Lab on a Chip

Lab on a Chip View Article Online CRITICAL REVIEW View Journal | View Issue Entrepreneurship†‡ Ali K. Yetisen,*a Lisa R. Volpatti,b Ahmet F. Coskun,c Sangyeon Cho,ad Cite this: Lab Chip,2015,15,3638 Ehsan Kamrani,a Haider Butt,e Ali Khademhosseinidfgh and Seok Hyun Yun*ad High-tech businesses are the driving force behind global knowledge-based economies. Academic institutions have positioned themselves to serve the high-tech industry through consulting, licensing, and university spinoffs. The awareness of commercialization strategies and building an entrepreneurial culture can help academics to efficiently transfer their inventions to the market to achieve the maximum value. Here, the concept of high-tech entrepreneurship is discussed from lab to market in technology-intensive sectors such as nanotechnology, photonics, and biotechnology, specifically in the context of lab-on-a-chip Received 26th May 2015, devices. This article provides strategies for choosing a commercialization approach, financing a startup, Accepted 22nd July 2015 marketing a product, and planning an exit. Common reasons for startup company failures are discussed and guidelines to overcome these challenges are suggested. The discussion is supplemented with case DOI: 10.1039/c5lc00577a studies of successful and failed companies. Identifying a market need, assembling a motivated manage- www.rsc.org/loc ment team, managing resources, and obtaining experienced mentors lead to a successful exit. 1. The university entrepreneur channels for global integration and technology transfer through multinational corporations. Knowledge spillovers The era of global entrepreneurship offers worldwide trade, from academic institutions to private industry are major driv- – international capital and investment, intercontinental supply ing force behind economic growth and increase in welfare.1 3 chains, migration of talent, and expansion of knowledge- Increasing investment in research is an incentive for universi- based economies. The integration of international economies ties to raise revenues by licensing intellectual property (IP) has resulted in open policies, liberalization of trade and and spinning off companies.4 The focus of technology trans- advances in transport and communication. The multinational fer is directed to exploitation of comparative advantages businesses in the developed world are now challenged by the within global competition. Hence, optimization of technology new global players emerging from the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, transfer from academic institutions to industry and creating Published on 06 August 2015. Downloaded by California Institute of Technology 17/09/2015 16:03:50. India and China) economies. The realization of foreign direct high-value products through university spinoffs has become a investment and increasing export of expertise are vital necessity for fueling economic growth (Fig. 1). This trend also represents a shift away from physical assets to knowledge and intangible assets such as human capital.5 a Harvard Medical School and Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 65 Landsdowne Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] b Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA c Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Blvd, Pasadena, California 91125, USA d Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA e School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK f Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering, Brigham Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139, USA g Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA h Department of Physics, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia † The authors declare no competing financial interest. ‡ Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/ Fig. 1 The development of a startup company in knowledge-based c5lc00577a economies. 3638 | Lab Chip,2015,15,3638–3660 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2015 View Article Online Lab on a Chip Critical review The high-tech industries include photonics, nanotechnol- idea into a high-potential commercial product, gathering ogy, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, resources such as co-founders and financial capital, develop- – robotics, and telecommunications.6 18 These sectors require ing commercialization and marketing strategies, and manag- smaller, lighter, faster, more efficient and functional compo- ing the growth of the enterprise (Fig. 2). nents at the nano/microscales. This demand gave rise to min- The efficient transfer of emerging technologies from aca- iaturized self-contained and high-throughput micro- demic institutions to industry requires entrepreneurial cul- electromechanical systems, lab-on-a-chip components and ture, optimized licensing strategies, strong academia-industry microfluidics to transform the way researchers investigate partnership, and organizational support to spin-off compa- and gain insight into fundamental chemical, physical and nies.27,28 While the mission of academic institutions is to biological processes.19 These fields lie at the interface of engi- exchange knowledge by supporting basic scientific discover- neering, physics, chemistry and biology and offer promise in ies, they also focus on commercial initiatives. For example, the development of practical lab-on-a-chip systems for appli- the mission of the Wyss Institute and Innovation Lab at Har- cations in single cell analysis,20 drug discovery,21 genetics vard is to translate ideas into products by developing proto- and proteomics,22 environmental monitoring,23 plant sci- types, validating them against market needs, forming ences,24 and point-of-care diagnostics.25,26 High-tech entre- startups, and building corporate alliances. The Vice Provost preneurship involves creating a new business by turning an for Research at Harvard, Professor Richard McCullough, Published on 06 August 2015. Downloaded by California Institute of Technology 17/09/2015 16:03:50. Fig. 2 Roadmap for the commercialization of inventions in high-tech businesses. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2015 Lab Chip,2015,15, 3638–3660 | 3639 View Article Online Critical review Lab on a Chip stated that the university has adopted an aggressive commer- The United States government creates economic incentives cialization strategy over the last decade. The university spins for universities to commercialize their research. IP is thus off about 10 companies per year, and 20–40 students pursue commonly awarded to the university rather than the individ- entrepreneurial careers each year. However, MIT has histori- ual. Prior to 1980, inventions that resulted from federally cally been focused on the advancement of industrial science funded research were controlled by the government. After the and commercialization of inventions. In 2013, they launched passage of the Bayh-Dole Act, however, the ownership of this the Innovation Initiative, which is an institute-wide program IP was handed to the universities and businesses to foster that focuses on expanding MIT's innovation capabilities to commercialization.4,31 Therefore, in the United States, TTOs solve critical challenges in medicine, environmental issues, are typically an integral part of the institution. Researchers and energy. Across the Atlantic, the University of Cambridge should consult the TTOs as early as possible so that sufficient established Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) to in invest time can be spent developing the patent before publication. in high-growth technology companies in the Cambridge While most TTOs in the United States provide licensing high-tech cluster. CIC utilizes a longer-term investment advice, some institutions such as Cornell's Center for Tech- approach to support businesses through to maturity without nology Licensing also provides consultation in startup com- having to provide early exits for investors. These examples mercialization and marketing. are indicative of the commercialization awareness in aca- In Europe, most academic patents are assigned to compa- demic institutions that has become an integral part of nies, followed by universities, public research organizations, knowledge-based economies. and individual inventors.32 However, the distribution of Here, the evolution of a university spin-off company from patent ownership, their respective legal norms on IP and idea to exit is discussed, and technology transfer strategies institutional policies differ across European countries.33 are outlined. Potential pitfalls are identified, and practical With the exception of Italy and Sweden, the IP rights are not strategies to create a successful startup company are assigned to academic inventors.34 In Europe, some TTOs are described. These strategies are supplemented with case stud- subsidiaries of universities. At the University of Cambridge, ies that describe failed and successful startups. Furthermore, for example, the academic inventors can choose to opt out of this article investigates the role of innovation-driven enter- working with Cambridge Enterprise Ltd.35 In this case,

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