UB Faculty Inventiveness Attracts Awards

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo was well-represented and -recognized at the 36th annual Inventor of the Year Award Dinner, a ceremony hosted by the Niagara Frontier Intellectual Property Law Association to acknowledge outstanding and creative inventors.

Thenkurussi "Kesh" Kesavadas, PhD, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Khurshid A. Guru, MD, director of robotic surgery at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and UB clinical assistant professor of urology, received the Creative Entrepreneur of the Year award. They co-founded Simulated Surgical Systems LLC, a pioneer in the development of robot-assisted surgical simulators designed to reduce surgical error and make robot-assisted surgical education economically feasible.

The awards were presented in May at a dinner at the Buffalo Museum of Science. The Niagara Frontier Intellectual Property Law Association is a group of patent attorneys from Western New York who recognize accomplished inventors in a variety of fields.

Other UB professors receiving awards included Sathy Balu-Iyer, an associate professor of pharmaceutical science, and Richard B. Bankert, a professor of microbiology and immunology. Together they won first place in the Life Sciences category for creating a method to reduce the toxicity of anti-tumor medications.

Second place in the Physical Sciences category went to Aidong Zhang, a UB professor and chair of computer science and biomedical engineering, Murali Ramanathan, a UB professor of neurology and pharmaceutical sciences, and former graduate students in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Woo-Chang Hwang and Young-Rae Cho. They invented a computer-based method for identifying connecting nodes in a communication network, making it easier to locate problem areas that foster inefficiency.

Tim Murphy, senior associate dean of UB clinical research and a UB distinguished professor of medicine, and his team won third place in the Life Sciences category for their patent on compounds to vaccinate against the bacteria Moraxella catarrhallis. This bacterium causes chronic ear infections in children, the treatment of which costs the U.S. $3.8 billion to $5.7 billion in annual health care. Also on Murphy's team were Alan J. Lesse, an associate professor of medicine, and Charmaine Kirkham, a medical technician.

"UB's goal is to develop commercialization opportunities for each of these patents to generate the type of economic impact Simulated Surgical Systems is having in the community, and to provide new products and services to benefit the public," said Robert Genco, vice provost and director of UB's Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system that is 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.