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UB recognizes faculty scholars, inventors and entrepreneurs
By LORRAINE O.W. STINEBISER
Reporter Contributor
UB last week recognized 42 faculty members and researchers at a Scholars, Inventors and Entrepreneurs Reception in the Center for Tomorrow, North Campus.
The annual reception honors the research and commercialization achievements of faculty members in the following categories: Licenses to Industrial Partners, U.S. Patents, Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology (CAT), and Exceptional Scholars Awards.
Additionally, the university honored nine companies that joined the UB Technology Incubator program in 2004. They are Buffalo BioBlower Technologies, BubbleFlow Technologies Inc., Absolute Energy Inc., Lynx Technologies Inc., Zenhire Inc., Aquasol Corporation, GeneOB USA, Inc., Chakra Biotech Inc., and Virmatics, LLC.
The reception was co-hosted by Satish K. Tripathi, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, and Robert J. Genco, interim vice president for research who also is vice provost and director of UB's Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR). UB President John B. Simpson and. Russell W. Bessette, executive director of New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR), also attended the event.
"It is the true innovative and intellectually creative work of faculty that defines the best of public research universities," said Tripathi. "Today, UB celebrates the scholarly excellence of our faculty and their critical contributions in ensuring the purpose of the public research university—the discovery, application and transmission of new knowledge—is perpetuated, not only today, but throughout generations to come."
"What we see here are the results of the world-class scientists and researchers." Genco said. "It is their hard work and dedication to their fields that puts UB on the map in both the academic world and within industry."
"It is important for us to honor and recognize our faculty's contributions in the transfer of knowledge and technology for the benefit of society," Genco added.
STOR has seen an increase in invention disclosures and licenses. Genco noted that since 2000, a total of 40 technologies have been licensed or optioned to companies, nine of which were to start-up business ventures. This past year, STOR licensed nine technologies, including two to local start-up companies Kinex Pharmaceuticals, LLC and Dynamic Eye Inc. The university also licensed a swimsuit design to TYR Sports,Inc. These UB developed suits were worn by some of the swimmers in the 2004 Summer Olympics.
The following faculty members invented technologies that were licensed to an industrial partner in 2004:
Venugopal Govindaraju, Sargur N. Srihari, Dave Bartnik, Vemulapati Ramanaprasad and Srirangaraj Setlur, all of the UB Center of Excellence for Document Analysis and Recognition (CEDAR), along with Hanhong Xue, formerly of UB, developed Stochastic Modeling of High-Level Structures in Handwritten Word Recognition, which was licensed to XactData, Inc. (f/k/a mobileLexis).
Thomas J. Bardos, Department of Chemistry, along with Simon M.N. Efange, formerly of UB, Yung-Chi Cheng and Alan Schroeder, developed Therapeutic Use of IPDR, which was licensed to Hudson Health Sciences.
Paras Prasad, Earl J. Bergey, Tymish Y. Ohulchanskyy and Haridas E. Pudavar, Department Chemistry, along with Indrajit Roy, formerly of UB, developed Ceramic Based Nanoparticles for Entrapping Therapeutic Agents, which was licensed to Nanobiotix of France.
David G. Hangauer Jr., Department of Chemistry, along with Thomas H. Marsilje and Karen Milkiewicz, formerly of UB, developed Novel Methods for Designing Protein Kinase Inhibitors which was licensed to Kinex Pharmaceuticals, LLC.
Joseph Mollendorf, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, David Pendergast, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, and Albert C. Termin II, Division of Athletics, along with Robert Cuviello, formerly of UB, developed Low Drag Swim Apparel, which was licensed to TYR Sport Inc.
Jian Feng, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, developed A Rabbit Polyclonal Antibody Against Parkin, which was licensed to Convance Research Products and Chemicon International Inc.
Donald Henderson, Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, developed Prevention or Reversal of Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL), which was licensed to American BioHealth Group, LLC.
Northrup Grumman Patent Donation to UB was licensed to Dynamic Eye Inc.
The following faculty members were recognized for being named on U.S. patents awarded to the SUNY Research Foundation in 2004:
Bradley P. Fuhrman and Mark S. Dowhy, Department of Pediatrics, patent 6,675,799 Device and Method of Isolating Bias Flow.
John M. Aletta, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, patent 6,699,673 Protein Methylarginine-Specific Antibodies.
Sanjay Sethi and Timothy F. Murphy, Department of Medicine, patent 6,740,499 Method for Detecting Bacterial Exacerbations of Chronic Lung Disease.
James Mayrose, Department of Emergency Medicine, and Thenkurussi Kesavadas, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, patent 6,752,770 A System and Method for Analyzing a Region Below One of More Layers of Tissues. Mayrose and Thenkurussi recently were named "Inventors of the Year" at the 30th Annual Western New York Inventor of the Year Awards Dinner for this patent.
Huw M. L. Davies, Department of Chemistry, patent 6,762,304 Metal Catalysts and Methods for Making and Using Same.
Libuse Bobek, Department of Oral Biology, patent 6,790,833 Antifungal and Antibacterial Agents.
Abir Mullick and Edward Steinfeld, Department of Architecture, patent 6,820,290 Movable Bathroom Fixtures.
Thomas Szyperski and Hanudatta S. Atreya, Department of Chemistry, patent 6,831,459 Method of Using G-Matrix Fourier Transformation Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (GFT NMR) Spectroscopy for Rapid Chemical Shift Assignment and Secondary Structure Determination of Proteins.
The following faculty members were recipients of the 2004 Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology (CAT), which supports university-industry collaboration to accelerate commercialization of biomedical or bioengineering devices:
James Garvey, Department of Chemistry, and industrial partner Calspan-UB Research Center (CUBRC) for "BioBlower Validation for Air Purification Against Bioterror Organisms."
Thomas Mang, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and industrial partner TCAG Inc. for "Painless Laser Maxillofacial Surgery," and also with industrial partner IET Incorporated for "Real Time Ultralow Dosage Oral Cancer X-Ray Spectrometer."
Laura Edsberg, Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences, with industrial partner TCAG Inc. for Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) Cartilage Regenerative Surgical Technology."
William Mihalko, Director of Orthopaedic Research, with industrial partner Stryker Inc. for "Validation of New Computer Aided Total Knee Replacement Algorithms."
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:
Daniel B. Hess, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, School of Architecture and Planning.
Jeffery Errington, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).
Hung Ngo, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SEAS.
Satrajit Sinha, Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Recipients of the Exceptional Scholars Sustained Achievement Awards were:
Vladimir Mitin, Department of Electrical Engineering, SEAS.
Chunming Qiao, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SEAS.
LeAdelle Phelps, Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology, School of Graduate School of Education.
Ram Ramesh, Department of Management Science and Systems, School of Management.
Vivian Cody, Department of Structural Biology, Medicinal Chemistry, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Mahavan Nair, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
STOR is UB's primary commercialization and technology transfer office. It identifies, protects and commercializes the outcomes and discoveries of research conducted at UB for the public good, and provides a continuum of business development support for the university's technologies, entrepreneurs and start-up companies.