The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) recently issued nineteen patents during July, August, and September for technologies invented at the University of New Mexico. The patents, issued during STC.UNM’s 2016 fiscal 1st quarter, are for a variety of technologies created by researchers in the Departments of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Chemical & Biological Engineering, Physics & Astronomy, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Molecular Genetics & Microbiology, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Chemistry, Pathology, Center for Biomedical Engineering, Center for High Technology Materials, UNM Cancer Center, and Center for Molecular Discovery.
Issued Patent for: “Viscosity Measuring Method”
Patent No. 9,074,976, issued July 7, 2015
Inventors: Edward R. Flynn, Natalie L. Adolphi, Howard Bryant, Kimberly Butler
This technology is a method for measuring the viscosity of a fluid as well as having the potential to measure the size distribution of nanoparticles in solution. The procedure uses calibrated magnetic nanoparticles and requires less than one minute. In addition, the method has the potential to measure the distribution of viscosities in a complex fluid at the sub-microscopic level.
Issued Patent for: “Multinode Acoustic Focusing for Parallel Flow Cytometry Analysis Applications”
This technology is currently licensed.
Patent No. 9,074,977, issued July 7, 2015
Inventors: Gabriel P. Lopez, S.D. Menake Eranda Piyasena, Steven Wade Graves, Robert W. Applegate
This technology is the first planar multinode acoustic focusing device for use in flow cytometry. This device takes advantage of a linear, standing, acoustic wave that can be tuned based on its frequency, which affects the wavelength of the acoustic wave.
Issued Patent for: “Gate-All-Around Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Transistors with Gate Oxides”
Patent No. 9,076,813, issued July 7, 2015
Inventors: Steven R. J. Brueck, Seung-Chang Lee, Daniel Feezell
This technology is a gate-all-around field effect transistor employing a well-defined nano-scale floating current channel from source to drain. The current channel is surrounded with Group III oxide formed by liquid phase chemical-enhanced oxidation for thermal stability.
Issued Patent for: “Method for Diagnosing Francisella Tularensis Infection”
This technology is currently licensed.
Patent No. 9,074,237
Inventors: Graham Timmins, Seong Won Choi, Terry Wu
This technology is a method to provide a rapid and selective detection and typing of F. tularensis through the use of one or more chemistries invented herein. The methods of breath testing could include those used previously by the inventor, or other tests of biological fluids
Issued Patent for: “Compounds That Inhibit Human DNA Ligases and Methods of Treating Cancer”
Patent No. 9,073,896, issued July 7, 2015
Inventors: Alan Edward Tomkinson, Gerald Wilson, Helen Xi Chen, Barbara Dziegielewska, Alexander MacKerell, Shijun Zhong
This technology is comprised of methods for treating cancer using compounds that inhibit human DNA ligases by inhibiting cell growth, killing tumorous cells and potentiating cell killing by DNA damaging agents. The DNA ligase inhibitors are anti-proliferative and potentiate the cytotoxicity of DNA damaging agents. These compounds may have clinical utility in the treatment of cancer, in particular malignancies with an altered DNA damage response.
Issued Patent for: “Therapeutic Ultrasound Transducer Chip with Integrated Ultrasound Imager and Methods of Making and Using the Same”
Patent No. 9,079,219, issued July 14, 2015
Inventor: Jingkuang Chen
This technology is a therapeutic ultrasound device, with built-in imaging capability for minimally invasive treatment. On the chip, a high-power capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) and imager CMUT are monolithically integrated on a micromachined silicon substrate for minimally- or non-invasive treatment.
Issued Patent for: “Dry Powder Nebulizer”
Patent No. 9,078,985, issued July 14, 2015
Inventors: Hugh Smyth, Nicola Jeanne Maynard
This technology is a novel method of delivering micronized drug particles to the deep lung through a dry powder nebulizer. The device eliminates the need for patients to generate the inspiratory capacity needed for currently marketed respiratory dry powder products. In addition, this device allows for the delivery of much larger quantities of drug to the deep lung relative to other commonly utilized methods and devices.
Issued Patent for: “Phase-Coupled Arrays of Nanowire Laser Devices and Method of Controlling an Arrays of Such Devices”
Patent No. 9,106,056, issued August 11, 2015
Inventors: Stephen D. Hersee
This technology is a device that is a practical arrangement of an individually addressable nanowire-based LED array integrated onto a ROIC (readout integrated circuit) with the capability of emitting and receiving light signals. Image data is relayed to an external computer via a hi-speed connection and the image is reconstructed and displayed on the control computer. Taking this technology even further should allow the capability for pseudo-3D imaging of objects (for example biological cells) within liquid samples.
Issued Patent for: “Stable Elastomeric Negative Acoustic Contrast Particles and Their Use in Acoustic Radiation Fields”
Patent No. 9,101,664, issued August 11, 2015
Inventors: Gabriel P. Lopez, Gregory Kaduchak
This technology is a versatile elastomeric negative acoustic contrast particles. The elastomeric negative acoustic contrast particles allow for control of compressibility and density. This invention can be used to engineer elastomeric negative acoustic contrast particles that have specific, known characteristics such as density and compressibility in order to create particles having specific expected behaviors within an acoustic field.
Issued Patent for: “Gas Filled Hollow Fiber Laser”
Patent No. 9,106,055, issued August 11, 2015
Inventors: Wolfgang G. Rudolph, Brian R. Washburn, Kristan L. Corwin, Rajesh Kadel, Andrew M. Jones, Vasudevan A. V. Nampoothiri, Amarin Ratanavis, John Zavada
This technology is the first optically pumped gas laser (OPGL) on population inversion in a hollow core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF). The laser produces mid-IR (3.1-3.2 µm) lasing by optically pumping with 1.5 µm, nanosecond pulses. The laser has many advantages of optically pumped gas lasers, including high damage thresholds and the potential for coherent emission from mutually incoherent pump sources.
Issued Patent for: “System and Methods for Dynamic Management of Hardware Resources”
Patent No. 9,111,059, issued August 18, 2015
Inventors: Marios Stephanou Pattichis, Yuebing Jiang, Daniel Llamocca Obregon
This technology is a system and method for improving the resource management in computer systems, which has pareto-optimal realizations (i.e. able to maximize resources) to meet time-varying energy, power, performance, and accuracy constraints. This system incorporates dynamically reconfigurable signal, image, and video processing architectures by using multi-objective optimization to determine one or more pareto-optimal realizations for the power, performance, and accuracy space, and selecting among the one or more pareto-optimal realizations to meet time-varying resource constraints of performing the specified task.
Issued Patent for: “Magnecytometer for the Detection of One or More Analytes”
Patent No. 9,110,067, issued August 18, 2015
Inventor: Laurel Sillerud
This technology is a novel nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) microcoil spectroscopic flow cytometer (a Magnecytometer), which performs ultra-sensitive cell detection and isolation. This technique is based on the binding of antibody-conjugated, super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) to tumor cells and flow NMR spectroscopy of water in the surrounding buffer solution.
Issued Patent for: “Physical Removal of Biological Agents Detected by a Magnecytometer”
Patent No. 9,110,068, issued August 18, 2015
Inventor: Laurel Sillerud
This technology is a novel nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) microcoil spectroscopic flow cytometer (a Magnecytometer), which performs ultra-sensitive cell detection and isolation. This technique is based on the binding of antibody-conjugated, super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) to tumor cells and flow NMR spectroscopy of water in the surrounding buffer solution.
Issued Patent for: “Thermal Neutron Detectors Based on Gadolinium-Containing Nanoscintillators”
Patent No. 9,116,246, issued August 25, 2015
Inventors: Nathan Jack Withers, Jose M. Vargas, Marek Osinski, Gennady A. Smolyakov, Brian A. Akins, Antonio C. Rivera, John Bryan Plumley
This technology is a way to detect thermal neutrons based on gadolinium-containing nanoscintillators. Gadolinium is an element with by far the highest thermal neutron capture cross section among all stable isotopes.
Issued Patent for: “System and Methods for Improved Real Time Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging”
This technology is currently licensed.
Patent No. 9,116,219, issued August 25, 2015
Inventor: Stefan Posse
This technology is a process for high-speed fMRI using multi-slab echo-volumar imaging (EVI). The method reduces geometrical image distortion and blurring, and increases BOLD sensitivity compared to conventional echo-planar imaging (EPI).
Issued Patent for: “Modulators of GTPases and Their Use”
This technology is currently licensed.
Patent No. 9,125,899, issued September 8, 2015
Inventors: Tudor I. Oprea, Laurie Hudson, Larry A. Sklar, Angela Wandinger-Ness, Zurab Surviladze
This technology is a novel and FDA-approved inhibitors of Ras GTPases from the Molecular Libraries Screening Center Network. Using FDA-approved drugs, inventors have demonstrated the ability to inhibit ovarian cancer cell proliferation and migration by inhibiting Ras superfamily GTPases, particularly the Rho family. The characterization of GTPases as targets and biomarkers offers new opportunities for disease detection and therapeutic monitoring.
Issued Patent for: “Thiophene-Based Oligomers as Light-Activiated Biocides”
Patent No. 9,125, 415, issued September 8, 2015
Inventors: Eunkyung Ji, Anand Parthasarathy, Kirk S. Schanze, Thomas S. Corbitt, Subhadip Goswami, David G. Whitten, Dimitri Dascier
This technology is a method for synthesizing thiophene-based oligomers functionalized with cationic end groups exhibiting light-activated biocidal characteristics. Recent developments revolving around the use of thiophene-based oligomers as light-activated reagents have shown promising results in producing increases in singlet oxygen, which magnify biocidal activity against several pathogens including bacteria and viruses.
Issued Patent for: “Targeting Abnormal DNA Repair in Therapy-Resistant Breast and Pancreatic Cancers”
Patent No. 9,132,120, issued September 15, 2015
Inventors: Alan Edward Tomkinson, Feyruz Rassool
This technology is a method for identifying solid tumors suitable for treatment using inhibitors of alternative (ALT) non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) factors. This research shows that an ALT NHEJ pathway is upregulated in breast cancer cell lines and tumors that are either intrinsically resistant or have acquired resistance to antiestrogen therapies.
Issued Patent for: “Methods of Making Heteroepitaxial Layer on a Seed Area”
Patent No. 9,142,400, issued September 22, 2015
Inventors: Steven R. J. Brueck, Stephen D. Hersee, Seung-Chang Lee, Daniel Feezell
This technology is a method for optimally growing GaN and its alloy system with AlGaN on a Si(100) surface, configured for leading-edge electronics. The method uses current lithographic capabilities as well as industry standard Si and is thus scalable. Another advantage of cubic GaN is the absence of a built-in polarization field that allows normally-off operation—important for low power consumption circuits.
For more information on the issued patents, see Blake Driver’s December 1, 2015 article, “U.S. Patent Office likes what UNM researchers are doing,” from Albuquerque Business First at http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/blog/morning-edition/2015/12/u-s-patent-office-likes-what-unm-researchers-are.html.