919-684-3628
taber002@mc.duke.edu
Robert L. Taber, Ph.D., Vice Chancellor for Corporate and Venture Development at Duke University Medical Center and Health System, heads the Offices of Technology Licensing and Venture Development, and Corporate Research Collaborations. The former Office is responsible for patents and licenses and new venture activity for the University as a whole, and the latter for commercially sponsored research, corporate gifts, and selected corporate vending relationships for the Duke School of Medicine and the Health System in particular.
Dr. Taber obtained his B.A. from Harpur College, S.U.N.Y. in 1964, his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1969 and went on to a post-doctoral fellowship at MIT with Dr. David Baltimore. He then joined the Microbiology faculty of the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine at its formation, as an Assistant Professor (1971-1973). In 1973 he moved to Roswell Park Memorial Institute as a Senior Cancer Research Scientist (tenured) while holding an adjunct appointment in Microbiology at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In 1979 he left to become Associate Director of the Northern California Cancer Program (the National Cancer Institute Bay Area Cancer Center) based at Stanford and had an adjunct appointment and laboratory in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco.
Dr. Taber left academics in 1981 to participate in the founding of Integrated Genetics, Inc. in Framingham MA as Vice President, Corporate Development. The company was based on DNA technology for both diagnostic and therapeutic applications and went through two private venture and two public rounds of financing by 1985. The company was subsequently acquired by Genzyme.
In 1985, Taber was recruited to become President and CEO of EG&G; MRI, based in Worcester, MA, a division of EG&G;, Inc. (now PerkinElmer, Inc.), EG&G; at the time was an instrument and government services company with ~$3B in sales. His division performed biomedical testing for the biotechnology industry, NIH and the military. During Taber’s tenure with the company, the division he led doubled in sales to about $20,000,000 with 220 employees while maintaining consistent profitability. The division was subsequently acquired by Charles River Laboratories. During that time as President of EG&G; MRI he also maintained an office at corporate headquarters and worked with both (1) EG&G; Ventures, an internal fund for strategic start-up investment and (2) Corporate Business Development where he participated in initiatives that subsequently generated billions of government revenue to the Corporation.
In 1990, Dr. Taber left EG&G; to be a founder, as President and CEO of One Cell Systems, an analytic device company based on MIT technology for cellular analysis and separation. The company is still in business in Cambridge, MA.
In late 1992, he was recruited to Duke University Medical Center as an Associate Vice Chancellor to assume responsibility for patent and licensing activities for the whole University. Over the course of the next few years he acquired additional responsibility for new venture development, selected international initiatives, commercial agreements and selected vending relationships. He was promoted to a Vice Chancellor level position in 1998.