UB inventors to be honored at reception

By ELLEN GOLDBAUM
News Services Editor

THIRTEEN UB inventors will be honored at a reception to be held at 4 p.m. March 15 in the Center for Tomorrow on the North Campus.

The reception is the first to be held by the Office of Technology Transfer and Licensing in its new role as part of the UB Business Alliance.

Jerry McGuire, the new director of the Office of Technology Transfer and Licensing, noted that the office now will be taking a much broader approach to tech transfer. "You need to have the technology and the patents in order to do business, but we also have to be able to capitalize on them once you have them," he said. "If it's patentable, great," said McGuire. "However, if it's not eligible for a patent, but still could lead to a new product or to an entrepreneur establishing a company in Western New York that could create new jobs, that's great, too."

Inventors who are named on 13 U.S. patents issued to The Research Foundation of State University of New York in 1998 will receive awards from President William R. Greiner. The inventors are:

- Timothy Murphy, professor of medicine and microbiology, who was granted two patents for compositions and nucleotide sequences for Branhamella catarrhalis, as well as recombinant vectors containing these sequences.

- Bradley P. Fuhrman, professor of pediatrics and anesthesiology, inventor of a method for using an effective, inflammation-reducing amount of a liquid or gaseous fluorocarbon to reduce the inflammatory response in tissues of a patient. Co-inventors are Lynn Hernan, assistant professor of pediatrics and anesthesiology; Michele Papo; David Steinhorn, associate professor of pediatrics and anesthesiology, and Stephen Flaim. The patent has been licensed to Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. of San Diego.

- Jonathan Hull, formerly professor of computer science, inventor of an optical character-recognition method and apparatus that generates a bit-mapped, digitized image of a document. Tao Hong is co-inventor.

- George C. Lee, director of the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research and Samuel P. Capen Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, inventor of a method and apparatus for real-time, structure-parameter modification. Co-inventors are Zhong Liang, research assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and assistant director of the Laboratory for Animated Structures at UB, and Mai Tong, research instructor in civil, structural and environmental engineering and special assistant to the dean for co-op projects.

- Daniel D. Cook, laboratory mechanician for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, co-inventor of an easy transport seat for seating and transporting physically challenged individuals. Steven Kerbis is co-inventor. Cook also received a patent for a vortex elimination device, suitable for insertion into a container of liquid.

- Sushil Patel, principal research scientist of electrical and computer engineering, inventor of an annular furnace that delivers precise temperature control that may be used in the heat treatment of materials, including superconducting tape. Frederick C. Wong is co-inventor.

- Scott L. Diamond, formerly associate professor of chemical engineering, inventor of a method for assaying components in an enzyme-protein substrate system. Jung-He Wu is co-inventor.

- Robert E. Mates, professor emeritus of mechanical and aerospace engineering, inventor of a non-invasive device for estimating central venous pressure, a device particularly useful for cardiac patients. Dennis Policastro, formerly clinical assistant professor, and Kenneth Peebles, engineering design assistant and senior laboratory equipment designer, are co-inventors.

- Ramalingham Sridhar, inventor of a method and apparatus for designing a family of CFET logic circuits for wave pipelining. Zhang Xuguang is co-inventor.

- Nathan N. Back, research professor of biochemical pharmacology, inventor of a process for immobilization onto the surfaces of ELISA plates of a compound carrier complex and for immunization. Kalyan R. Anumula is co-inventor.

- Deborah D.L. Chung, Niagara Mohawk Professor of Materials Science and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, inventor of a composite material strain/stress sensor.

- Jeremy Bruenn, professor of biological sciences, inventor of capsid polypeptides capable of inhibiting viral packaging. Wensheng Yao is co-inventor.

- Paul Ehrlich, formerly professor of chemical engineering, inventor of low-density microporous polymers and process, capable of achieving a supercritical condition. Robert Stewart is co-inventor.