If necessity is the mother of invention, money is its father.
Maryland?s private enterprises rank third in the nation after California and Massachusetts in federal enterprise grants for developing new technology, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Dave Krausman, of Bel Air,capitalized on Small Business Innovation Research grants from the National Institutes of Health for 12 years as chief executive officer. The former Johns Hopkins researcher and his partner, Richard Allen, developed more than 40 patents relying on more than $10 million in federal money during that time.
“They are intended for small companies who have the technical expertise to be able to develop a product and take it to the marketplace,” said Krausman, 68.
Their inventions provide intimate monitoring for sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, sports training, and other health and fitness applications.
His parent institution, Johns Hopkins University, takes in $8 million to $10 million a year in royalties from technology developed and licensed by its professors and students.
This year alone, Johns Hopkins? innovators produced multilayered stents, which suspend cell-therapy tissues safely inside a human artery, and compact vital-sign monitors to save lives in the emergency room. The school?s Applied Physics Laboratory in Howard County designed a ceramic, glass and rubber robot that can assist precision surgery inside a magnetic resonance imaging machine, and a natural-looking prosthetic arm that can feel heat and pressure.
“As this technology is getting to the market, eventually we have this benefit for the patient. That?s the most important thing we want,” said Aditya Polsani, technology transfer chief for Johns Hopkins.
The money the school makes ? 50 percent of the proceeds or $10 million in 2006 ? pales next to the $1.03 billion the school took in from research grants last year.
The small-business grants fill a gap between research and big industry, Krausman said.
“Professors are not entrepreneurs,” he said. “Mostly they publish their work so they can move on to the next study. … And the industry for the most part isn?t putting money into the researchand development of these devices.”
