IP Advocate collaborates with Marion Kauffman Foundation on education and policy initiatives

Oct 7 2009

Sharing a mutual goal of helping researchers turn their discoveries into products that help people and stimulate the economy, IP Advocate (http://www.IPAdvocate.org) founder and noted scientist Dr. Renee Kaswan is collaborating with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (http://www.kauffman.org) on a range of education and policy initiatives.

On October 8, Dr. Kaswan will participate in a panel discussion “Empowering the University Entrepreneur.” The panel is part of an event that kicks off the Kauffman Foundation’s new Entrepreneur Postdoctoral Fellows program. Thirteen of the nation's top scientific postdoctoral researchers have been selected to participate in the 2009-10 fellowship program to learn how to evaluate their research for commercial potential and the process to take promising research forward to commercialization.

As part of the panel, Dr. Kaswan will share her own experiences as an academic researcher-turned-entrepreneur, and the complex process of turning her own discovery into products that now help treat dry eye disease in millions of people and pets.

“The Kauffman Foundation is an amazing resource for researchers and scientists – offering a combination of both education and inspiration to people who want to turn their ideas into something tangible that will help others,” said Dr. Kaswan. “The Foundation itself, and the dedicated people behind it, are invaluable associates to IP Advocate and to university researchers across the nation.”

“The Kauffman Entrepreneur Postdoctoral Fellows will be immersed in an intensive training program not available anywhere in the world, and Dr. Kaswan’s presentation will be a valuable contribution to helping them advance their discoveries to the marketplace,” said Lesa Mitchell, vice president of Advancing Innovation at the Kauffman Foundation.

Dr. Kaswan is inventor of the patent that is the basis for the billion-dollar drug Restasis®. She also is founder of Georgia Veterinary Specialists and former University of Georgia (UGA) Veterinary Ophthalmology professor. Her patented treatment for chronic dry-eye remains the most profitable invention in UGA’s history and has been hailed as one of the “University Innovations that Changed the World” by the University of Virginia Patent Foundation. Dr. Kaswan was recognized by the University of Georgia as its “Inventor of the Year” in 1998 and received UGA’s Creative Research Medal in 1992.

Wanting to help other researchers avoid the pitfalls she has faced on the path of commercialization, Dr. Kaswan created IP Advocate to help academic researchers preserve their rights in their work and to cultivate an online community that focuses on safeguarding the valuable innovations discovered by faculty inventors. 

http://www.ipadvocate.org/studies/kaswan/.