Only a relatively small number of patents lead to products. What would raise that number? Diane Fabel’s first suggestion, based on her experience mediating between faculty members and the biotech industry, is that it’s necessary to “help the faculty understand what the commercial application of their technology is.” Life sciences research is highly specialized, and people working in, say, cancer, might discover something that is highly relevant for the treatment of a completely different condition, but they might never know that because they don’t work on that other disease. “They have their animal models, or their cell models, or whatever they’re working with, and they need to be educated about how that might apply to a different market or a healthcare issue. They get excited. There’s another study that shows that the percentage of faculty that want to see their research impact human health [is] very high, but when you look at whether or not they feel it’s within their power to bring a technology to market or to get it even into the hands of someone that has that capability, it’s very low.”
