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UB and RPCI Researchers named Inventors of the Year

The Niagara Frontier Intellectual Property Law Association held its 34th Annual Western New York Inventor of the Year Awards Banquet on Thursday, April 16, 2009, at the Buffalo Museum of Science, a fitting location to honor Niagara Frontier inventors. Awards recognized inventors of patents issued in 2008 in the categories of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Small Entity/Independent Inventor, as well as an overall Inventor of the Year Award.

University at Buffalo and Roswell Park Cancer Institute researcher collaborators were named Inventor of the Year and 1st Place winners in the Life Science category for their patent covering the use of ceramic-based nanoparticles to deliver photodynamic therapy compounds.

Congressman Chris Lee presented the Keynote Address. He emphasized the importance of intellectual property and manufacturing to the health of the U.S. economy, pointing to his own experiences at Enidine Inc. growing a business based on intellectual property and manufacturing. He congratulated all of the nominees for their innovative work. Lee also reported on a bill he is co-sponsoring to make the R&D tax credits permanent and to provide tax incentives for manufacturing in the U.S.

University at Buffalo inventors were recognized with the following awards:

Inventor of the Year 1st Place, Life Sciences

U.S. Patent 7,364,754 Ceramic Based Nanoparticles for Entrapping Therapeutic Agents for Photodynamic Therapy and Method of Using Same

Inventors: UB inventors Paras Prasad, Indrajit Roy, Earl J. Bergey, Tymish Y. Ohulchanskyy, Haridas Pudavar, and co-inventors from RPCI, Allan R. Oseroff, Ravindra K. Pandey and Janet Morgan

Ceramic-based nanoparticles are used to encapsulate drugs used for photodynamic therapy (PDT) and selectively deliver them to target sites (e.g. cancer sites). PDT involves the excitation of chemical photosensitizers with light. Excess energy from the photoexcited drugs transfers to surrounding molecular oxygen, resulting in the formation of reactive oxygen species which act to kill, for example, targeted cancer cells. PDT drugs are poorly water soluble, therefore, encapsulating them in nanoparticles results in stable water dispersion necessary for biomedical applications. The patent is licensed to Nanobiotix Inc. and Malasian Biotechnology Corporation.

Other UB Inventors recognized:

3rd Place, Life Sciences

U.S. Patent 7,374,755 Therapeutic Use of Anti-TF-Antigen Antibody

Inventor: Kate Rittenhouse-Olson

The patent covers an antibody with the potential to inhibit breast cancer metastasis. "The monoclonal antibody we developed has been shown to extend significantly the survival of mice with human breast-cancer tumors and to inhibit the cancer's spread to the lungs in the animals by more than 50 percent," said inventor Kate Rittenhouse-Olson, Ph.D., associate professor of clinical and laboratory sciences in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

1st Place, Physical Sciences

U.S. Patent 7,425,826 Selectively Conductive Structure Wherein a Magnetic Conductor Is Sized to Have a Cross-Section Diameter Similar to a Fermi Wavelength Of Electrons

Inventors: Harsh Deep Chopra, Zonglu (Susan) Hua, Jason N. Armstrong, Matthew R. Sullivan

The patent describes the working principles of how data can be stored in atomic sized devices. It would enable multiple bits to be stored in devices the size of a single atom. In the age of IT, there is an increasing need and trend to increase data storage capacity in devices that are being made progressively smaller. The ultimate size limit is the atom. This work on Ballistic Magnetoresistance (BMR) would enable storage of unprecedented amounts of data in atomic sized memory devices. Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) was the last major advance in data storage and in turn enabled increasingly dense hard drives. Now, hard drive bit density advances are pushing the limits of GMR capabilities. As the size of stored bits gets smaller, resulting in weaker magnetic fields, more sensitive technology, such as this BMR device described in this invention, will be required to read the bits.

2nd Place, Physical Sciences

U.S. Patent 7,335,333 Method of Altering a Fluid-Borne Contaminant

Inventors: James F. Garvey, John A. Lordi, Joseph C. Mollendorf, James D. Felske

The patented device rapidly elevates the pressure and temperature of the air circulated by the pump and destroys contaminents. The BioBlower can rapidly and continuously eradicate airborne biological pathogens, such as anthrax, and it has the potential to eradicate other airborne pathogens, such as avian flu, SARS and influenza viruses. It is licensed to Buffalo BioBlower Inc. Drs. Garvey and Lordi are company founders.

The Niagara Frontier Intellectual Property Law Association (NFIPLA) is an organization of intellectual property (IP) professionals dedicated to the creation, protection, and development of IP in Western New York.

(Posted Apr 17, 2009)