Multiple Penn-funded research projects and medical breakthroughs have been made possible through partnerships among the private sector, academic institutions, and the government.
These collaborations are rooted in the Bayh-Dole Act, enacted in 1980 so federally funded researchers and their institutions could retain patent rights to their inventions. According to the website of Penn’s Office of the Vice Provost for Research, the act — sponsored by United States Senators Birch Bayh of Indiana and Bob Dole of Kansas — helps “encourage the commercialization of research to benefit the public.”
Perelman School of Medicine professor James Riley told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the act “came about because people were spending money on research but very little of it was getting to the private sector and making a difference.”
Riley — whose startup BlueWhale Bio develops CAR-T cell therapies with support from the act — emphasized that qualifying inventions should provide a “benefit to the American people.” Penn granted BlueWhale Bio a license to intellectual property developed by University researchers.
As the University’s hub for translating research into private-sector products, the Penn Center for Innovation similarly benefits from the act. Associate Vice Provost for Research and PCI Managing Director Ben Dibling wrote in a statement to the DP that the Bayh-Dole Act has “enabled and encouraged the technology transfer and commercial development of important inventions made at academic institutions and small businesses into products and services.”
He added that the act was regarded by the “global community” as an “unprecedented success” and “the gold-standard for the encouragement of technology commercialization.”
“The Bayh-Dole system is a foundational keystone of innovation, both globally, and here at Penn,” Dibling wrote.
Tony Sorrentino — a 2005 Stuart Weitzman School of Design graduate and former associate vice president for the office of the executive vice president — described Bayh-Dole as “where academic institutions and the private sector find common ground.”
Sorrentino, who left his position at Penn in 2025 to serve as the chief executive officer of the Fairmont Park Conservancy, has researched the impact of public-private partnerships for his forthcoming book, “Medicine for the City.” Most of his work centers on how Penn, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the mayor’s office, and the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation reimagined Civic Center Boulevard into an academic district.
“Universities and academic medical centers are just brilliant at doing basic research and then advancing that basic research into more refined research,” Sorentino told the DP. He explained that universities license technology to the private sector as “the expert at production, development, [and] marketing.”
Part of Sorentino’s research involves a theory on the triad relationship between the private sector, academic institutions, and the public sector — resulting from the stipulations and intentions of the Bayh-Dole Act.
“Wherever a world-class college of medicine goes, so goes an innovative medical district because the federal government decides to advance, to invest in their basic research, which leads to advanced research, which leads to working with pharmaceutical industries and others to scale up that research to serve the world,” he said.
Riley also characterized the research investment as a net benefit for the government and for citizens.
“It is actually a very good money maker for the United States because it is creating jobs, pre-exports, and the intangible benefit of people being cured and hopefully living longer and more productive lives,” he stated. “Everybody sees that it’s a win-win.”
Staff reporter José Carlos Serrano contributes to data and enterprise reporting and can be reached at serrano@thedp.com. At Penn, he studies English and political science.
