The Technology Transfer Office (TTO) facilitates interactions between NHGRI's research laboratories and other research entities, including universities, non-profit organizations and companies, for the benefit of public health. TTO carries out its mission by assisting in the transfer of NHGRI-developed technologies to the private sector for further development and commercialization and by managing formal relationships with pharmaceutical and life sciences companies through the use of various legal instruments. The TTO also ensures the speedy and efficient exchange of research resources between NHGRI and outside scientific groups and assures compliance with relevant laws and policies. Eight (8) new employee invention reports (EIRs) were evaluated and processed in FY2013 by the TT);5 new patent applications were filed based on EIRs submitted during FY13. One filing was with Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center and one was with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and three (3) applications were not pursued further by NHGRI. The titles of the 5 patent applications are as follows: (1) Methods For Treating Progeroid Laminopathies Using Oligonucleotide Analogues Targeting Human Lamin A (LMNA);(2) Biomarker for Diagnosis of Hyposialylation Disorders and Prediction of Treatment Efficacy;(3);An Assay for Predicting the Time of Onset of Niemann-Pick Disease Type C (NPC) (4) Methods for Treating Leukemias and Disorders Mediated by Mixed Lineage Leukemia 1 (MLL) Proteins;(5) Chromatin Regulators as Targets for Type 2 Diabetes Treatment and Diagnosis. In FY2013, two (2) patents have issued in the NHGRIs portfolio. The titles of the issued patents are: 1) N-Acteyl Mannosamine as a Therapuetic Agent (U.S. Patent 8,410,063;NHGRI lead inventor Marjan Huizing) and 2) Device and Method for Direct Measurement of Isotopes of Expired Gases (U.S. Patent 8,293,187;NHGRI lead inventor Charles Venditti). As of August 2013, NHGRI had forty seven (47) active patent families, thirty four (34) issued U.S. patents, one hundred (100) issued foreign patents, and fifty (50) pending applications (U.S. and foreign). In FY2013 NHGRI negotiated and executed four (4) new conditional gift fund agreements with the following organizations;Cystinosis Research Network, Parents and Researchers Interested in Smith-Magenis Syndrome (PRISMS), Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders (SIMD) and the Tudor Foundation, Inc.;our office handled the electronic submission of several K99/R00 NIH applications on behalf of postdoctoral fellows and we assisted with the submission of approximately a half dozen non-NIH grant applications to organizations such as the American Kennel Club/Canine Health Foundation and American Diabetes Association. New FY2013 executed conditional gift fund agreements and submitted non-NIH research grants focused on the following human disease research topics: Cystinosis, Smith-Magenis Syndrome, various inherited metabolic disorders and hospital acquired infections (such as vancomycin resistant enterococcus). In FY2013 we executed six (6) new license agreements with the following companies and/or organizations: 1) EMD Millipore Corporation (L-116-2013/0) - Small Molecule Activators Of Human Pyruvate Kinase (E-326-2008/0);and Substituted 3-Oxo-3, 4-Dihydroquinoline-2H-Benzo B 1,4 Oxazine-7-Sulfonamides and 2-Oxo-1,2,3,4-Tetrahydroquinoline-6-Sulfonamides Small Molecule Activators of Human Pyruvate Kinase (E-120-2010/0);2) Kolltan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (L-016-2013/0) - ERBB4 Mutations Mutation Identified in Human Melanoma Metastasis Cell Lines (E-229-2010/0);3) Lysosomal Therapeutics, Inc. (L-098-2013/0) - Glucocerebrosidase Activators as a Treatment for Gaucher Disease (E-257-2010/0);4) Lysosomal Therapeutics, Inc. (L-117-2013/0) Substituted Pyrazolopyrimidines as Glucocerebrosidase Activators (E-257-2010/0);5) Sanofi US Services, Inc. (L-027-2013/0) - ERBB4 Mutations Identified in Human Melanoma Cell Lines (E-229-2010/0) and 6) University of Maryland (L-056-2013/0) - Novel Compounds for the Treatment of Giardiasis (E-211-2010/0). In total, NHGRI currently has thirty-eight (38) active licenses. In addition, in FY 2013 we processed 166 Material Transfer Agreements: the vast majority of these MTAs covered materials provided by NHGRI to outside entities and 52% of the MTAs involved the transfer of human materials.
