Tuesday October 9, 2001

As part of a movement toward pairing academia and industry, four UA professors started a company to turn their research into a product, despite concern about a conflict of the professors' interests.

The company will create a new type of microscope-like device that will allow doctors in rural areas to more easily obtain second opinions for a prognosis, extending the reach of rural medicine statewide.

The device saves time by allowing doctors to look at a bigger area, with the same amount of detail that a microscope provides. When manufactured, the device will also be less expensive than comparable microscopes and will record images for digital transmission.

The professors launching the company - Michael Descour, James Wyant and Peter Bartels of the optical sciences department, and Ronald Weinstein of the pathology department - say they cannot give specifics about how the device works at this time because the patent is pending.

"We're sort of in the stealth mode," said Descour, co-founder of DMetrix Inc. and associate professor of optical sciences.

The idea of forming DMetrix Inc. originated in March 2000.

The Arizona Board of Regents approved formation of the company Sept. 26, acknowledging a conflict of interest existed in optical sciences professors owning a company related to their research.

"The conflict comes when the faculty member has obligations to both the university and the company, but it can be managed," said Dick Powell, vice president for Research and Graduate Studies, and chair of a committee that oversees cases of conflicts of interests.

Commonly, professors do not work on projects that involve their work in companies, Powell said.

Though Descour does work in optical sciences, he does not work on any projects related to the microscope-like device.

"From 8 to 5, I'm a professor," Descour said.

It will be years before the final product, now an idea on a chalkboard, takes the form of a manufactured product, Descour said.

DMetrix is one example of how ABOR expects Arizona public universities to lead the way in improving Arizona's economy through collaboration with industry. The collaboration process began 10 years ago, but has been emphasized in recent ABOR meetings.

In one example of how academia and industry are merging, students of the Karl Eller Center's Berger Entrepreneurship Program were assigned one-year projects where they create businesses based on research completed at the UA.

The idea is that UA students will start businesses in Arizona after they graduate. Academic areas likely to result in business ventures are supported at the state level.

Biotechnology, hydrology, information sciences and optical sciences receive funding via Proposition 301, which voters passed in November of last year.

Research that leads to inventions at the UA is patented. In cases of research that are patentable and likely to result in a product, the patent is then licensed to companies for their use.

ABOR owns the rights to the research from UA employees.

UA revenue from licensing and fees patents totaled $834,000 in the last fiscal year, up 126 percent from the year before.

Federal funding accounts for a sizable amount of UA research funding.

The UA receives $190 million, or 56 percent, of its funding from federal sources, said Frank Hartdegen, director of the Office of Technology Transfer. In receiving this funding, the UA is obligated to patent inventions made by UA employees.

The company will also provide jobs for UA graduates, though it is not clear how many at this point.

"It's going to be an optics company, but there will be needs for electronics and mechanical engineering," Descour said. "The university would be the first place we'd go to look for employees."