Butler Named VP for Research and Technology

Bruce D. Butler, Ph.D., has been promoted to vice president for research and technology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Bruce D. Butler, Ph.D.

Butler directs the Office of Technology Management and chairs the UT Health Science Center Intellectual Property Committee. Revenues since the office’s inception have grossed over $25.7 million for the health science center. The office oversees a patent portfolio of over 900 patents/applications and more than 100 active license/option agreements.

The Office of Technology Management handles technology transfer activities, including the creation of new start-ups for the six health science center schools and various institutes and for health science center faculty located at the Texas Heart Institute. The office has assisted in the creation of six start-up companies that have collectively raised more than $50 million and employ over 400 people nationwide.

“Bruce has provided outstanding leadership in our institution’s very successful program to move some of our most promising discoveries and research technologies into the private sector,” said Peter Davies, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president for research. “He has been the leader in developing a number of very successful publicprivate partnerships that have served to advance the research interests of our faculty and our university. This promotion recognizes Bruce’s role as the leader of our Technology Management program.”

In addition to overseeing the commercialization of inventions by others, Butler is an inventor on 10 U.S. and associated foreign patents, six of which have been commercialized through the health science center. The inventions include respiratory health care products and bio-pharmaceuticals. He has been involved with product development for medical and home-care devices, including Food and Drug Administration regulatory approvals and clinical trials.

“We have seen an unprecedented growth in technology transfer at the health science center with double-digit increases in the number of licenses and revenues,” Butler said. “This is indicative of our expanded efforts and size of the Office of Technology Management, as well as the high quality of discoveries coming from the health science center faculty. Our goal is to interface with faculty early in the discovery process so as to coordinate the patent and copyright activities in a seamless fashion, allowing for the commercialization efforts to run a parallel course with the research and publication activities of the faculty.”

Butler joined the faculty at the UT Medical School at Houston in 1980 and holds an academic position as professor of anesthesiology. He received his doctorate from the UT Medical Branch at Galveston and did his postdoctoral research at the University of Dundee, Scotland, and UT Medical School at Houston.

At the Medical School he has managed a research program in collaboration with NASA, the U.S. Navy and several international pharmaceutical companies. He has more than 200 published papers, abstracts and book chapters. His research interests include decompression physiology and inflammatory response to embolization. Embolization is the introduction of a substance to block blood vessels for therapeutic purposes, such as to prevent hemorrhaging or to cut off the blood supply to a tumor.

By Deborah Mann Lake, Institutional Advancement