Barton Discusses TLA's Bridge from Research to Commercialization

Tech Launch Arizona, the University of Arizona's branch for commercializing campus innovations, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. As part of this celebration, they spoke with BME professor and BIO5 Institute Director Jennifer Barton, who has worked with the office on her own scientific inventions. 

"Tech Launch Arizona has been revolutionary in the way that we think of bringing our devices to market, to translating them," Barton said. "I am really indebted to Tech Launch, both as the director of the BIO5 Institute and as a faculty member, for helping us know that when we have great ideas, they don't have to end at the lab."

Barton spent years developing a device small enough to image the fallopian tubes – narrow ducts connecting the uterus to the ovaries – and search for signs of early-stage cancer. Barton worked with TLA to bring this "falloposcope" toward clinical testing and market.

"I think nowadays I tell faculty: Just talk to Tech Launch. They're great people. They'll tell you whether you have an invention there or maybe you don't, or you know, whether it's time to go forward or not," Barton said. "There's no great fear there. You just go in and you talk to a really wonderful, knowledgeable person who will take you seriously, whether you're a faculty member who's been at the university for 30 years or whether you're a graduate student with an idea."