image: Since its founding in 1884, the Trudeau Institute has been committed to improving health through medical research. Today, 125 years later, the Trudeau Institute is home to a dozen faculty members, who all study some aspect of infection and immunity, but across a variety of different pathogens. Our studies focus not only on immune responses to major infectious diseases, such as influenza and tuberculosis, but also on the role of the immune system in cancer, autoimmunity, and aging. view more
Credit: The Trudeau Institute Archives
Saranac Lake, N.Y. - The Trudeau Institute and Health Research Incorporated (HRI) have established a unique partnership aimed at advancing the commercialization of medical and scientific discoveries made at the institute to maximize their benefit to public health worldwide.
The Trudeau Institute was originally created as a tuberculosis treatment center in 1884. With the advent of antibiotics in the middle of the last century, however, the institute was reorganized as a research organization, with a specific mission to learn how the immune system responds to infectious diseases. Today, Trudeau is credited with a host of scientific discoveries that have contributed greatly to the understanding of the immune system.
Under the exclusive agreement between the two organizations, HRI will provide technology transfer services to Trudeau, including market evaluation, intellectual property evaluation and protection, business development, marketing, licensing, and new venture formation.
The arrangement provides Trudeau with access to HRI professional staff and resources both in technology transfer and sponsored research management. HRI brings a well-developed network of corporate licensing and business contacts, funding sources, investors, and researchers. Each of Trudeau's existing and future inventions will be subject to a methodical approach to analyze, protect and license promising technologies.
The Trudeau Institute has historically managed these activities internally. "Partnering with HRI will reduce the need for day-to-day technology management and, importantly, will add HRI's technology-transfer expertise, said Steve Smiley, director of corporate relations and member of Trudeau's scientific faculty. "This combination will allow our scientists to focus on research, while still managing the strategic decisions in intellectual property and licensing."
Since the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, HRI has established hundreds of patents and technology licenses that have resulted in the commercialization of medical advancements, such as the Prostate Specific Antigen test ("PSA test"), HIV-1 co-receptor usage test, photodynamic cancer therapy, assistive communication devices for persons with spinal cord injuries, and several pharmaceuticals.
"As a basic research institution, discoveries made at the Trudeau Institute often lead to vaccines and other therapeutic strategies that improve human health," stated David L. Woodland, president of the institute. "Trudeau's mission is to improve health and protect people from disease. This partnership will help us to more rapidly transition our discoveries from the laboratory bench to the patient's bedside."
"The Trudeau Institute is a gem, a place where world-class scientists are drawn to push the envelope of immunology research aimed at diseases affecting millions of people worldwide," said Michael Nazarko, executive director of HRI. "Forging strategic relationships geared to delivering Trudeau's pioneering biomedical research to patients is consistent with HRI's mission of advancing the interests of public health," he added.
The Trudeau Institute is an independent, not-for-profit biomedical research organization, whose scientific mission is to make breakthrough discoveries leading to improved human health. Trudeau researchers are identifying the basic mechanisms used by the immune system to combat viruses like influenza, mycobacteria, such as tuberculosis, parasites and cancer, so that better vaccines and therapies can be developed for fighting deadly disease. The research is supported by government grants and philanthropic contributions.
Health Research, Incorporated (HRI) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation affiliated with the New York State Department of Health (DOH) and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) a leading cancer research center located in Buffalo, NY. HRI's mission is to assist DOH, RPCI and other public health institutions to effectively evaluate, solicit, and administer external financial support for scientific research and public health programs, and to disseminate the benefits their research through programs such as technology transfer.