The Iowa Stater
May 1996
The tech trek
An 8-year lesson in technology transfer
Nick Christians wasn't looking to become an inventor, but
science often produces unexpected results. What the Iowa State horticulture professor saw in a "failed" experiment 10 years ago has become a successful organic weed killer for lawns. Christians beat the odds -- most university laboratory ideas don't become money-making products.
Technology transfer, the process of shifting new ideas and discoveries to private companies, seems simple -- come up with an idea, patent it, find a company to market it and watch sales and royalty income grow.
The process is also slow. Patent delays, the need for additional research and development, regulatory approvals and lengthy negotiations with companies can stall or halt commercialization at any step along the way.
Alan Paau directs ISU's Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer. He also is executive director of the ISU Research Foundation Inc. (isurf), the organization that owns and manages the university's intellectual property. Paau said, on average, for every 100 Iowa State inventions considered for commercialization, about 30 to 35 are patented, 20 are licensed to companies and perhaps five are commercially successful.
Just what they're looking for
Christians' product went from the laboratory to the
marketplace in a relatively short eight years because it was
the right product at the right time, Paau said.
Christians' weed killer uses natural herbicidal properties he discovered by accident in corn gluten meal, a byproduct of making corn starch. The product is an environmentally friendly alternative to synthetic chemical pesticides.
Christians was using leftover cornmeal from the Iowa State residence halls as a growth medium to test the effects of a grass fungus on golf course greens. The fungus did nothing to the grass, but Christians noticed something odd. There was reduced growth in control plots of grass treated with cornmeal only. Turning his attention to the cornmeal, he soon discovered that protein from corn -- corn gluten meal -- inhibited root growth in germinating grasses, but didn't affect established turf.
Christians knew he was on to something. "Almost right away, I believed this had potential for mar-keting," he said. "I thought, 'Hey, this is just what people are looking for.'"
Contacting companies
Not knowing how to begin, he called ISURF officials, who
agreed that the product was marketable. ISURF-hired patent
attorneys filed for protection. Normally ISURF officials
pitch product ideas to companies as they seek patent
protections. But because officials believed the herbicide
easily could be commercialized by a company with knowledge of
the product, they sought patent protection first.
Patenting does more than protect royalty income, Paau said. It allows Iowa State to manage the product, ensuring quality control over its production, labeling and marketing.
The patenting process took about two years -- a long time for Christians, but from Paau's experience, "That's really pretty fast." He said patent office rejections and product advances requiring additional patents can delay the protection process for years.
With patent in hand, ISURF officials started contacting companies in the turfgrass industry. Initial interest was high and Christians made several presentations to company officials. Some lost interest because they didn't believe the herbicide fit their product lines, and others didn't want to invest in developing the product for market.
"You find the interest drops quickly when companies have to put up money," Christians said.
Gardens Alive!, a Lawrenceburg, Ind., organic lawn and garden company, saw the herbicide's potential early on, and eventually negotiated a license with ISURF.
A-Maizing Lawn debuts
Once a company gets the rights to a product, it
generally must invest a great deal of time and money before
commercialization. Biomedical products, for instance, can
take 20 years and tens of millions of dollars to
commercialize. However, because the corn gluten meal
herbicide is a natural product, it required little research
and development.
Another potentially big hurdle, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registration, came in only a year. "That's extraordinarily fast," said Christians, noting it normally takes at least two years. Christians' herbicide sailed through the red tape because the EPA has been mandated to act quickly on requests for substitutes for synthetic pesticides.
A few months after EPA approval, in fall 1994, the product appeared in the Gardens Alive! catalog under the name of A-Maizing Lawn. Christians said product sales passed the $1 million mark in late 1995.
Two Iowa companies also are licensed to sell the corn gluten meal herbicide. A Fairfield firm is readying a brand for the marketplace and a Des Moines lawn care company applies corn gluten meal on lawns. They're the first of what Paau hopes are many companies licensed to sell the herbicide.
"ISURF still is actively marketing corn gluten meal herbicide to potential licensees," Paau said. "Our goal is to make sure new technologies are widely available and being used, and that Iowa State gets a good return."
This fall, a full decade after his discovery of corn meal's effect on grass growth, Christians will receive his first royalty check. "Perhaps a few thousand dollars," he guessed. Iowa State also will make money. After administrative and legal fees are collected, ISURF policy calls for the inventor, the inventor's college or research center, and ISURF to evenly divide the remaining royalties.
A growing market niche
Christians said the technology transfer process was slow
and sometimes frustrating. Paau said that is a normal
reaction.
"Ninety-nine percent of the time, when faculty members have invented something worthy of being marketed, they become students," Paau said. "It's an eye-opening experience and a much longer process than most believe. But it can be a rewarding process."
The future looks rosy for the corn gluten meal weed killer. It's the only natural pre-emergent herbicide in the turfgrass industry. In addition, corn gluten meal contains nitrogen and acts as a fertilizer for mature grass. On the other hand, A-Maizing Lawn costs more than common synthetic herbicides and doesn't work as well. Research indicates that after three years of use, up to 80 percent of the weeds are controlled, compared to synthetic herbicides that kill nearly all weeds.
But Gardens Alive! serves a growing market niche of those willing to pay more for environ-mentally friendly products, said Gardens Alive! president Niles Kinerk. "We've had a really good response to A-Maizing Lawn," he said.
Although he has a successful product, Christians has no entrepreneurial ambitions. "I like teaching and doing research," he said. "I'll let the companies take it over and market it."
Obviously he doesn't believe the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, just less weedy.
-- Steve Jones, News Service
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