READ the following Scenario At an early age, you declared that you would dedicate your life to finding a better treatment for childhood brain cancer. In kindergarten your good friend Taylor died of brain cancer, and from Taylor’s mother’s advocacy, you became keenly aware of the shockingly few treatments available on the market. In college you double-majored in biochemistry and biology (graduating with honors), then went on to complete your MD/ PhD at the best program in the field. You got a job at a top academic medical research university working directly with cancer patients. You’ve also spent more than a decade of clinical practice in close contact with families affected by cancer. In your research lab you have been investigating the antecedents of cancer with mice. This year your lab made major progress. Your research resulted in a treatment that reduces and reverses brain tumor growth in adolescent mice. So far you’ve only tested the treatment in your lab, but you think the outcomes could be tremendous and certainly better than anything currently available for the patients you treat. A member of your organization’s office for commercialization of research contacted you about beginning the process of protecting the ideas so that you could use the organization’s resources to pursue preparing the research for commercialization into a patented treatment. It’s the breakthrough you’ve dreamed about since Taylor became ill.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Would you pursue commercialization? What motives would drive your decision?

Is this intrinsic or extrinsic motivation? Why?