UB to Honor Faculty Inventors

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- University at Buffalo faculty who are inventing and patenting new products and discoveries, commercializing research and developing startup companies will be celebrated at the 2011 Inventors and Entrepreneurs Reception on March 29 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Center for Tomorrow on UB's Amherst campus.

Opening and closing remarks will be made by Satish K. Tripathi, UB officer-in-charge, Alexander N. Cartwright, UB vice president for research, and Robert J. Genco, vice provost, UB Office of Science Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR).

U.S. Patent and Visionary Innovator awards will be presented by Jeffrey A. Dunbar, director of STOR. UB Technology Incubator Awards will be presented by Woody Maggard, associate vice provost at STOR.

UB faculty and local entrepreneurs are being recognized in the following categories for their efforts in 2010: Inventors named on U.S. patents; Visionary Innovators (UB faculty who developed technologies licensed to industrial partners); UB Technology Incubator graduates; and UB Technology Incubator Company entrants.

In 2010, 20 patents were awarded to UB faculty covering a broad range of research, including calcium sulfate nanoparticles for bone regeneration; fast, efficient ways to produce novel pharmaceutical compounds; molecules that boost the potency of vaccines; novel anti-fouling coatings for ships and other marine vessels; and a method of detecting bacterial-induced rhinosinusitis. A list of the patents and their inventors is available at http://www.buffalo.edu/news/12410.

UB faculty being recognized as Visionary Innovators and their industrial partners are:

Thenkurussi ("Kesh") Kesavadas, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, for the system for endovascular telerobotic access, with Simulated Surgical Systems Management Company, LLC;

Bradley P. Fuhrman, MD, UB professor of pediatrics and anesthesiology and chief, Division of Critical Care Medicine, Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo, and Mark S. Dowhy of the Pediatric Critical Care Laboratory, for a partial gas column separator, with Medical Conservation Devices LLC;

Te-Chung Lee, associate professor of biochemistry for the production of YY1 antibody, with Millipore Corporation;

Sarbajit Banerjee, assistant professor of chemistry for graphene and graphene-based nanocomposite coatings and freestanding thin films and chemical vapor deposition and substrate transfer of few-layered graphene, with Graphene Devices Ltd;

John Panepinto, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology for crypotococcus and aspergillis strains, with ZeptoMetrix Corp;

Paschalis Alexandridis for controlled synthesis of nanocrystals and nanoparticles by a gas-emulsion process and controlled synthesis of polymorphic nanostructures using templates, with Global EIS;

Thomas Szyperski, UB Distinguished Professor of Chemistry for GFT NMR spectroscopy, with Varian, Inc. and Bruker Instruments, Inc.

Munawwar Sajjad and Hani Nabi, associate professors of nuclear medicine for multimodality agents for tumor imaging and therapy and porphyrin-based compounds for tumor imaging and photodynamic therapy, with Photolitec LLC.

UB's Technology Incubator grads this year are Zenhire, Inc., which provides a unique suite of Web-based pre-employment tools and services to the third party recruitment industry; the company was in the incubator since 2004, and Aerostar Group, which offers consulting services in lean manufacturing, logistics and quality management systems; it has been in the incubator since 1999.

The UB Technology Incubator's newest companies in 2010 are Cloudback LLC and Ladybug Teknologies Inc. Cloudback provides an online avenue for small businesses to leverage the power of the crowd to solve problems. It was founded by two UB School of Management MBA graduates. Ladybug Teknologies Inc. develops and sells products, including software and an experiential breath kiosk, which enable legal-aged consumers to practice informed consumption while keeping our communities safe.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.