Technology & Inventions

Technology Licensing

The Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) manages Stanford University’s intellectual property developed by Stanford’s researchers. OTL’s mission is to promote the transfer of Stanford technology for society’s use and benefit while generating unrestricted income to support research and education. In fiscal year 2025, it secured over $88 million in licensing revenue and the Industrial Contracts Office (ICO) within OTL, focused on industry research agreements, brought in more than $97 million in research funding.

Fiscal Year 2025 Impact Metrics

Industrial Contracts Office

Notable Inventions Licensed by OTL:

1970s

• Recombinant DNA: Co-developed by Stanley Cohen, this genetic engineering tool combines DNA from different organisms. Licensed to over 400 companies, it launched the biotech industry and enabled breakthroughs like synthetic human insulin.
• Digital Music: John Chowning’s FM sound synthesis enabled digital sound generation, revolutionizing music synthesizers and electronic music.

1980s

• Functional Antibody Therapies: Leonard Herzenberg, Vernon Oi, and Sherie Morrison created humanized antibodies, making monoclonal antibody treatment safer and benefiting thousands of patients with autoimmune diseases and cancer.

1990s

• Google (PageRank): The world’s most popular search engine started when graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page developed the PageRank algorithm to organize web information.
• 293T Cell Line: Michele Calos developed this human cell line, now a widely used industry tool for producing the vectors utilized in gene and cell therapy.

2000s

• Tableau: Visualization software created by Patrick Hanrahan’s lab helps users quickly analyze and visualize large datasets.
• Artificial Facet Joint: Licensed technology developed into the first and only FDA-approved, minimally invasive device to treat lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS).
• Attruby: A new FDA-approved therapy for the rare heart disease transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) that achieves near-complete transthyretin (TTR) protein stabilization, developed by Drs. Isabella Graef and Mamoun Alhamadsheh.

2010s

• CoreNLP: This widely adopted suite of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools from Christopher Manning’s lab enables comprehensive analysis of human language text, driving instrumental advancements in AI applications.
• Zevaskyn: Jean Tang led the development of an FDA-approved, cell-based gene therapy for the rare and painful skin disease recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB).

2020s

• SAINT: Nolan Williams developed Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy, the first FDA-cleared, Medicare-covered neuromodulation platform delivering rapid-acting, non-invasive, and precise transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment-resistant depression.

Innovation

Stanford alumni and faculty have created more than 39,900 companies since the 1930s. Frederick Terman, provost from 1955 to 1965, is called the “academic architect” of the high technology region known as Silicon Valley. Stanford alumni have founded, built, or led thousands of businesses, including some of the world’s most recognized companies—Cisco, Gap, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Nike, IDEO, Instagram, LinkedIn, Netflix, and Robert Mondavi Winery. In the area of social innovation, the Stanford community has created thousands of nonprofit organizations over the decades, including such well-known organizations as Acumen Fund, Kiva, and the Special Olympics.

Notable Dates in Computing