Science and Technology

In the images of fruit flies, clusters of neurons are all lit up, forming a brightly glowing network of highways within the brain. It's exactly what University at Buffalo researcher Shermali Gunawardena was hoping to see: It meant that ORMOSIL, a novel class of nanoparticles, had successfully penetrated the insects' brains.

University at Buffalo researchers racked up a diverse list of inventions in 2011, spanning fields from medical imaging to green energy. As of mid-December, UB was issued 14 new U.S. patents and filed 43 provisional patent applications in 2011.

The University at Buffalo Technology Incubator welcomed two new high-tech companies in 2011: TPF Enterprises, a consulting and product development firm that specializes in fields including clean tech and new materials, and Programmable Equipment Company (PEC), a firm that develops software that helps verify that defense or industrial equipment is operating or calibrated correctly.

The path of least emissions may not always be the fastest way to drive somewhere. But according to new research from the University at Buffalo, it's possible for drivers to cut their tailpipe emissions without significantly slowing travel time.

A fast-moving glacier on the Greenland Ice Sheet expanded in a geologic instant several millennia ago, growing in response to cooling periods that lasted not much longer than a century, according to a new Arctic study.

University at Buffalo PhD graduate Luisa Whittaker has won the Materials Research Society's (MRS) Graduate Student Gold Award, which recognizes excellence in academic achievements and materials research.

Using clever but elegant design, University at Buffalo chemists have synthesized tiny, molecular cages that can be used to capture and purify nanomaterials. Sculpted from a special kind of molecule called a "bottle-brush molecule," the traps consist of tiny, organic tubes whose interior walls carry a negative charge. This feature enables the tubes to selectively encapsulate only positively charged particles.

In 1881, Buffalo's Louise Blanchard Bethune became the first woman in America to open her own architectural office. Her career was filled with milestones for the architectural profession: She went on to design buildings including Buffalo's landmark Lafayette Hotel, and became, in 1889, the first woman to be admitted to the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Healthy, new heart cells have been generated by animals with chronic ischemic heart disease after receiving stem cells derived from cardiac biopsies or "cardiospheres," according to research conducted at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The research is being presented today (Nov. 15) at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association in Orlando.

Architect Danise Levine of the University at Buffalo has completed design work with the Wounded Warrior Home Project, which will finish construction on two houses for wounded veterans today (Nov. 11) in Fort Belvoir, Va., that fit the unique physical and emotional needs of the soldiers who will move in. The dwellings are universally designed to be accessible to people of diverse abilities and ages.