Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovations and Entrepreneurship with Karthik Gopalakrishnan

Karthik Gopalakrishnan, the Director of Licensing and New Ventures at the Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), is Lisa's guest on this episode of Tech Transfer IP. Karthik has over 15 years of experience in asset and technology evaluation across broad scientific disciplines, marketing and negotiating agreements and contracts, business plan assessment, startup formation, and fundraising.

Karthik earned a Master of Science in Biotechnology from the MS University of Baroda and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. Karthik completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, NC.

Listen as Karthik shares his journey to UAB and what Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovations and Entrepreneurship strives to accomplish. He talks about how his office is structured and the number of intellectual property disclosures, patents issued, and licenses issued they average per year. 

Karthik speaks about what he believes is important when managing innovations to have the greatest opportunity for success and corporate partners' role in tech transfer at UAB. Karthik discusses two of his offices' biggest successes and some of their biggest challenges. Karthik also shares the value he believes organizations like AUTM bring to the industry, his view on credentialing, and his main vision for UAB in the next few years. 

In This Episode:

• [01:54] Welcome to the show, Karthik!
• [02:12] Karthik shares his background and his journey to UAB.
• [05:01] Karthik discusses Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UAB and what it strives to accomplish.
• [06:51] How is your office structured?
• [09:26] Karthik speaks about the number of intellectual property disclosures, patents issued, and the licenses issued per year.
• [11:34] Karthik shares how they plan on meeting their goals over the next few years.
• [14:02] Karthik talks about the strategies they have used to advance their translational goals.
• [16:40] What do you think is the most important in managing innovations to have the greatest opportunity for success?
• [18:35] Karthik discusses the role the corporate partners have played in tech transfer at UAB.
• [19:50] Karthik says that he has learned not to second guess decisions that were made back when he first started in the industry.
• [21:31] Karthik shares some of his office's biggest success stories.
• [23:56] Karthik talks about a recent approval by the FDA.
• [24:53] Karthik speaks about the two biggest challenges his office faces.
• [27:48] UAB doesn't have any current programs to help encourage and assist women entrepreneurs.
• [28:55] Karthik talks about the organizations they are involved with, like AUTM, and the value he believes they bring.
• [30:12] Do you believe that credentialing makes a difference?
• [31:40] Karthik shares his vision for UAB in the next five years.
• [33:11] Thank you for being on the show!

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