Q&A with Patrick Ho, Director of Life Science Technology Development
Tell us about your background and new role at JHTV. I spent the last 25 years in biotech and commercialization, including genomic research and patent prosecution. I joined JHTV last year after spending 11 years in San Diego, California as vice president and chief business officer for the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, where I was responsible for intellectual property matters, business development, and corporate partnerships. JHU has over 500 invention disclosures a year and my role at JHTV was created to help iden-
tify promising intellectual property and move them forward. In addition to my role, the team has two technology development specialists.Together we serve as “intrapeneurs” and perform in-depth analysis and provide project management support for promising technologies. 18 translation
Do you have an example you can share? The technology development team worked closely with faculty member Christopher Heaney at the Bloomberg School of Public Health to facilitate the development of his lab’s salivary antibody COVID-19 diagnostic test. It was clear from the onset that the test’s sensitivity and specificity measure were extraordinary, but the path to commercialization using saliva as a biospecimen for large scale testing was unclear. Our team worked with Heaney to develop use case scenarios and product strategies for his diagnostic test, provided high level project management support to vet interested third parties, and help to ensure the project was prioritized in the university setting.
