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By Susan O’Connor

JONESBORO — ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY’s research faculty entered a new realm this year: the world of patents and start-up companies, the practical path of research.

The first patent developed by an ASU researcher was filed May 22, and the first royalty check was received this week.

Dr. Elizabeth Hood, associate vice chancellor for Research and Technology Transfer, said a bank account for the royalty would be opened Thursday afternoon.

The lead researcher of the first patented invention is Dr. Robyn Hannigan, an analytical chemist. She was assisted by a student, David Clarke. Their invention is called a transfer line.

“Robyn loves to measure things — she uses all kinds of instruments like they are play toys,” Hood said. “She developed a device that makes these sophisticated machines of measurement talk to each other.”

For example, Hood said one machine takes a gas sample and analyzes its properties, then transfers the sample to another machine that measures other properties.

“Robyn is my favorite inventor because her ideas just flow out,” Hood said. “She was surprised that her invention might have financial worth. She said, ‘You mean my ideas are worth something? We can make money off of my ideas?’”

Hannigan, Clarke and Dr. Roger Buchanan, a neurobiologist, began a start-up company, Hyphenated Solutions, based on the research.

Hood credits ASU’s Arkansas Biosciences Institute with helping to inspire research and development.

“ABI was the catalyst that started a lot of things at ASU, like the research office,” said Hood, a biologist and researcher who has also developed patents. “There was research already going on here — in chemistry, environmental science and wildlife biology — but there is now more lab-based research.”

Hood’s job at the Office of Research and Technology Transfer, part of ABI, is to direct researchers in the patent procedure, an expensive and uneven road.

“We help faculty and staff who have ideas related to their work at the university write disclosures of their invention,” Hood said. “They are required to disclose their invention to this office.”

Hood then reviews the invention disclosures on a number of levels.

“Theoretically, the driver is, ‘Is this of monetary value?’” Hood said. “That has to be our criteria for filing a patent because it is a lot of money.”

The cost of each application is a standard fee set by the patent office, plus hours billed by a patent attorney who not only helps with the application process, but refutes rejections from the patent office.

Two patents have been issued to ASU researchers, 11 are pending and four start-ups have resulted:

• Nature West, small molecule production for human health;

• Infinite Enzymes, enzyme production for biofuels;

• Hyphenated Solutions, detection of small molecules in human fluids; and

• BioStrategies, vaccine development using plant systems.

Another company, DiagNose, is not yet incorporated.

ASU started a non-profit research foundation, the ASU Research and Development Institute, and all patents are filed under this umbrella. Researchers benefit financially, as does the university.

According to ORTT, research and scholarly activity expenditures at ASU have increased 500 percent in the last five years.

“The increased activity has moved the university and faculty to a higher level of publication and recognition ...,” ORTT officials said. “ASU has significant programs in physics, chemistry, environmental sciences and molecular biosciences, as well as humanities and arts.”