The USC Stevens Institute for Innovation has announced the opening of an office in the new Harlyne Norris Tower on the Health Sciences campus.

Functioning as a satellite office, USC Stevens at HSC will help Health Sciences innovators during community-building events, showcase opportunities and tech-transfer activities while unifying innovation advancement activities throughout the university.

Situated nearby most of the laboratories, the office will allow the USC Stevens HSC team to more efficiently service faculty members and researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the USC School of Pharmacy and the USC School of Dentistry.

The USC Stevens HSC team, which has five full-time staff members, will nearly double by year’s end. Joe Koepnick, the USC Stevens director of licensing, will split his time between HSC and the University Park campus.

Noting that 42 percent of the university’s licensing revenue comes from inventions and patents developed at the Keck School of Medicine, Provost C. L. Max Nikias called the satellite office “a strategic development in line with the university’s mission to enhance and foster innovation across all disciplines for maximum societal impact.”

“By opening a USC Stevens office on the Health Sciences campus, USC further demonstrates its intention to provide leadership in the medical and biological sciences revolution that will reshape our society in coming decades,” Nikias added. “We are creating a model that will strengthen Southern California’s biotech industry. Faculty and researchers at HSC now have seasoned staff available at their doorstep, ready and able to address their needs and help get their life-enhancing and life-saving inventions out to the market.”

Krisztina Holly, vice provost and executive director for USC Stevens, said, “It’s a big move for the university and clearly demonstrates a strong commitment to the growth of both the USC Health Sciences campus and the life science industry here in Los Angeles.”

According to the Southern California Biomedical Council, the Los Angeles and Orange County metropolitan area has a 36 percent higher concentration of biosciences employment than other metro areas across the country.

The Los Angeles and Orange County regions rank 10th in the nation for biotechnology venture capital funding, the highest standing since 2001, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers MoneyTree Report.