can speed the availability of bulk amounts of by-products, notes Sundaram.
"RT can complete the production process prior to publication and make reagents available to distributors in advance so that they are listed in catalogs and ready for shipping at the time of publication," says Sundaram.
"After discovery, the publication process is lengthy," he adds. "Useful by-products may not be available for years. The reagents are costly and time-consuming to produce so a ready source of high quality material immediately available and prepared as specified in the published results would have an instant and significant market value."
-- By Jacqueline Weaver