Peter O’Neill
Associate Vice Chancellor
Chief Innovation Officer, Technology Commercialization
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A boom in startups is primed to begin in Aggieland.

Leaders within The Texas A&M University System said this week that they expect a new approach to commercialization to lead to the creation of thousands of original discoveries, hundreds of innovative companies, and a massive increase in patents derived from the hard work of Texas A&M System researchers and scientists.

“I expect big things from the new commercialization push at Texas A&M,” Sharp said. “I think A&M System inventors will spark an explosion of venture capital and the creation of a lot of exciting new companies.”

At the heart of the new direction is the vision of Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp and President M. Katherine Banks of Texas A&M University. Sharp and Banks realized the opportunities that will be realized when Texas A&M and the System reorganize and consolidate five commercialization offices that have operated independently until now.

The move brings together the commercialization offices of:

• Texas A&M University
• Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
• Texas A&M Transportation Institute
• Texas A&M AgriLife Research and
• Texas A&M System’s Technology Commercialization Office

Together, the historically separate entities now will serve all 19 members of the Texas A&M System. Sharp said the new office will help the System to build a robust commercialization ecosystem and will allow System researchers to license technology and form companies that address national and global challenges.

Sharp and Banks also announced the leaders of the effort. Peter O’Neill, who has extensive experience in commercialization at one of the nation’s most pioneering medical institutions, the Cleveland Clinic, will lead the office as the inaugural Chief Innovation Officer. Also, Joe Cunningham, who holds a bachelor’s degree and medical degree from Texas A&M, will be the chairman of a new Innovation Advisory Council. Cunningham co-founded Santé Ventures in Austin in 2006 and is nationally recognized for his expertise in the healthcare sector.

Sharp and Banks reached the decision to consolidate the commercialization offices after they engaged with faculty, staff, inventors, leadership, alumni, venture capitalists, incubator and accelerator directors, and innovation leaders at peer institutions. The goal from the beginning was to understand how to make the Texas A&M commercialization enterprise a national model and a leader among all U.S. universities.

The idea behind the concept came out of a need for a more streamlined way to take new ideas and inventions and commercialize them and quickly get them into the marketplace. The consolidated effort will provide centralized intellectual property protection, licensing, and assistance for new venture formation for all members.

“Our new approach to commercialization will significantly benefit our researchers, The Texas A&M University System, and society at large. Streamlining and expanding our resources will drive life-changing technology and solutions to the market faster, increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, and generate revenue to support the future success of these new companies and their innovations,” Banks said. “I believe our approach will soon be a model for other top universities across the country.”

The new combined office has been set up in a renovated and contemporary space in Century Square in College Station, a complex of high-end hotels, restaurants, shops, and apartments.

TBN
Chief Research Compliance Officer
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The Texas A&M System Office of Research Compliance, working with the A&M System’s 11 universities and 8 state agencies, provides administrative oversight to ensure that each member develops, implements, and maintains an appropriate research compliance program, and to facilitate and coordinate research compliance programs within and between members.

Dr. Patrick Stover
IHA Director
979.845.8486
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Patrick Stover, Ph.D., is the director of the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) at Texas A&M AgriLife. The IHA is the world’s first research institute to bring together precision nutrition, responsive agriculture, and behavioral research to reduce diet-related chronic disease in a way that considers environmental and economic effects. Supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS) and the state of Texas, the IHA has an annual budget of more than $30 million and includes an embedded USDA-ARS unit.

As an international leader in biochemistry, agriculture and nutrition, Stover’s research focuses on the biochemical, genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that underlie the relationships among nutrition, food fortification and human pathologies such as developmental anomalies, neuropathies and cancer. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is former president of the American Society for Nutrition and has served two terms on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board. He received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Clinton, the government’s highest honor bestowed on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.
He has over 23 years of academic leadership experience, serving as vice chancellor and dean for agriculture and life sciences at Texas A&M AgriLife, director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research, and director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Saint Joseph’s University, a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biophysics from the Medical College of Virginia and completed his postdoctoral studies in nutritional sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.