Michael Katz directs the Industry Alliances Office, the unit within IPIRA that is responsible for enhancing the University’s research enterprise through the creation of industry-sponsored research collaborations. He came to the University in 2007 from Virginia Commonwealth University, where he directed a similar office.

Michael also has experience marketing and licensing university technologies. His introduction to the field was made at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He then moved to Columbia University, where he was an Associate Director in the office of TechnologyVentures at Columbia’s Health Sciences Campus. There, he licensed numerous biomedical therapeutic, diagnostic and device technologies.

Prior to working in the area of university-industry research relations, Michael enjoyed a career in pre-clinical, pharmaceutical research in the fields of autoimmunity and cancer. While at Bayer Pharmaceuticals, he led the biology effort that resulted the discovery of sorafenib, a multikinase inhibitor for the treatment of advanced renal cell and hepatocelluar carcinoma. He holds both a bachelor and doctorate degree from UCLA, where he studied T-lymphocyte regulation of immune responses.