IU research firm surpasses last year's patent mark in 3 months

A device that delivers bone grafts, a closure device for vascular surgery and a diabetic rat model are just a few of the many inventions the IU Research and Technology Corporation have created in the last eight years. \nThe IURTC, which specializes in speeding up the process of commercializing scientific discovery, reached a milestone this week, having created more inventions in the first three months of the fiscal year of 2006 than it did the entire fiscal year of 2005.\nThe non-profit agency of IU is located in Indianapolis and is supported by the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation.\n"I think the real point is providing the products of this research for the public good," said Mark Long, president and CEO of the IURTC "The tissue closure device is used for vessel repair surgery and the diabetic rat model is used throughout the world to mimic the human condition through rats."\nThe continued growth in the life science industry at IU has led to the many private, corporate and federal grants the University has received over the past few years.\n"Right now, the IURTC has just marketed a product which will be able to help patients with prostate cancer," Long said. "These products which we are creating will become products which will enhance the quality of life and the quality of health care in particular."\nWith Indiana as a hub for the life science industry, the IURTC attempts to shine a worldwide light onto the state through its creations.\n"The way Indiana is going to be successful in the 21st century in the U.S. is to be competitive in (the life science) market," said IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre. "The IURTC are coming up with a number of things which can be marketable to the world-wide market and because they are invented here and because we have the license and the patents, we can control where they are produced and we want them produced here in Indiana." \nAs more researchers and scientists come to IU, both Long and MacIntyre agree the University is in this field for the long haul.\n"I think we will continue to see this type of research as we continue to get more and more prominent professors to complete this work," Long said.\nMacIntyre said this is something the University must have to compete with the other major universities throughout the world.\n"One of the expectations for IU and any large university is it contributes to the state's economic development efforts and this is one of the principle ways we do that," MacIntyre said. "We are still at a fledgling level and as time goes on, we expect the IURTC to be more productive and sooner or later the things that come out of there will be big. There is no way to predict when the next big cancer treatment will come out of that place"