Most schools set up a technology transfer office to help bring new discoveries to market, which mainly involves searching patent databases and chasing lots of paperwork.

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Her method for probing the validity of a patent often starts with a Google search, moving on to Wikipedia and more obscure troves, like Japanese patent databases translated into English.

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Scouring patent databases, Dr. Jung discovered a compound made by the former French drug maker Roussel Uclaf that locked onto the androgen receptor about 100 times more strongly than the commonly used prostate-cancer drug, Casodex.

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An analysis of Patent Office databases reveals that several organisms have been used for commercial purposes.

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