University of Hawaii officials have talked a good deal lately about improving and speeding up the process by which technology developed by professors can be marketed and monetized.

Toward that end, UH’s Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development has signed an agreement with the Honolulu-based Pono Corporation, which gives the company ownership of three technologies developed by UH, and makes UH a shareholder in the corporation.

This could prove an important step in creating the innovation economy UH President M.R.C. Greenwood wants for Hawaii.

The three technologies Pono will own (and if you understand these fully, you’re far smarter than I):

• A proteasome inhibitor drug, which is being studied in the treatment of cancer and heart disease
• A humanized cobra venom factor, which also is being studied in the treatment of heart disease 
• A nanocarrier drug delivery system

Read a full news release from UH — and if you haven’t already, make sure to read our series on UH’s potential to put out the kind of research that can drive the state’s economic engine.