Optical imaging tech transfer programs encourage collaboration

Transitioning technology from lab to market can be tricky. During a rump session organized by the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA) at the Optical Society's (OSA) 2012 Biomedical Optics and 3D Imaging Congress, Robert Nordstrom of the National Institutes of Health said that better teamwork between academics and industry personnel can make a critical difference. He pointed to two funding programs offered by the National Cancer Institute (NCI)--the PAR-10-169 Academic-Industrial Partnerships for Translation of in vivo Imaging Systems for Cancer Investigations and the Network for Translational Research: Optical Imaging in Multimodal Platforms--that both require funding recipients to demonstrate academic/industrial collaboration.