Welcome to another year and another issue of The Inventor newsletter. As the academic year kicks off, our new issue contains stories on innovative developments at UCLA, a look at one of our new student inventors, and new information on faculty consulting. We have launched a redesigned website, www.oip.ucla.edu, to further facilitate our collaborations with the faculty, staff, and students at UCLA as well our partners in the business community.

Check out our yearly magazine, UCLAInvents which highlights some of the great inventions and ideas coming out of the UCLA campus. A full copy is available on our new website at http://www.oip.ucla.edu/publications/UCLAInvents2009.pdf. I hope that this new academic year continues to bring forth the innovations for which UCLA is known. We are here to help.

Sincerely,

Kathryn Atchison, D.D.S., M.P.H. Vice Provost, Intellectual Property and Industry Relations

Associate Vice Chancellor for Research

Kathryn’s Korner

Table of Contents

Coming Soon: Online MTA Form 2

Student Inventor Spotlight: Alejandro Covalin “Mind over Matter”

2

Meet the Staff—Technology Transfer Associates 2

Newly Issued UCLA Patents for 3rd Quarter, FY2009

3

Things to Come … ISR Checklist 4

Be Fair: Defining Fair Use 4

Volume 2, Issue 1 Tip of the Quarter: Guidelines for

Faculty Consulting The UC encourages outside faculty

activities, such as consulting, that contrib-ute to the individual’s profession, to the community and to UCLA’s teaching and public service mission. To this end, a revised and updated Guide to Faculty Consulting Activities and Consulting Agreements was distributed in September. The updated guide is posted to http://www.oip.ucla.edu/academic-community/policies-and-related-forms.

We anticipate faculty may use fur-lough time and this guide will help faculty navigate conflict of commitment and conflict of interest concerns. These issues have become subject to increased scrutiny by the University, the State of California, Congress, federal agencies, and the general public. Therefore, it is important that consulting be done in a way that does not interfere with a faculty member’s primary commitment to the University and that it is accomplished within the framework of University policies.

The guide also covers topics such

as export control, intellectual property and submission of research grants, and provides sample language that can be included with a faculty’s consulting agreement.

Remember, consulting agree-ments are personal agree-ments between an outside organization and the consult-ant, to which the University is not a party. Under the circumstances, UCLA staff cannot provide faculty with

personal legal advice, nor can they act on behalf of individual faculty to negotiate the terms of a consulting agreement.

As a courtesy however, staff of both the Office of Intellectual Property & Industry Sponsored Research (OIP-ISR) and Legal Affairs – UCLA Health System will be happy to answer questions about individual consulting agreements and whether it is consistent with University policy. For questions related to faculty consulting, please contact OIP-ISR at (310) 794-0558 or Legal Affairs – UCLA Health System at (310) 794-3138.

This guide will help faculty navigate

conflict of comments and conflict of

interest concerns

Having earned an undergraduate degree in physics engineering at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, Alejandro Covalin began his professional life working as a new projects engineer in the forestry industry in his native Mexico. At first, he found the work both

challenging and satisfying. But after overseeing the design and construction of a new sawmill facility, Covalin recalls that he felt the need to move on.

“I wanted to go back to school,” he says. “I applied to various schools and between Berkley, CWRU and UCLA, I was most excited by what UCLA had to offer; basically, I liked their approach and the freedom I would have to choose my thesis subject; I accepted and started working on my PhD in neuroengineer-ing.”

Covalin came to UCLA in 2000 and, under the guidance of Associate Professor Jack Judy, he quickly focused on the study of feedback mechanisms in the autonomic

nervous system. It was something of a leap from pure engineering and machinery design to the anatomy of the nervous system, Covalin admits, but his background in physics and engineering ultimately served him well.

“There is a lot of physics involved in how the nervous system works. Having been trained as an engineer, I had to retrain myself to learn and think differently in order to force my mind to blur the boundaries between engineer-ing and neurosciences, which in itself is neuro-engineering.”

Advised by UCLA Neurosurgeon Professor Antonio De Salles on viable applications of his knowledge to clinically relevant issues, Covalin ultimately turned his attention to the problem of obesity and the role the autonomous nervous system plays in determining metabolic rates. He found that there is in fact a region in the brain that controls metabolic activity, and that by introducing an electric current, it is possible to regulate metabolic rate.

Having successfully demonstrated the technology on rats, Covalin and Judy, together with Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Leon Ekchian, a UCLA graduate with an MBA from the Anderson School, and UCLA neurosurgeon Antonio De Salles founded NeuroSigma, Inc. in 2008. NeuroSigma exclusively licensed the patent application from UCLA, is currently

ULCA Alums both, Lindsay Keever and Brian Shedd both found their way to OIP and are the office’s Technology Transfer Associates, positions for scientists to break into the Technology Transfer career.

As Tech Transfer Associates, their role is to evaluate the patentability and potential commercial applications of inventions, plan marketing and patenting strategies, and assist PIs in finding commercial partners to help bring their technologies to market to benefit society and the economy.

Having received an MS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Lindsay was drawn to “the business side of science” and found herself at OIP working daily with PIs and their groundbreaking technology. Brian recently earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA and, after a marketing internship with OIP, found a fulltime position working with

“advanced technology and business” where he could “walk the line between the two arenas”. For both, this interest in the duality of their positions allows them to successfully work with potential corporate partners for UCLA technologies as well as form successful relationships with UCLA faculty and students.

Though working with different areas of scientific expertise, both agree that UCLA’s faculty bring exciting developments to the forefront and the enjoyment of their jobs comes from helping to find ways to progress the development of these technologies into

potential commercial products. In helping to build bridges with the external corporate community, Brian says we “would like to know what other ways faculty and students would like to be able to interact with that community”. For these Bruins, it is the relationships developed at UCLA that allow them to be so successful at their jobs.

Meet the Staff—Technology Transfer Associates

Coming Soon:

Online MTA Form A new feature for

material transfer requests, “onlineMTA” will be a central site for submitting all requests for Material Transfer Agreements through a new, convenient web-based form. The onlineMTA site will also allow investigators to track the status of their pending and completed MTA requests submitted after July 1, 2009.

To facilitate the transition to this new MTA request process, training for the new onlineMTA portal is being made available. Faculty, research staff, lab managers, and administrative staff are welcome to join the MTA team for a training session on the new system. The class will be held on December 3rd, 2:00-3:00 p.m. in the Ronald Regan Medical Center, Room 3-3102.

For further questions, or to RSVP for this training event, please contact the MTA team at UCLAMTA@research.ucla.edu.

Student Inventor Spotlight: Alejandro Covalin

Mind over Matter

“Covalin” Continued on Page 4

Volume 2, Issue 1

Alejandro Covalin

Lindsay Keever Brian Shedd

Newly Issued UCLA Patents for 3rd Quarter, FY209

Volume 2, Issue 1

Case No. Invention Title Inventors by Last Name Department Patent No.

2002-004 Transcription amplification system for molecular

imaging

Michael Carey, Sanjiv Gambhir, Meera Kodukulla, Lily Wu,

Liqun Zhang SOM 7527942

2005-021 Nano-scale computational architectures with spin

wave bus

Alexander Khitun, Roman Ostroumov, Kang-Long Wang

SEAS 7528456

1999-574 Video codec method in error resilient mode and appa-

ratus therefor John Villasenor, Jiangtao Wen SEAS 7532669

2000-462 Orally administered peptides synergize statin activity Alan Fogelman, Mohamad Navab SOM 7531514

2002-466 Aptamers to human epidermal growth factor

receptor-3 Chi-Hong (Betty) Chen,

Ralf Landgraf SOM 7531649

2004-084 Methods and compositions for smooth muscle recon-

struction Larissa Rodriguez, Benjamin Wu SOM/SEAS 7531355

2000-262 Fusion molecules and methods for treatment of im-

mune diseases Andrew Saxon, Ke Zhang,

Daocheng Zhu SOM 7534440

2005-604 Competitive regulation of hepcidin mRNA by soluble

and cell-associated hemojuvelin Tomas Ganz, Lan Lin SOM 7534764

2006-385 Spin-wave architectures Mary Eshaghian-Wilner, Alexan-

der Khitun, Kang-Long Wang SEAS 7535070

2002-341 Amplified and overexpressed gene in colorectal

cancers Lee Anderson, Charles Ginther,

Dennis Slamon SOM 7537905

2005-521 Lithographic and measurement techniques using the

optical properties of biaxial crystals Daniel Neuhauser, Gabriel Sirat L&S 7541600

2003-317 Controlled nano-doping of ultra thin films Jane Chang, Trinh Tu Van SEAS 7544398

2004-248 Three-terminal electrical bistable devices Jun He, Liping Ma, Yang Yang SEAS 7544966

2004-331 Nell peptide expression systems and bone formation

activity of nell peptide Shunichi Kuroda, Kang Ting,

Benjamin Wu DEN/SEAS 7544486

2002-421 Vertical gate-depleted single electron transistor Filipp Baron, Kang-Long Wang,

Yaohui Zhang SEAS 7547932

2003-357 System and method for retrieving scenario-specific

documents Wesley Chu, Victor Liu, Qinghua

Zou SEAS 7548910

2000-122 Lafora's disease gene Antonio Delgado-Escueta SOM/VAMC 7550571

2000-118 Modulating neuronal outgrowth via the major histo-

compatibility complex class I (MHC I) molecule Lorraine Hanssen,

Daniel Kaufman, Daniel Zekzer SOM 7553484

2004-433 Lobe pump system and method of manufacture Shih Hsi Tong, Daniel Yang SEAS 7553143

2004-561 Nanoparticle-polymer bistable devices Richard Kaner, Yang Yang L&S/SEAS 7554111

1999-558 Antibody materials for an IBD-associated polypeptide Jonathan Braun,

Christopher Sutton SOM 7557194

2003-194 Memory devices based on electric field programmable

films Jianyong Ouyang, Yang Yang SEAS 7557372

2004-563 System and method for representing and encoding

images Charles (Cheng-en) Guo, Ying-

Nian Wu, Song-Chun Zhu L&S 7567715

1999-543 Anti-microbial targeting chimeric pharmaceutical Randal Eckert, Fengxia Qi,

Wenyuan Shi DEN 7569542

2005-227 Methods for improving the structure and function of

arterioles Alan Fogelman SOM 7579319

Covalin, Continued

Be Fair: Defining Fair Use

© 2009 UC Regents

Now Available: ISR Checklist

Researchers on the UCLA campus who are contemplating a research project and would like to submit a proposal to OIP-ISR now have a faster and easier way to do so. The ISR team has created a Proposal Checklist Form that researchers are able to complete and submit along with their proposal documentation. This checklist streamlines the way that researchers inform OIP-ISR of their potential research projects by (a) incorporating needed information onto one form, (b) reminding PIs of the additional proposal documents required, and (c) allowing PIs to submit all required documentation to a dedicated email inbox that is monitored by the ISR team.

This checklist not only helps researchers carefully think through their proposal, but condensing a multi-step process into a single form will expedite the contracting process for PIs. The form is available online at: www.oip.ucla.edu/isr.

All documents must be submitted before ISR will open formal negotiations with a sponsor. If you have questions, send an email to the ISR team at ISR@research.ucla.edu.

Volume 2, Issue 1

Publisher: Kathryn A. Atchison

Executive Editor: Robin Faria

Graphic Design: Ann Hu

With special thanks to: Dayton Fandray

Subscribe / Contact Us 11000 Kinross Blvd., Suite 200

Los Angeles, CA 90095

www.oip.ucla.edu

If you would like to be on the mailing list for future newsletters, please email Robin Faria at rfaria@conet.ucla.edu.

Faculty and students often like to use the works of others within their own works, whether it is for teaching purposes or supporting documentation in research papers. As the slew of plagiarism stories in the news has recently indicated, the misuse of someone else’s work of authorship has serious consequences.

As an educational institution, UCLA relies on the doctrine of Fair Use, which states that “the fair use of a copyrighted work...for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.”

To determine whether use of a work fits under this description, the law outlines four factors to help determine fair use:

What is the character of the use? If your use of the work falls under Non-profit or educational uses, it has met the first criterion for fair use. If the use is commercial, it is best to seek permission from the copyright owner first.

How much of the work will you use? The more of the work that you use, the more likely you are to need permission to use it.

What is the nature of the work to be used? Works that are fact based, or previously published typically fall under fair use, but highly imaginative or creative work, or work that has not been published before tends to require

permission from the copyright owner.

What is the effect of the market? If your use of the work takes away potential royalties or sales from the original work, it is likely that you would need to get permission to use the work. However, if the original work is unavail-able, there is no market for the work, or, if you are unable to identify or locate the original

copyright owner, it is more likely that your use will be con-sidered a fair use of that work.

Examples of fair use include photocopying an article or pic-ture for class and providing a link to an online article for your

students. Since these items are being used for an educational purpose, they typically fall under fair use. However, photocopying an entire 300 page book for class probably will not quality as fair use because it might prevent the sale of a book and that has a negative impact on the market for the work.

If you have any concerns, OIP has a link to a template form that you can complete and send to the publisher to ask permission to use the work. See www.oip.ucla.edu/copyright. Faculty can also talk to the UCLA Library at 310-825-1201 since they may have preexisting agreements with the publisher. If your department receives requests to use work that belongs to the UC Regents, send an email to copyrights@ucla.edu and OIP will handle the permission request.

As an educational institution, UCLA relies

on the doctrine of Fair Use.

taking steps to obtain FDA approval for human clinical trials and is moving forward with plans to commercialize the technology.

Covalin believes that eventually, the company will go to market with a pacemaker-like device that can be used to treat obesity and other disorders.

“The electrodes will go inside the brain,” he explains, “and the device that makes the pulses will be imbedded in the skull, functioning as an unperceived pacemaker for brain activ-ity. UCLA offered to Dr. Covalin the environment for integration from the most basic scientific knowledge to the highest level of medical research. The consequent spin off, Neursigma, Inc., is a unique example of the superb entrepreneurial and scientific integration of engineering, biol-ogy and clinical practice at UCLA.