Blood is a dispersion of formed elements in an aqueous colloid. The combined mass of the formed elements of blood measure on average 30 ml per kg body weight, or about the same weight as the liver. The colloidal phase of blood contains numerous organic factors that play important primary and supporting roles in homeostasis, including immune surveillance, coagulation, and nutrient transport.

Erythrocytes (red blood cells) are the principle formed elements and provide the life-sustaining function, in conjunction with the heart, lungs, blood vessels and kidneys, of transporting and protecting the oxygen-carrying pigment, hemoglobin, to the tissues. The oxygen-binding properties of hemoglobin are sensitive to factors such as the cooperative effects of O2 binding, pH and CO2 levels, and the presence of other metabolic intermediates such as 2,3-diphosphoglycerate. The synergistic effects of these factors produce a well-known sigmoidal curve plot of the relationship between oxygen affinity and the partial pressure of oxygen (pO2): there is high oxygen affinity in the lung where the pO2 is high, and a low oxygen affinity in the tissues, where the pO2 is low. Uptake and delivery of oxygen by hemoglobin is associated with considerable spatial rearrangement of the hemoglobin molecule.

Blood is a non-Newtonian suspension. Its viscosity is a function of both the vascular diameter and the concentration of erythrocytes. At a normal hematocrit of 40%, the viscosity of blood ranges between 2 and 4 Pas as measured in tubes ranging 10–1,500 μm diameter. The osmolality of blood serum is 275–295 mOsm/1.

The National Science Foundation has estimated that 28% of the information processing products, 37% of the pharmaceutical processes, and 44% of the pharmaceuticals on the market today derive directly from university research. Single companies create annual research budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars by allocating to research 2–10% of their revenues, a percentage identical to the typical royalty rate. Yet none of our great research institutions receives royalty income in excess of $15 million, and most receive under $1 million. Certainly, our universities and their faculty could enjoy greater benefit from the transfer of their technology to the private sector. Such expectations account for the explosive growth of university technology transfer programs.

We would define the mission of technology transfer as (1) to bring university inventions into public use with maximum integrity, effectiveness, and speed, and (2) to maximize the financial return to the university and the inventor. This article will describe “active licensing,” an approach to technology transfer that we have found to be more effective and that we feel is more rational than the paradigms in use at most institutions.

Figure 1 presents the commercial value of technology as a function of incremental time and cost investment in development of the technology.