In Fiscal Year 2015, ICO finalized 157 new industry sponsored research agreements (SRAs), where companies fund, and sometimes collaborate on, research projects in Stanford laboratories. The School of Medicine accounted for about 53% of these SRAs and the School of Engineering accounted for about another 31% of the total. The School of Humanities and Sciences accounted for another 9%. The rest of the agreements were for projects in the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, the Graduate School of Education, the Graduate School of Business and the Independent Laboratories.
Among the other agreements that ICO finalized, Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) continued to account for the largest number -- with about 460 new MTAs for incoming materials and 182 outgoing MTAs. Another 58 agreements covered sending out human tissues for research purposes.
Other ICO agreements included more than 169 amendments to existing sponsored research agreements, plus new collaborations, data sharing, equipment loans, non-disclosure and other research-related agreements.
In the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences:
Total E&P Recherche Development SAS of France is supporting the research of Professor Hamdi Tchelepi (Energy Research Engineering) that will investigate a physics-based, multi-scale framework for modeling fracturing and oil and gas production from source rock, and to conduct and design and preliminary tests of an experiment to visualize in real-time source rock evolution undergoing mechanical and thermal stress. The funding is $7.47 million over five years.
The Columbian petroleum company Ecopetrol is sponsoring the research of two professors in Energy Resources Engineering: Anthony Kovscek and Margot Gerritsen, who are investigating effective and predictive modeling of thermal enhanced recovery processes. Ecopetrol is providing funding of $4.23 Million dollars to support five years of research activities.
In the School of Medicine:
F. Hoffman-LaRoche Ltd. funded two projects under its Extending Innovation Network master agreement with Stanford: Professor Thomas Sudhof in Molecular and Cellular Physiology is researching the synaptic basis of stereotypic behaviors, which looks at neural dysfunction that results in repetitive behaviors found in certain neurological conditions; and Biology Professor Liqun Luo’s is researching connectivity defects in mouse models of tuberous sclerosis, which explores neural issues common in conditions such as autism.
Professor Jill Helms (Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery) received $659,884 in funding from Ankasa Regenerative Therapeutics, an early-stage company focused on pharmaceutical methods to reactivate stem cells to accelerate healing and tissue regeneration. With Ankasa’s support, Prof. Helms’ lab will perform research related to use of L-WNT3A to speed bone regeneration in a variety of lead indications.
