This article is in Chemistry in Australia magazine: Issue December 2024
Author: Lyall R. Hanton
Image: Who is Danny/AdobeStock
LYALL R. HANTON describes the long journey to commercialise polymer gel research.
At some stage in an academic’s research career, they may be tempted to consider commercialising something they have been working on. What follows may involve the embargo of a PhD thesis or the withdrawal of a conference abstract and the filing of a provisional patent.
A provisional patent does not cost that much to file but, as time passes and the need to exemplify the patent comes around, and the work and costs to file a patent cooperation treaty (PCT) followed by a full patent rise, the original provisional patent is usually left to lapse. It becomes nothing more than a “vanity” patent.
Embarking on that commercialisation journey, however short, usually takes one of two paths: the path of industry push or the path of industry pull. With push, you come up with a brilliant idea and then seek a problem that needs a solution. With pull, you are asked to come up with a brilliant solution to that problem.
In my experience, it is the pull that is more likely to take you successfully down a path towards commercialisation. From the polymer gel research in our group, we have had experience of both push and pull.
The Chitogel ENT kit.
Industry Push
First, consider push. As part of our gel technology research, we attempted to make electroactive gel actuators based on quinones. These would be “wetware” actuators that would operate in a solvent-rich environment.
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Lyall R. Hanton is Mellor Professor in the Department of Chemistry, University Of Otago, New Zealand.
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