UB Recognizes Faculty Scholars, Inventors and Entrepreneurs at Reception

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo recognized 56 faculty members and researchers at the Scholars, Inventors and Entrepreneurs Reception held from today in the Center for Tomorrow on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

The annual reception honors the research and commercialization achievements of faculty members in the following categories: Exceptional Scholars Awards, U.S. Patents, Start-up Businesses, Licenses to Industrial Partners, Product Development Fund Awards and Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) in Biomedical and Bioengineering Awards.

Additionally the university honored Molcan USA and Wallace Wireless, two companies that joined the UB Technology Incubator program in 2003.

The reception was co-hosted by UB President John B. Simpson and Interim Provost Robert J. Genco, who is head of the university's Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR). State University of New York Chancellor Robert L. King also attended the event.

"The remarkable achievements of our superb faculty merit special recognition," said King. "The University at Buffalo's scholars have produced extraordinary accomplishments in all phases of scientific inquiry. I am delighted to play a small part in recognizing these intellectual giants."

Noting his pleasure in honoring UB faculty members for their outstanding accomplishments, Simpson said: "Their excellence demonstrates the depth of our university's diverse research activities, as well as our commitment to our civic responsibility as New York State's most comprehensive public research university."

Genco added, "These activities are the result of the first-rate science and research of UB faculty and our collaborations with researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute. And it is important for us to honor and recognize the contributions of up-and-coming and accomplished faculty members for their body of work.

"The discoveries of this esteemed group feed the pipeline of knowledge and technology that is then transferred to the public for the benefit of society," Genco added.

Over the past year, STOR has seen an increase in commercialization activities as a direct impact of the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences. Genco noted that more than half of the honorees have an interest in bioinformatics and life-sciences initiatives at UB.

"We are dedicated to continually expanding the boundaries of human knowledge and achievement, and to sharing the benefits of our discoveries locally, statewide, nationally and across the globe," Simpson added. "Our faculty is comprised of talented scholars who are truly dedicated to this charge, and I look forward to even greater research achievement across our university in the years ahead."

The Exceptional Scholars Award honors faculty members for their outstanding research performance at different stages in their career. Recipients of the Exceptional Scholars Young Investigator Award were:

• David Hershenov, Department of Philosophy, College of Arts and Sciences

• Guofang Li, Department of Learning and Instruction, Graduate School of Education

• Athena Mutua, Law School

• Holger Schunemann, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

• Feng Qin, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

• Ellen Smit, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Health Professions

Recipients of the Exceptional Scholars Sustained Achievement Awards were:

• Carol Brewer, School of Nursing

• Catherine Cornbleth, Department of Learning and Instruction, Graduate School of Education

• Richard Donahue, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Health Professions

• Markus Dubber, Law School

• Winston Lin, Department of Management Science and Systems, School of Management

• Claes Lundgren, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

• Richard Ohrbach, Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences, School of Dental Medicine

• David Pendergast, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

• Jerrold Winter, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

The following faculty members were recognized for being named on U.S. patents awarded to the Research Foundation of the State of New York in 2003:

• Paras N. Prasad and Earl J. Bergey, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences, patent 6,514,481, Magnetic Nanoparticles for Selective Therapy. This invention involves nanosized particles or magnetic "nanoclinics," thin silica bubbles that may assist in the treatment of cancer patients. It has been licensed to Nanobiotix of France. Co-inventors are Laurent Levy and Charles Liebow.

• Jim D. Atwood, David C. Hoth and Cynthia A. Hoover, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences, patent 6,521,772, Synthesis of Substituted Ruthenocene Complexes. This invention is for novel chemistries to create thin films based on ruthenium that can enable continued performance gains in future semiconductor devices. Co-inventor is Michael Alexander Lienhard.

• Frank V. Bright, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences, patents 6,582,966 and 6,589,797, Microsensor Arrays and Method of Using Same for Detecting Analytes. This novel chemical sensor element is used to construct chemically responsive microsensor arrays atop a light emitting diode (LED). Co-inventors are Brett R. Wenner, Meagan A. Doody and Gary A. Baker, all former UB students.

• Paschalis Alexandridis and Sriram Neelamegham, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, patent 6,589,797, Recovery of Liquids from Absorbent Packaging Materials. This invention is for a method for recovery of aqueous samples or components from polymer packaging materials. It has been licensed to Technicor Inc., a developer of packaging and handling systems for the biomedical marketplace located in the UB Technology Incubator.

• Bradley P. Fuhrman and Mark S. Dowhy, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, patent 6,591,836, Device and Method of Reducing Bias Flow in Oscillatory Ventilators. This invention is designed to reduce the chance of lung injuries often associated with existing oscillatory ventilators by providing necessary oxygen through a gentle vibration.

• Eli Ruckenstein, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, patent 6,639,013, Method of Making Graft, Block-Graft and Star-Shaped Copolymers by In-Situ Coupling Reaction. This invention involves a faster and more cost-effective method to prepare graft, block and star-shaped copolymers with complex molecular architectures and multiple components. Co-inventor is Hongmin Zhang

• Thenkurussi Kesavadas, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, patent 6,654,656, Rapid Informational Prototypes, Including Rapid Colored Prototypes. The invention is a system for layered colorings of 3-dimensional objects allowing for more realistic and attractive 3-dimensional color patterns. Co-inventor is Kirk C. Stalis.

• Joseph A. Gardella, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences, patent 6,670,190, Method for Testing the Degradation of Polymeric Materials. The invention is a novel method for monitoring the surface concentration of a drug in a polymer blend matrix and its reaction kinetics. Co-inventors are Norma Hernandez de Gatica and Joo-Woon Lee.

• Troy D. Wood, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences, patent 6,670,607, Conductive Polymer Coated Nano-Electrospray Emitter, which has an electrically conductive polymer coating that is extremely resistant to electrical discharge. This patent is licensed to Nanogenesys, a UB faculty start-up company located at the UB Technology Incubator. Co-inventors are E. Peter Maziarz III, Sarah A. Lorenz and Thomas P. White.

The following faculty members who started a business based on their research were recognized for their entrepreneurial spirit:

• David Hangauer, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences, who founded Kinex Pharmaceuticals along with Allen Barnett and Lyn Dyster. Kinex is based on applications of Hangauer's novel patented drug-discovery methodology focused on kinase inhibitors to treat cancer.

• Eliot Winer, formerly of UB, together with Christina Bloebaum and Kenneth English, both of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Michel Brummer, founded Visual Design Systems, an online visualization and design provider that utilizes copyrighted design and engineering software.

• Sargur N. Srihari, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, along with Yong-Chul Shin, founded CedarTech. The company focuses on products and solutions for the computer interpretation of patterns, including document analysis and recognition tasks.

The following faculty members invented technologies that were licensed to an industrial partner in 2003:

• Paras N. Prasad and Earl J. Bergey, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences, with collaborators Charles Liebow and Laurent Levy, developed Magnetic Nanoparticles for Selective Therapy, which was licensed to Nanobiotix of France

• Tom Suchyna and Frederick Sachs, both of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, with collaborator Janice DelMar, developed Peptide to Block Mechanically Activated Ion Channels, which was licensed to Peptide Institute, Inc., of Japan

• X. Y. Zheng, Sandra McFadden and Donald Henderson, all of the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, with collaborator Bo Hua Hu, developed Prevention or Reversal of Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL) through Biological Mechanisms, which was licensed to American BioHealth Group of California

• UB Center of Excellence for Document Analysis and Recognition (CEDAR), including, Sargur N. Srihari, Venugopal Govindaraju, Sangjik Lee, Vemulapati Ramanaprasad, Zhixin Shi, Xia Liu, Fred Kunderman, Phil Kilinskas, Srirangaraj Setlur, Dave Bartnik, Wen-Jann Yang and Ajay Shekhawat, with collaborators Bin Zhang, Catalin Tomai, Sung-Hyuk Cha and Yong-Chul Shin, developed User Interface for Forensic Document Examination System, which is licensed to CedarTech of Williamsville

The following faculty members were recipients of assistance from the 2003 UB Product Development Fund, designed to assist faculty in further developing their inventions for commercialization:

• Stephen Rudin, Division of Radiological Physics, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, for the research project entitled Asymmetric, Variable Porosity Stents For Cerebrovascular Aneurysm

• Hiroaki Suga, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences, for the research project entitled De Novo Genetic Coding System for Proteomics

• David G. Hangauer, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences, for the research project entitled Molecular Target Laboratory Development

• Bradley P. Fuhrman, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, for the research project entitled Ventilator Delivery of Volatile Liquids and Therapeutic Gases

• Richard Salvi, Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, for the research project SykofizX Software Application

The following faculty members were recipients of assistance from the 2003 New York State Center for Advanced Technology in Biomedical and Bioengineering, which supports university-industry collaboration to accelerate commercialization of biomedical or bioengineering devices:

• Kenneth English, New York State Center for Engineering Design and Industrial Innovation (NYSCEDII), with industry partner ThatsIt, LLC, for "Surgical Instrument Cleaning Technology"

• Jeffrey Lackner, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, with industry partner SmartPill Diagnostics, Inc., for "SmartPill: Device for Portable, Noninvasive Motility Recording"

• Richard Bankert, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, with industrial partner TherapyX, Inc., for the research project "Interleukin-10 Microspheres Drug Delivery System for IBD Therapy"

• Kenneth English, NYSCEDII, with industrial partner Gaymar Industries, Inc., for the research project "Virtual Prototyping and Simulation for Pressure Ulcer Management"

• Albert H. Titus, Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and industrial partner Calspan-UB Research Center for the research project "Unobtrusive Biometric Sense, Transmit, Access and Respond System"

• Edward Niles, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, with industrial partner Calspan-UB Research Center for the research project "Novel Inhibitors of Poxvirus Replication"

• Thomas Mang, Department of Oral And Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Dental Medicine, with industry partner NY Painless Surgery Technology, LLC, for the research project "Painless Laser Surgery Maxillofacial Area Mapping System"

STOR is the university's interface between the inventive work of laboratory research and commercial development that brings its benefits to market. It works with businesses to license university-developed technologies, researchers to develop emerging technologies with commercial viability and entrepreneurs to start new business ventures.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, the largest and most comprehensive campus in the State University of New York.