Mark Van Allen is president of the University of Connecticut’s Research & Development Corp. (UConn R&D), a science and technology-focused subsidiary of the UConn Foundation that seeks to create new business start-ups based on technologies developed by UConn researchers.
A graduate of Stanford University and its School of Business, Van Allen was named president of the for-profit UConn R&D in 2003. Prior to that, he held financial and operating positions in early stage investor-owned partnerships and companies, including the Morgan Pacific Company Inc., a firm involved in technology transfer opportunities, investment, and market analysis in Asia for U.S.-based technology companies. He also worked for two full-service investment banking houses in New York; helped develop Science Park, a Yale University-initiated business incubator in New Haven; and served as president of the Bridgeport Innovation Center, a for-profit business incubator.
With the 2011 legislative approval of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s $864 million Bioscience Connecticut initiative to expand UConn’s medical and dental schools and inject millions of dollars into bioscience research and development, there is growing interest in the role UConn R&D Corp. will play as part of the University’s effort to become a catalyst for economic development.
Already, UConn faculty members disclose about 90 inventions a year that UConn R&D is able to consider for possible commercial opportunities. Currently, R&D Corp. is managing 10 companies in various stages of development, and has a number of projects underway that may result in additional start-ups being formed.
Van Allen spoke recently with UConn Today about UConn R&D and its potential to support the University’s economic development mission for the state of Connecticut.
What does Gov. Malloy’s BioScience Connecticut initiative mean for UConn R&D’s technology commercialization efforts?
My belief is that the initiative is going to turbo charge what we’re trying to achieve in technology transfer. The initiative will accomplish quite a few things at the Health Center: one is to renovate the existing hospital and to increase the enrollment of both the dental and medical schools. But another significant component is to expand the research facilities there and to attract 50 new scientists over the next four years to utilize that space and create more research. For the R&D Corp., it’s the research that’s the most important component of the initiative; as the research enterprise grows and becomes more sophisticated, we will see more opportunities to commercialize innovative UConn discoveries generated by the faculty and staff.
Does the BioScience Connecticut initiative have the potential to help Connecticut become a leader in a bioscience economy?
Yes, it’s a legitimate goal. Throughout the country, universities are recognizing that technology developed by their faculty is a very valuable asset that can benefit not only the intellectual environment of their communities, but can also be a tool to help create more jobs and economic development for their states. The mission here is to take what the faculty are researching and get it into the marketplace to create value both from a business perspective and for society as a whole. The more research we have to work with, the more jobs we create, the more economic activity we generate, and the more we attract other researchers and other companies to the state to create more of a bioscience economy.
The academic/entrepreneurial synergy in Cambridge, Mass. and Menlo Park, Calif. has created the fabled enclaves of innovation and wealth called the Route 128 corridor and Silicon Valley. Might a similar industry-university partnership at the Health Center be created through the bioscience initiative?
I think we have all the ingredients here in Connecticut with the available investment capital, a highly educated workforce, entrepreneurial talent, and an enviable quality of life to replicate what has been done in Research Triangle Park and Silicon Valley. I believe we can make the claim in a more credible way than other states that are pursuing the same strategy. We’ve had success at a reasonable level already, and we expect to do it at a much more accelerated pace in the future. Technology transfer works most efficiently when you have areas of concentrated research where multiple investigators are focusing on specific areas of research and you have a core base of knowledge. When you have this environment, then venture capitalists and people who understand how the marketplace works can interact with you on a regular basis and assist you in the commercialization process.
A few years ago, Connecticut put in place a stem cell initiative to make our state a leader in stem cell research. So as investigators have pursued that research and created new intellectual property, we are now poised as a university and as a state to begin to commercialize that investment. It’s still early for the stem cell initiative, but the investment has been made and it will begin to bring returns. The BioScience initiative and the recent announcement with Jackson Labs should accelerate and build on these earlier efforts. As UConn continues to develop core competencies in stem cell research and other areas such as personalized medicine, it will inevitably attract more people who are leaders in these research areas, and our job in technology transfer will be to build businesses around these strategic investments. This will involve attracting capital and people to run these businesses, and nurturing whole industries in Connecticut so the taxpayers get their return on this significant state investment.
A growing bioscience industry isn’t going to happen without support. What resources does the Health Center have to help convert itself into a major bioscience complex?
It starts with the research and the innovation and creativity of our faculty. Most faculty have chosen to be in academe because they like doing research. They need coaching, support, and assistance to know that commercialization can occur in parallel with their research responsibilities and can even become an exciting part of their efforts. A faculty member may spend 20 years working on an idea, a concept, an innovation in a lab that results in a paper and everyone says “wow, that’s great science.’ There’s almost an innate tendency to want to get that science into the marketplace and actually create a drug or a product that improves people’s lives on a daily basis. Commercialization is the most efficient way to get long-term usage out of research and seeing the fruits of your research impacting many lives is very rewarding. If it works, you have made a significant contribution to society, created a return on investment to the University and the state, and it can actually be fun, as well as financially rewarding.
How important a role will state and University leadership have in the development of the BioScience Connecticut initiative?
Connecticut has always had the right ingredients to succeed in technology transfer, as I mentioned before. The difference now is that we have strong, dynamic leadership that gets it. Our Governor vigorously backed the BioScience initiative and a new technology park on UConn’s Storrs campus. Together, that’s over a billion dollar investment. Our new University President, Susan Herbst, is very well aware of the power of taking technology and moving it into the marketplace and how exciting that can be for our faculty and how valuable it can be for the state as an engine of economic development. In addition, we will soon have a new vice president for economic development, Mary Holz-Clause, who will marshal the resources of UConn’s economic development capabilities and provide a strong focus to these initiatives. We have people here that are skilled in technology transfer and commercialization who are starting to see the stars align at UConn and in the state, so this is a very exciting time for us. There’s available capital, researchers have become much more aware of the power of their ideas and the potential of getting their ideas into the market, and I think that UConn has seen a cultural change where faculty are getting excited about this aspect of their role at the University. For people who create companies, it doesn’t get any better than this.
