GDCB is an important player in technology transfer.

Two start-up companies in the ISU Research Park have been founded by GDCB faculty.

Bioforce Nanosciences, whose founder and CSO is GDCB Professor Eric Henderson, has about 20 employees and is raising funds that come into the state of Iowa. Bioforce has received NIH grants totaling about $600,000 and is on Phase III (commercialization) of a high end product (The NanoArrayer) that was funded by the SBIR program.

New Link Genetics, whose founder and CEO, Charles Link, is a collaborator in the GDCB Department, is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel drugs and functional genomics solutions with a primary focus on cancer. New Link Genetics recently received approval for a $6 million support grant from the Iowa Values Fund and the Iowa Department of Economic Development. In 2003 New Link Genetics also acquired the exclusive commercial distribution rights to and has begun marketing the software GeneSeqer, which was developed by the group of GDCB Professor Volker Brendel to manage and analyze genome sequence data as part of their NSF and USDA funded projects.

Patents issued to GDCB Faculty, staff and students:

Henderson, Eric R. (GDCB), John-Bruce, Green; Vivian Wynne Jones, Curtis Mosher, and Marc Porter. 6/19/1998. Analytical Method Using Modified Scanning Probes. Patent No. 5,763,768.

Henderson, Eric R. (GDCB) and James Vesenka. 8/10/1999. Decontamination Device and Method Thereof. Patent No. 5,935,339.

Henderson, Eric R. (GDCB), Marc Porter, Vivian Wynne Jones and Curtis Mosher. 11/15/2000. Height Referencing Biochemical Cassette. Patent No. 6,146,899.

Horner, Harry T. (GDCB), Wei Jin, Reid Palmer, and Randy Shoemaker. 9/14/1999. Soybean Glucanases, Compounds which Encode Therefor and Related Methods. Patent No. 5,952,548

Mayfield, John (GDCB) and Louisa Tabatabai. 6/11/1991. Recombinant Brucella Abortus Gene Expressing Immunogenic Protein. Patent No. 5,023,174.

Mayfield, John (GDCB), Bonnie Beck and Louisa Tabatabai. 2/23/1993. Brucella Abortus Diagnostic Reagents. Patent No. 5,188,936.

Oliver, David (GDCB), Basil Nikolau, Robert Behal, Jinshan Ke, Isabelle Lutziger, Patrick Schnable and Eve Wurtele (GDCB). 7/20/2004. Materials and Methods for the Alteration of Enzyme and Acetyl CoA Levels in Plants. Patent No. 6,764,851.

Peterson, Thomas (GDCB), Ben Bowen and Xianggan Li. 9/21/1999. P Gene Promoter Constructs for Floral Tissue-Preferred Gene Expression. Patent No. 5,955,361.

Voytas, Dan (GDCB) and Sige Zou. 11/2/1999. Retrotransposon and Methods. Patent No. 5,976,795.

Voytas, Dan (GDCB) and Xiaowu Gai. 5/14/2001. Transposable Element Protein that Directs DNA Integration to Specific Chromosomal Sites. Patent No. 6,228,647.

Voytas, Dan (GDCB) and David Wright. 12/18/2001. Plant Retroelements and Methods Related Thereto. Patent No. 6,331,662.

Voytas, Dan (GDCB) and David Wright. 4/13/2004. Plant Retroelements and Methods Related Thereto. Patent No. 6,720,479.

Voytas, Dan (GDCB) and David Wright. 8/22/2006. Plant Retroelements and Methods Related Thereto. Patent No. 7,094,953.

Wurtele, Eve (GDCB), Paul Dietrich and Bruce Held. 5/27/1997. Root Preferential Promoter. Patent No. 5,633,363.