Thursday, March 27, 2008

UMass doles out $240K in tech-to-market grants

The University of Massachusetts has awarded $240,000 in grants to researchers at its five campuses to encourage commercialization of UMass-born technology.

Researchers won grants for work on medical devices, health assessments, HIV drug effectiveness, biomass fuel production, and microscopes intended to better research. Eight grants of $30,000 each went to UMass researchers.

The grants are awarded through and managed by the UMass Office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property, headed by executive director William Rosenberg. The awards are funded with technology licensing revenue supplemented by funds from the UMass Office of the President.

The following researchers won $30,000 grants:

• Jie Song, UMass Medical School, for testing of a nanocomposite shape memory polymer used as bone substitute;
• Celia Schiffer, UMass Medical School, for testing of a series of novel HIV-1 protease inhibitors specifically designed to reduce incidence of drug resistance;
• George Huber, UMass Amherst, for development of a prototype reactor to demonstrate green gasoline production on a large scale;
• Stephen McCarthy, UMass Lowell, for construction of a device for the application a heat-activated adhesive system intended to eliminate the need for drilling or the use of screws for fixation in craniomaxillofacial surgery;
• Melisenda McDonald, UMass Lowell, for demonstration of the technology to maintain cells used in research;
• Kevin Fu, UMass Amherst, for construction of a prototype showing how zero-power telemetry in implantation devices can extend the lifetime of batteries;
• Babs Soller, UMass Medical School, for redesign of a sensor which assesses a person's metabolic rate and exercise capacity, which is valuable information for the commercial sports market;
• D.V.G.L.N. Rao, UMass Boston, for development of a lab model microscope based on a Fourier phase contrast microscopy technique.