A company that specialises in turning University research into marketable drugs is licensing Harvard research related to the blue evergreen hydrangea root , a part of the plant that has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. Allied-Bristol Life Sciences, a joint venture between university commercialisation specialist Allied Minds and US pharmaceuticals giant Bristol-Myers Squibb, is licensing research carried out by Professor Malcolm Whitman and Dr Tracy Keller at Harvard from 2002 onwards.