Bayh-Dole Coalition Honors Chowdhury for Breakthrough Cattle Vaccine

BATON ROUGE - LSU Professor of Veterinary Medicine Dr. Shafiqul Chowdhury is featured in the Bayh-Dole Coalition's new 2024 "Faces of American Innovation" report for developing a groundbreaking vaccine.

The Bayh-Dole Coalition, of which the LSU Office of Innovation & Ecosystem Development is a member, is a diverse group of innovation-oriented organizations and individuals committed to celebrating and protecting the Bayh-Dole Act, as well as informing policymakers and the public of its many benefits. The Bayh-Dole Act, also known as the Patent and Trademark Law Amendments Act, is a U.S. law that allows universities, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations to own and commercialize inventions developed with federal funding. Congress passed the act, sponsored by the late Sens. Birch Bayh of Indiana and Bob Dole of Kansas, in 1980.

"As a young researcher, I dreamed of making a difference in veterinary medicine, of finding a way to prevent the diseases that harmed so many animals," Chowdhury said. "It's gratifying to receive the precious Bayh-Dole award in recognition of my work at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine on virally vectored bovine respiratory disease vaccines."

Chowdhury and four other leading innovators will receive the second annual Bayh-Dole Coalition American Innovator Award in Washington, D.C.

"This honor is well-deserved," said Robert Twilley, LSU vice president of research and economic development. "Dr. Chowdhury's pioneering work could help prevent devastating diseases in cattle, the potential spread of those diseases to people, and protect the world's food supply. Advancing biomedicine is a part of LSU's Scholarship First Agenda and a priority for the university."

Chowdhury developed a new viral vector vaccine to combat bovine respiratory disease -- a leading cause of death among young cattle, with an enormous economic impact on the beef and dairy industries. He obtained several patents on the invention with the help of LSU's Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization, part of the LSU Office of Innovation & Ecosystem Development, and Chowdhury has also partnered with a South Dakota-based company, RTI, to test and commercialize the vaccine.

"This success story would not have been possible without the authorities and incentives of the Bayh-Dole Act, which enabled Dr. Chowdhury's partnership with RTI," said Joseph P. Allen, executive director of the Bayh-Dole Coalition. "Because of dedicated researchers like Dr. Chowdhury and entrepreneurial companies like RTI, people here and around the world live better lives."

The LSU-issued news release about Chowdhury's vaccine and his patent brought his work to the Bayh-Dole Coalition's attention.

Since 1999, LSU has been granted more than 440 U.S. patents. In 2023 alone, LSU was granted 35 patents, placing it among the top 60 patent-earning universities nationwide and the university's highest ranking to date.

About LSU's Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization

LSU's Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization (ITC) protects and commercializes LSU's intellectual property. The office focuses on transferring early-stage inventions and works into the marketplace for the greater benefit of society. ITC also handles federal invention reporting, which allows LSU to receive hundreds of millions of dollars each year in federally funded research, and processes confidentiality agreements, material transfer agreements and other agreements related to intellectual property.

About LSU Office of Innovation & Ecosystem Development

LSU Innovation unites the university's innovation and commercialization resources under one office, maximizing LSU's impact on the intellectual, economic, and social development of Louisiana and beyond. LSU Innovation focuses on establishing, developing, and growing technology-based startup companies. LSU Innovation oversees LSU Innovation Park, a 200-acre business incubator that fosters early-stage tech companies, and the Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization, which streamlines the process of evaluating, protecting, and licensing intellectual property created by LSU researchers. LSU Innovation serves as the host organization for the Louisiana Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network which oversees all SBDC services across the state as well as the LSU SBDC, which provides free consulting services to small businesses across the state. LSU Innovation helps Louisiana technology companies apply for seed funding through the federal Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer grant programs. LSU Innovation educates faculty, students, and the community on entrepreneurial principles through the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program which trains innovators to consider the market opportunities for pressing scientific questions, leading to increased funding state and federal grant programs as well as potential industry partners and licensees.

About the Bayh-Dole Coalition

The Bayh-Dole Coalition is a diverse group of innovation-oriented organizations and individuals committed to celebrating and protecting the Bayh-Dole Act, as well as informing policymakers and the public of its many benefits.

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