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Newswise INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana University School of Medicine has launched an initiative and accompanying web site to encourage more collaboration between private industry and researchers at the medical school.

Creation of the Industry Collaboration Portal is one of the school's programs to move research discoveries out of the laboratory and develop them into new products that will benefit patient care and improve health, said Jaipal Singh, Ph.D., director of the portal.

"Many of the discoveries we make at the university are not getting out into use in society. Collaborations with industry will help commercialize them," Dr. Singh said.

The need for such a program also reflects changes in the research environments in both academia and in private industry, Dr. Singh said. On the academic side funding from the National Institutes of Health, which is has been the primary source of money for university biomedical research, is declining. That trend has research institutions broadening their search for funds.

Private industry, meanwhile, has been changing its research model over the past decade as costs rise and patents expire, said Dr. Singh. As a result businesses are more interested in collaboration and are looking to academic scientists for discoveries that could translate to new therapies.

"So we're not turning our back on basic science research, but we're providing opportunities for our scientists to take the next steps toward commercialization and translational research," he said.

"Creating the Industry Collaboration Portal is a critical part of our efforts to encourage a more entrepreneurial environment at the school that will benefit both our investigators and society," said Mervin C. Yoder, M.D., associate dean for entrepreneurial research and Richard and Pauline Klingler Professor of Pediatrics.

With the web site -- https://icp.medicine.iu.edu/ -- along with personal outreach, the Industry Collaboration Portal will link industry scientists with their academic counterparts working on similar questions. The web site includes access to a database of school of medicine scientists with expertise in translational research: the process of moving discoveries from the lab to the patient bedside.

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IU School of Medicine Opens Web Portal to Encourage Industry-Academic Collaboration