To my fellow cytometrists: I wanted to share this with all of you with the possibility in mind that some of you out there may be just as naive or "trusting" as I was. Today I realized that I was grossly taken advantage of as a result of my over enthusiasm to bring new applications to flow cytometry. Several months back I received a phone call from a small company in Columbia, MD asking for a few minutes of my time. They touted about having some fluorochrome (phycobilisome) which was 1000X brighter than PE. They were wondering if I had any ideas of any applications in flow which would require this level of sensitivity. I tossed the thought around a little and mentioned the idea of HIV viral loads. We discussed some more specifics and I gave them the name of the director of our AIDS Center to further discuss a possible collaboration. A conference call was set up for the three of us to discuss this idea and during the phone conversation it was determined that this was a feasible idea to explore and that the initial studies could be done at my institution with support funding from the company with the intent of royalties if a product should come to market. Our Grants Management department was contacted by this company and asked to draw up a royalty contract. In addition we were asked to submit a "scientific proposal" with the experimental design and budget, which we did. I guess you by now have figured out the ending. My purpose again for sharing this with you is to perhaps enlighten those of you out there who assume everyone abides by good scientific conduct that in fact there maybe some very "unethical" people out there trying to make a buck any way they can. A Lesson learned hard-Beware!!Share nothing unless you stamp it confidential or you have a signed agreement in hand!!
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