Office of Technology Management

OTM Team

Dr. Bruce D. Butler is Vice President Research and Technology, and directs the Office of Technology Management at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The office handles the technology transfer activities including the creation of new start-ups for the six UTHealth schools and the UTHealth faculty at the Texas Heart Institute. Dr. Butler also holds an academic position as Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at the Medical School and managed a research program in collaboration with NASA, U.S. Navy and several international pharmaceutical companies. He has over 200 published papers, abstracts and book chapters. Other positions he holds include VP for the Office of Global Health Initiatives, Associate Director of the UTHealth / MD Anderson Cancer Center-Center for Advanced Biomedical Imaging Research (CABIR). Dr. Butler is an inventor on numerous U.S. and associated foreign patents; several of which have been commercialized through UTHealth that include respiratory healthcare products and bio-pharmaceuticals. He has been involved with product development for medical and home-care devices, including FDA regulatory approvals and clinical trials. Dr. Butler has been personally involved in the creation of 5 life-science start-ups and numerous other business development partnerships.

---

克里斯汀·e·弗林博士。joined OTM in 2007, where she is responsible for assessing, protecting, and commercializing the intellectual property generated by faculty, staff, and students at UTHealth, with a particular focus on startup companies. Christine also helped establish and further coordinates the Biotechnology Commercialization Center (BCC) at UTHealth. Prior to joining OTM, Christine received Bachelor of Science degrees in both Chemistry and French from The Pennsylvania State University in University Park, PA. She continued her education at The University of Texas at Austin, in Austin, TX, where she researched peptide-directed recognition and growth of semiconductor materials under the direction of Professor Angela Belcher, receiving her Doctorate of Philosophy in Chemistry. In conjunction with a postdoctoral research position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, Christine joined Cambrios Technologies Corp. as the first employee of the new company, where she contributed to the commercialization and expansion of the basic science that she previously developed with Dr. Belcher, including as Principal Investigator on two Army grants and as a key player in the formation of Intellectual Property Strategy for the company.

---

Peter G. Seferian, Ph.D. joined OTM in 2008, where his primary responsibility involves the assessment, protection, and management of the intellectual property generated by UTHealth faculty, staff, and students. Dr. Seferian is a registered Patent Agent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and prior to joining the Office of Technology Management he was a Senior Patent Agent at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, where he filed and prosecuted hundreds of patent applications, as well as contributing to IP strategy, diligence and competitive intelligence efforts. Before joining Lexicon, Dr. Seferian had many years of bench experience as a Senior Scientist and Project Leader in the biotechnology industry. At Zonagen, Inc., he developed novel vaccine adjuvant systems and while at Aprogenex, Inc., he worked on FISH based diagnostic systems. He also has GMP pharmaceutical production experience obtained at Natcon Chemicals, Inc., a generic pharmaceutical company. Dr. Seferian received his B.S. degree in Biology from the State University of New York at Binghamton and his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Biomedical Science at UTHealth, where he studied auto-anti-idiotypic immune regulation in the Pathology Department at the Medical School. After receiving his Ph.D., he served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Protozoan Diseases Laboratory of the USDA-ARS in Beltsville, MD, developing recombinant vaccines.

---

Xiaoyan Wang, Ph.D.

Technology Commercialization Analyst

Phone: +1 (713) 500-3384
Fax: +1 (713) 500-0331
Email:Xiaoyan.Wang@uth.tmc.edu

Xiaoyan Wang, Ph.D. joined OTM in 2021, where she is responsible for assessing, marketing, and licensing the intellectual property developed by faculty, staff, and students at UTHealth. Xiaoyan is a registered Patent Agent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Before joining OTM, Xiaoyan received her B.S. degree in Chemistry from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. She went to Texas A&M University at college station to pursue her graduate study in Chemistry, where she initiated and developed a novel method to investigate the ubiquitin (Ub)-proteasome pathway of protein degradation, aiming at drug discovery. After receiving her Ph.D. degree in 2016, Xiaoyan joined the University of Texas-MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) as a postdoctoral fellow, focusing on the structural investigation of major DNA repair pathway-related protein complexes targeting anti-cancer drug discovery. While serving as a postdoc at MDACC, Xiaoyan became an intern for their Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC), where she assisted with the evaluation of patentability and commercialization potential for new inventions created at MDACC, as well as communication with potential licensees for MDACC properties.

---

Jan Hendrickson

Senior Administrative Manager

Phone: +1 (713) 500-3369
Fax: +1 (713) 500-0331
Email:Janet.M.Hendrickson@uth.tmc.edu

---

Elda Tolentino

Administrative Coordinator

电话:+ 1 (713)500 - 3353
Fax: +1 (713) 500-0331
Email:Elda.Tolentino@uth.tmc.edu