Few organizations anywhere can match MSU’s bio-based technology know-how. Bobby Bringi wants to leverage that expertise to forge new corporate partners and give university researchers a route to commercialize their technology.
Bringi, president and CEO of the technology commercialization organization MBI since 2006, is building a bridge between university researchers and private companies, helping develop promising biobased technologies into commercial viability. He’s meeting with department heads and researchers to build his network.
MBI is a not-for-profit, wholly owned subsidiary of the MSU Foundation, operating a pilot fermentation plant and wet lab facility on Collins Road. On one end of the spectrum, it works with large corporations such as DuPont Applied BioSciences to “de-risk” young technologies on a contract basis. On the other, MBI nurtures home-grown technology, such as helping chemical engineering and materials science professor Bruce Dale scale up his plant waste pretreatment, AFEX, for improving cellulosic ethanol yields.
Bringi, who built a company using new plant cell fermentation technology focused on anti-cancer drug Taxol, aims to apply his experience in commercializing technology to MBI.
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