In November Ximbio attended AUTM Asia for the first time. The event was hosted by Yissum, the largest technology transfer office (TTO) in Israel, Yissum; part of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. AUTM Asia was attended by technology transfer offices from across Israel, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Europe and the US. 

With so many technology transfer offices attending, this was the perfect event for Ximbio to meet new potential collaborators and to find out about their exciting technologies. Whilst visiting Israel, the team took the opportunity to visit some of these fantastic TTOs, such as YEDA R&D, the TTO of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Weizman TTO


During the conference we also took part in some great workshops and discussions:

Tech Transfer Essentials:

Led by Marie Kerbeshian (University of Iowa) and Ray Wheatley (Apio Innovation Transfer). This workshop provided some great insights into the tech transfer industry, with a particular focus on negotiation, dealing with industry and scientists, licensing agreements and strategies on distributing and promoting technologies. This session was particularly interesting as it discussed the latest challenges faced by TTOs. 

Tech Transfer Metrics:

Moderated by Ofra Weinberger (Columbia Technology Ventures) this session discussed how TTOs are measured based on performance: including the number of license agreements; amount of licensing income; number of new spin outs; number of granted patents etc. The panel then discussed how relevant these are, for example, should TTOs really be measuring the number of spin-outs or should they measure the progression of their spin-outs five years from launch? The importance of metrics that technology transfer offices report on was a key theme of the conference.  

Best Practices in Establishing University-Based Innovation and Entrepeneurship Centres:

This session was presented by Amnon Dekkel from HUJI Innovate and discussed some recommended initiatives to adopt or avoid when setting up innovation centres. It was fascinating to hear about other ways that Universities are helping to get their technologies into the market place and how they generate impact at the same time. 


We look forward to continuing our discussions from this event with you over the next few months and hope to see you at one of the upcoming conferences. Find out how we can help you distribute, commercialise, store and promote your life sciences reagents.