Scooped!
JoAnne Thomas (jthomas@path.som.sunysb.edu)
Mon, 3 Feb 1997 14:56:26 EST5EDT
To my fellow cytometrists:
I wanted to share this with all of you with the possibility in mind
that some of you out there may be just as naive or "trusting" as I
was. Today I realized that I was grossly taken advantage of as a
result of my over enthusiasm to bring new applications to flow
cytometry. Several months back I received a phone call from a small
company in Columbia, MD asking for a few minutes of my time. They
touted about having some fluorochrome (phycobilisome) which was 1000X
brighter than PE. They were wondering if I had any ideas of any
applications in flow which would require this level of sensitivity. I
tossed the thought around a little and mentioned the idea of HIV
viral loads. We discussed some more specifics and I gave them the
name of the director of our AIDS Center to further discuss a possible
collaboration. A conference call was set up for the three of us to
discuss this idea and during the phone conversation it was determined
that this was a feasible idea to explore and that the initial studies
could be done at my institution with support funding from the company
with the intent of royalties if a product should come to market. Our
Grants Management department was contacted by this company and asked
to draw up a royalty contract. In addition we were asked to submit a
"scientific proposal" with the experimental design and budget, which
we did. I guess you by now have figured out the ending. My purpose
again for sharing this with you is to perhaps enlighten those of you
out there who assume everyone abides by good scientific conduct that
in fact there maybe some very "unethical" people out there trying to
make a buck any way they can. A Lesson learned hard-Beware!!Share
nothing unless you stamp it confidential or you have a signed
agreement in hand!!
CD-ROM Vol 3 was produced by Monica M. Shively and other staff at the
Purdue University Cytometry Laboratories and distributed free of charge
as an educational service to the cytometry community.
If you have any comments please direct them to
Dr. J. Paul Robinson, Professor & Director,
PUCL, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
Phone: (765)-494-0757;
FAX(765) 494-0517;
Web
http://www.cyto.purdue.edu
, EMAIL
cdrom3@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu
