ARTI a prime mover in transferring 'tech to biz'

New president brings background in molecular biology

By Susan Williams

ARTI will be involved in the Central Indiana Life Sciences Initiative, involved in the development of a business incubator and developing the corridor from West Lafayette to Bloomington as a hub for life sciences.

"The role of ARTI has 'exploded' in the past three years," Long said recently. "Under previous president Ron Henrikson, ARTI began to take an active role in setting the groundwork for several important new IU projects, including the proteomics initiative, the Midwest Proton Radiation Institute project and the Indiana Genomics Initiative."

As president of ARTI, a private not-for-profit organization, Long is responsible for supervising the growth of current activities in technology transfer and the department of trademarks and licensing, and for supporting new start-up businesses. He also will be directly involved in the Central Indiana Life Sciences Initiative, recently announced by IU, the City of Indianapolis, the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, Purdue University and the Indiana Health Industry Forum as an effort to further develop the corridor from West Lafayette to Bloomington as a hub for the life sciences industry. An important factor in that initiative is the development of a business incubator.

"ARTI will be called upon to provide expertise in the selection of possible businesses to occupy the incubator and to assist those businesses in finding the necessary financial and physical resources to succeed," said Long. "This is a primary mission for ARTI—to successfully 'move' technology from the research phase to the business phase, providing new jobs and new businesses in Indiana."

A molecular biologist, Long most recently was director of technical operations in the Center of Technology Management at Washington University in St. Louis. He was responsible for business development activities in biomedical sciences, including marketing inventions, promoting licensure of discoveries, evaluating patentability and promoting university/industry collaborations on research projects for clinical and biotechnology industries.

Long said that his ARTI staff is making a concerted effort to present its services and offer to assistance with intellectual property needs.

"Anyone should feel free to contact our office," he said. "We can meet with individually or offer a short group presentation."

For more information,

E-mail Long at mslong@indiana.edu or visit ARTI's Web site:

http://arti.indiana.edu