Any information which you disclosed in your publication will count as prior art, and cannot be patented by you or by anyone else. If you wish to write publications about an invention which you also wish to patent, you must file for patents first. Hence, a paper cannot be "transformed" into a patent. If you have an invention which builds upon the information disclosed in the paper, this may be patentable.

Patents cost money to file, and expensive to maintain. There is also considerable skill in writing patents. There is no point in filing for a patent unless you intend to exploit it.

Any information which you disclosed in your publication will count as prior art, and cannot be patented by you or by anyone else. If you wish to write publications about an invention which you also wish to patent, you must file for patents first. Hence, a paper cannot be "transformed" into a patent. If you have an invention which builds upon the information disclosed in the paper, this may be patentable.

Patents cost money to file, and expensive to maintain. There is also considerable skill in writing patents. There is no point in filing for a patent unless you intend to exploit it. As such, the academic/career benefits do not justify filing for a patent per se, and without a good plan to commercialise the invention, it will simply be a waste of money.