Efforts to transform ideas and inventions into profitable, marketable commodities paid off big time for Northeastern last year: The university’s patents, inventions, and technologies brought in more than $1.6 million in licensing and royalty income.

That’s up from $100,000 in 1999, according to Anthony Pirri, director of the five-year-old Division of Technology Transfer, which oversees the marketing effort.

“What we’ve accomplished is extraordinary, especially when you consider that most academic offices of technology transfer take years to just break even,” Pirri says. “This success can be attributed to Northeastern’s innovative faculty members performing outstanding research in areas of strong commercial interest, as well as the work we’re doing trying to turn inventions into business deals.”

Much of the revenue was spurred by technologies created by the Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis. For instance, the institute developed bioanalytical instrumentation that separates genes for individual identification for the Human Genome Project. Other inventions have come from the Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems in the areas of antibiotic development and nanotechnology.

“Without the Tech Transfer office, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we’ve done,” says Barry Karger, director of the Barnett Institute, noting the oversight of patents, inventions, and collaborations is a “huge job.”

Pirri agrees the five-person office has been a critical piece. “We now have a strong professional staff giving full-time attention to turning these inventions into successful business ventures,” he says.

Determining what society needs or wants is the hardest part of the job, Pirri says. “Figuring out the next big thing, and whether an idea will be commercially viable, is complicated. We have to understand the market.”

Hot areas, according to Pirri: Biotechnology, engineering, nanotechnology, renewable energy, and advanced instrumentation.

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