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MSU vice president Tom McCoy proud of diverse research programs

BOZEMAN — Montana State University started as a land-grant institution, but research there goes way beyond its roots in agriculture and engineering. The university has its fingers in the fight against cancer, whirling disease, chronic wasting disease; laser optics; an industrial slime dubbed biofilm; genetically engineered strains of herbicide-resisent wheat; and hundreds of other research projects with potential to expand Montana’s economic base.

By BRIAN MAFFLY For The Tribune

The amount of money expended on MSU-sponsored research has quadrupled since 1990. Last fiscal year, the university spent a record $66 million on research. About 75 percent of this money came from federal agencies, such as National Institutes of Health (NIH), departments of Agriculture, Energy and Defense, NASA and the National Science Foundation. The rest came from state agencies, private nonprofits and corporations. MSU currently runs 40 licensing agreements for university-developed technology, more than half with Montana companies.

MSU Vice President for Research Tom McCoy does not like to single out any one project for praise. But he gets excited when he talks about the Thermal Biology Institute, whose researchers are identifying new microbial life forms in saline lakes under Antarctica’s glaciers and in Yellowstone’s thermal features. He recently shared his thoughts on MSU research with The Great Falls Tribune.

Q: What is your agricultural background?

A: I came out of graduate school as a basic biological scientist with a degree in zoology and ended up with an interest in plant genetics. It was in the early days of tissue culture and plant genetic engineering. That’s still my disciplinary research . I still have a lab in the Ag BioSciences building and we do genetic engineering of alfalfa, of all things.

Q: What is your department’s mission?

A: A big part of our program is to grow research by fostering research efforts of our faculty and recognize federal grant opportunities of various kinds from every kind of federal agency. Our main mission is to find every possible way to support research enterprises at Montana State University.

Q: What research opportunities do you see arising from our nation’s growing interest in homeland security?

A: It has motivated the government to put additional funding toward issues revolving around bioterroism as well as defense issues. The vast, vast majority of the funding is not going to be research opportunities. It will be Coast Guard and border detection systems and so on. But there will be a significant increase in federal funding for research related to countering terrorist actions. For the Department of Defense, we have already been working in areas related to a biological attack, to infectious diseases that revolve around wildlife populations and can be transmitted to livestock; livestock can transmit it to humans.

Q: How will the nation’s economic climate affect future funding levels?

A: The economy of the nation is basically in recession and has been for a while, yet federal funding for research has been on the rise. This is the last year of a five-year period during which the NIH research budget has doubled from a $13.5 billion to $27 billion enterprise. We have a Congress that really does see science and engineering research as a way to grow the economy, as a way to solve some of the nation’s problems. I don’t see there being a receding of federal support. I see it increasing.

Q: What is some of the MSU-funded research you find most exciting?

A: I find it all exciting. We are doing great things on this campus.

Q: Could you give us some examples?

A: We have a group that takes advantage of the (Yellowstone National) Park, working with thermophilic (heat-tolerant) organisms, viruses, bacteria, fungi and plants that live in extreme environments. These folks made a very interesting discovery, whereby the grasses that grow in these thermophilic soils. It’s actually a fungus that grows in association with the plant that allows the plant to tolerate high temperatures. It’s incredibly exciting. You’re dealing with a whole new arena of organisms undiscovered prior to these guys’ studies down in the park.

Q: How is MSU-developed technology transferred to the private sector for commercial use?

A: There are two models. The university transfers the technology to an enterprise, oftentimes a nonprofit, and that enterprise does the marketing, the assessment and licensing under a memorandum of understanding. We were under that model as of July 1. We are now of the other model, which is done in-house. So we now have the Technology Transfer Office directed by Dr. Rebecca Mahurin.

A faculty member who makes a discovery on our campus using university resources is, by contract, to disclose that invention. We assess whether it is worth it to file patent protection. We will be much more aggressively assessing our technologies for their true potential, as well as working to market our technologies. To find a licensee, there is a long courtship before the marriage is made. We negotiate back and forth. Will the company sponsor further research for additional development? Will they assist in patent costs associated with the royalty arrangement?

Q: Give us an example of an MSU-sponsored technology and how the licensing agreement works.

A: Mark Jutila (a professor of molecular biology) has an anti-inflammatory called EL-246. It could be used for heart attack patients. The studies are looking promising. We have a licensee, (Bozeman-based pharmaceutical company) LigoCyte. In addition to having exclusive rights to the technology, the company is also helping Mark with additional development on his research. The home run for us is if we invent something here, it gets developed in concert with a local company and that company can make a lot of money. That’s what we should do.

Q: Does that licensing result in revenue returning to the department and how is it spent?

A: According to Board of Regents policy, after expenses have been recouped, half of the royalty revenue comes back to the university and the Technology Transfer Office identifies how those monies are reinvested. The other half goes back to the inventor. I firmly believe that the justification for doing this was that historically salaries in the university system aren’t as competitive as in other places.

This was held out in the entrepreneurial spirit of saying, "You come here. You do research at MSU and you hit on something big, you can partake in half the royalties." For some of our basic people in physics and biological sciences, that is a plus on the recruitment balance sheet.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20021222/localnews/628673.html

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