UT ranks high in yield from research spending

BYLINE: JOSHUA BOAK BLADE STAFF WRITER

The University of Toledo is among the world's top nonprofit organizations at transforming research dollars into biotechnology companies, according to a Milken Institute study released yesterday.

For every $14 million UT spent on research in 2004, it created one new biotechnology start-up, a ratio that ranks it seventh among academic centers in Europe, Asia, and North America, the nonprofit economic think thank reported.

The ranking does not include research expenditures by the Medical University of Ohio, which merged with UT in July and became the Health Science Campus. Research expenditures at both institutions totaled $53 million in 2004.

"I think we'll continue to grow, now that we have the Health Science Campus," said Frank Calzonetti, vice president for research development at UT. "The leaders in this community seem to be embracing the need to have a more innovation-based community."

UT spun off two companies in 2004, but did not have specifics available.

Satakunta Polytechnic in Finland ranked first in new businesses per research expenditures in 2004, establishing one new company for every $400,000. Brigham Young University in Utah placed second, with one spin-off for every $5 million.

UT fared less well in the biotechnology patent index, which measured the quality and quantity of patents an institution generated. Based on data from 2000 to 2004, it placed 240 out of 424. The University of Texas; the University of California, San Francisco; and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore held the top three positions.

"I wasn't surprised to see that because we really didn't start ramping up until 2002," Mr. Calzonetti said.

Until 2000, Ohio law prohibited professors at public universities from starting companies.

"UT had these new policies to get faculty involved in research, and get faculty inventors involved in business," said UT physics professor Xunming Deng, who founded Midwest Optoelectronics, a solar energy developer, in 2002. "Since then, there were a lot of companies created."

Although UT has improved its access to research dollars and commercialization of patents since 2000, university officials have acknowledged that its research expenditures are not large enough to be the central incubator of technology in metropolitan Toledo'.

Increasing research expenditures is one of the university's chief priorities post-merger.

The University of Akron performed strongly in the Milken study because of its graduate program in polymers.

Between 2000 and 2004, it ranked eighth globally, creating a company for each $20 million spent on research. The university was first in the world in patents issued per $1 million in research during that period. But it ranked 312th in Milken's biotechnology index.

A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that patents per capita are the leading predictor of wealth. It explained that a drop in patents compared with the rest of the country - and not manufacturing job loss - led to Ohio's economic difficulties.

Ohio ranked sixth in patents per capita in 1954 but slipped to 20th by 2001.

Contact Joshua Boak at: jboak@theblade.com