Duke's Office for Translation & Commercialization

What Duke's Office for Translation & Commercialization does

Duke's Office for Translation & Commercialization (Duke OTC) is Duke University's technology transfer and commercialization unit, established in 2017 and headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. The office's stated function is to connect breakthroughs originating from Duke research with the external tools and partners — including industry collaborators, investors, and entrepreneurs — required to translate academic discoveries into commercial products and societal benefit. Activities typically associated with this office include reviewing invention disclosures, securing and managing intellectual property, supporting faculty-led startup formation, executing license agreements with established companies, and brokering industry-sponsored research collaborations. The office operates through a portfolio of Duke-affiliated startups accessible via the otc.duke.edu/startups directory, with featured companies including medical device venture Lacuna Medical.

As an institutional entity embedded within Duke University rather than an independent venture-backed company, Duke OTC operates with a small staff of 11-50 employees and is not structured as a revenue-generating business in the conventional sense. The office functions as research enterprise infrastructure funded primarily through Duke's institutional budget and research overhead rather than market sales, with any licensing royalties typically routing back to the university rather than the office as a discrete revenue line. Detailed operational data — including the composition of license income, named licensees, pricing terms for sponsored research, leadership team, partnerships, and product-level information — could not be confirmed because the primary website (otc.duke.edu) was blocked by Anubis anti-bot protection, leaving most firmographic fields without direct source confirmation.

Name

Duke's Office for Translation & Commercialization

Website

https://otc.duke.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Duke's Office for Translation & Commercialization is Duke University's technology transfer unit, evaluating invention disclosures, managing intellectual property, and licensing or launching startups to commercialize breakthroughs from Duke research.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

University Technology Transfer Services

SIC

Patent Owners & Lessors (6794)

akta.pro primary industry

Technology Transfer & Innovation-Driven Research Universities (High Commercialization) (EDAHABAH)

akta.pro secondary industry

Corporate Deep Tech / R&D Commercialization CVC (FSANAHAL)

Keywords

• University technology transfer
• Academic research commercialization
• Startup incubation services
• Intellectual property licensing
• Research translation office

Headquarters

HQ city

Durham

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Core offering

Duke's Office for Translation & Commercialization (Duke OTC) is Duke University's technology transfer and commercialization office. It connects research breakthroughs developed at Duke University with the tools, partners, and commercialization pathways needed to bring them to market, supporting startups, licensing, and industry collaborations arising from Duke's research enterprise.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Technology Transfer & Commercialization Services

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves2 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Others

• RTI International: RTI is a Research Triangle-based nonprofit research institute that performs translational R&D and occasionally spins out ventures; an adjacent ecosystem participant relevant to Durham-based Duke OTC deal flow.
• Research Triangle Park (RTP): RTP is the surrounding innovation cluster adjacent to Duke and Duke OTC; while not a peer office, it is the enabling ecosystem for Duke spinouts and warrants inclusion as a structural comparable.

Direct peers

• MIT Technology Licensing Office (TLO): MIT TLO handles invention disclosure, patent prosecution, and licensing for MIT researchers — a direct functional peer to Duke OTC in tech transfer at a top-tier research university.
• Stanford Office of Technology Licensing (OTL): Stanford OTL is the technology transfer and licensing office of Stanford University, operating the same core function as Duke OTC — commercializing university-born IP through patents, licensing, and startup formation.
• Penn Center for Innovation: PCI is the University of Pennsylvania's hub for translating research into commercial outcomes, with analogous scope and structure to Duke OTC.
• Harvard Office of Technology Development (OTD): Harvard OTD performs invention licensing, startup formation, and industry partnerships for Harvard researchers, paralleling Duke OTC's commercialization mandate at a peer private research university.
• Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures: JHTV commercializes Johns Hopkins IP through licensing and startups, directly comparable in mission and biomedical heavy mix to Duke OTC.
• Columbia Technology Ventures: Columbia's tech transfer office translates Columbia research into patents, licenses, and startups — the same translational model Duke OTC executes within Duke University.

Regional players

• Baylor Research Institute / Baylor Licensing Group: Baylor College of Medicine operates an analogous tech transfer and commercialization function, with a comparable biomedical focus to Duke OTC, though serving a different geographic and institutional ecosystem.

Broad incumbents

• Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF): WARF is one of the oldest and largest university-affiliated technology transfer and patenting organizations (University of Wisconsin), functioning as a broad incumbent in the same category as Duke OTC.

Market position

Strengths3 records

Weaknesses3 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights4 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/DukeOTC
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/about

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Duke's Office for Translation & Commercialization