DHS’s Science & Technology Directorate has commercialized an artificial intelligence tool that finds patterns in complex datasets, licensing it to Bullfrog AI to be used in biopharmaceutical research.
Socrates, initially developed by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, was licensed by Maryland-based Bullfrog as part of S&T’s Transition to Practice program. Bullfrog works closely with the biopharmaceutical industry to find the link between therapies and patients and the agreement permits the company exclusive use of the tool in the field of analytical services for biopharmaceutical therapeutic applications.
It is the seventh commercialization through the Transition to Practice program since the start of the current fiscal year.
Each year, the TTP program identifies the most promising technologies developed at federal laboratories, federally funded research and development centers, and universities for the transition-to-market program. Selected technologies take part in a structured transition process designed to increase maturity and market readiness and are introduced at TTP-hosted “Demo Day” events to investors, developers and integrators who can turn them into commercially viable products.
“This commercialization shows conclusively that the ‘Transition to Practice’ program is living up to its name and fulfilling its mission by consistently transitioning innovative technology to the marketplace where it can make the most impact,” said S&T’s Cyber Security Division Director Douglas Maughan.
Socrates is a flexible graph analytics tool designed to discover patterns and relationships in large-scale and complex datasets. Such datasets can be found in social, financial, energy and biological domains in addition to applications in cybersecurity. Socrates has successfully been used to discover previously unknown patterns in real-world big datasets.
“This transition is all the more remarkable when considering the exciting new applications that are being made possible,” TTP Program Manager Nadia Carlsten said. “Socrates had already been utilized in government, including within DHS components, to address multiple data-analysis needs, and its use in biotech promises to be equally successful. Our process with TTP emphasizes exploring different models to address different market needs and this has been a key factor in our successful commercialization track record.”
TTP now has transitioned nearly 20 technologies through commercialization and open-source release since the program was launched in 2013. For more information, visit the program’s webpage or email [email protected].
