Inventors and entrepreneurs to be celebrated at UB reception

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The University at Buffalo will hold its annual Inventors and Entrepreneurs Reception on Thursday, honoring faculty, students and business partners who are pushing boundaries in medicine, electronics and other industries.

Award recipients include faculty members who have developed a new method to diagnose the autoimmune disorder Sjogren’s syndrome, as well as researchers who have created new ways to protect buildings during earthquakes.

Of particular note, UB President Satish K. Tripathi will present the Technology Innovation Leadership award to UB Vice Provost Robert J. Genco. Genco, who has overseen the university’s technology transfer efforts as director of the UB Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR), will step down from that role to lead UB’s new Center for Microbiome Research.

Media are invited to this invitation-only event, which runs from 4-6 p.m. at the Saturn Club in Buffalo. To make arrangements, please contact Cory Nealon, university communications, at 716-645-4614 or cmnealon@buffalo.edu.

At the event, UB will also honor:

• Researchers who have developed nine technologies licensed to companies. These discoveries include a nanoparticle that can be used to fight hemophilia and other ailments, and technology designed to help doctors assess and treat unruptured brain aneurysms.
• Researchers named on six patents. These inventors include Julian L. Ambrus Jr., MD, professor in the Department of Medicine in UB’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, who developed the aforementioned diagnosis for Sjogren’s, as well as UB engineering researchers Michael Constantinou and Andrei Reinhorn, and industry partner Taylor Devices, who created the earthquake protection system mentioned above.
• The Entrepreneurial Spirit award will be presented to Glenna Bett and Randall Rasmusson. Both are faculty members who co-founded Cytocybernetics, a UB spinoff company that is creating biotechnology that aims to cut in half the time and money needed for preclinical trials of certain medications.
• Three companies that graduated from the UB Technology Incubator. This includes tech startup Cloud62, which was acquired in October by Illinois-based Huron Consulting Group but remains in Buffalo at the UB Gateway Building downtown.
• Six companies that joined the UB Technology Incubator. The list includes Geocove, a Florida-based company founded by UB alumnus Karyn Tareen that builds Geographic Information Systems for government agencies and other groups.

A complete list of the companies, as well as new technologies, is available in the reception program.

The event is organized by STOR, which helps UB researchers commercialize their inventions. The office also runs the UB Technology Incubator; the UB Biosciences Incubator in the Clinical and Translational Research Center in downtown Buffalo; Directed Energy, a virtual clean energy incubator; tenX, a co-working space within the UB Technology Incubator; and the Western New York Incubator Network, which provides services to incubated companies across Western New York.

STOR has also partnered with the UB School of Management to run the university’s Entrepreneurship Lab program, a winter session class offered to students who want to turn their business ideas into reality.

Additional speakers at the reception include UB Provost Charles F. Zukoski; UB Vice President for Research and Economic Development Venu Govindaraju; and Genco.