UMBI Hires Industrial Liaison to Further Aid Commercialization Efforts

Baltimore, MD-Dr. Jennie Hunter-Cevera, president of UMBI, and Dr. Claude Nash, vice president of the Office of Research and Development (ORD), announce Dr. Robert Powell has joined the ORD team as an Industrial Liaison. In this capacity Dr. Powell will work with UMBI faculty and external corporate entities to create collaborations that maximize the potential of UMBI's asset portfolio.

"We are pleased to make this announcement which further enhances our efforts to commercialize intellectual assets and provide marketing resources to UMBI entrepreneurs," said Dr. Jennie Hunter-Cevera. “As we grow our programs and asset portfolio, we are adding additional resources to foster even more dialogue between industry, academia and UMBI researchers.”

Before joining the ORD team, Dr. Powell was employed at UMBI’s Institute of Human Virology (IHV) where he managed their Core Laboratories and coordinated Intellectual Property protection activities for the center. His post-Doctoral positions included studies on HIV-1 vaccine delivery methods (IHV) and structure function relationships of pituitary hormones at Georgetown University. Dr. Powell has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Otago, New Zealand, and an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship from the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland College Park.
“As an IHV inventor with licensed patents, and as a faculty representative on the Patent Review Board, I have had the opportunity to work with Dr. Nash’s team over the last few years,” said Dr. Powell. "The Office of Research and Development team has always impressed me with their professionalism and desire to continually improve their services to faculty and the business community. I look forward to the challenges this position offers and to working with a great group of people.”

Dr. Powell will work closely with UMBI inventors to gain insight and understanding into their inventions so that he can market these inventions. He will also act as point person in identifying corporate partners as licensees and to establish collaborative research agreements based on UMBI's Intellectual Property.

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Celebrating our 20th anniversary year, UMBI is Maryland's premier biotechnology research institute within the University System of Maryland and was established in 1985. The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) consists of five major research and education centers and is dedicated to advancing the frontiers of biotechnology. UMBI’s centers of research include: CARB, the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology located in Rockville; CBR, the Center for Biosystems Research located in College Park; and COMB, the Center of Marine Biotechnology, MBC, the Medical Biotechnology Center, and IHV, the Institute of Human Virology, all located in Baltimore. For more information, visit www.umbi.umd.edu