(464a) Nano-Terra, a Scientist's Approach to Commercializing Science

Nano-Terra, founded in 2005, has a unique business model for commercializing science. We are working with multiple commercial and government partners and have struck co-development agreements with 3M, Merck KGaA and the Department of Defense. Our unique business model has commercialization efforts funded by our partners. We believe this model allows the broadest commercial potential for the technology. Nano-Terra has not raised venture capital; instead its founders and employees, along with advisors and Harvard University, own the company. We have licensed one of the largest patent portfolios from Harvard; more than 50 patents from Harvard Professor George Whiteside have been exclusively licensed to Nano-Terra. In this talk, I will describe Nano-Terra's science and how it is being commercialized through co-development partnerships. I will contrast this approach to other models of small companies.