Dr Michael Mowatt | Director, Technology Transfer And Intellectual Property Office
National Institute of Health - NIAID

Since 2001 Dr. Mowatt has directed the technology transfer program at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  His staff of fifty talented and experienced professionals support of the mission of NIAID by facilitating discovery and promoting the development and commercialization of NIAID’s biomedical innovations for the betterment of public health.  Commercial successes based on NIAID innovations include vaccines for viral hepatitis, monoclonal antibodies against respiratory syncytial virus, veterinary vaccines that employ recombinant poxviruses, and diagnostic tests for gastrointestinal parasites and viruses.
 
In addition to managing NIAID’s growing intellectual property portfolio of 400 patent families, over 30% of which it has successfully licensed, TTIPO negotiates and manages transactional agreements, including Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), which underpin the success of NIAID’s research and R&D programs.  He and his staff have negotiated a wide variety of agreements with NIAID partners that include universities, nongovernmental organizations, other US government agencies, and philanthropic organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as commercial concerns ranging from large pharmaceutical companies with bureaucracies that rival that of the US government to small biotechnology companies and everything in between.
 
Dr. Mowatt’s training in microbiology, immunology, parasitology, molecular and cellular biology at the University of Notre Dame (B.S.), the University of Michigan (Ph.D), the Rockefeller University and the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases (NIAID) prepared him well for leading a technology transfer program focused on infectious and immunologic diseases.  He has authored more than thirty original scientific papers, reviews, book chapters and book reviews in the disciplines of molecular and cellular biology, immunology and parasitology.
 
In addition to promoting and negotiating partnerships between the private sector and NIAID, Dr. Mowatt has managed growth and restructuring of his office from 8 to 50 persons to support the expanding needs of the NIAID’s biodefense and emerging infectious diseases research initiatives, including those directed to anthrax, smallpox, SARS, MERS, as well as the Ebola and Zika viruses.