Keith Marmer has joined Penn State College of Medicine as associate dean for research innovations. In this position, Marmer will direct the Office of Technology Development and oversee the identification and development of intellectual property at Penn State Hershey in collaboration with colleagues in the Intellectual Property Office at University Park. Marmer's responsibility will be to manage the entrepreneurial efforts of our vibrant biomedical community.

Data, in various forms, drive both basic and applied research in most fields. Data collection and use require many costly steps, from conceptualization to maintenance. In academia, there exists an ideal of maintaining public-domain access to data and a strong belief that society benefits from research findings. Current proposals to tighten the controls over databases, therefore, appear antithetical to longstanding academic values.