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Traditional vaccines use a high dose of antigen to elicit an antibody response, which is ineffective against many intracellular diseases. This technology uses an extremely low dose of peptides from the target disease, creating a T-cell response to provide improved protection. Further, the use of synthetic peptides allows for a lower cost and safer formulation than many existing vaccines. Numerous infectious diseases that lack sufficient (or any) preventative or therapeutic treatments are candidate targets, including tuberculosis, influenza, norovirus, dengue fever, malaria and many animal diseases. Cancers and autoimmune disorders could also be candidates. Overview | U.S. Patent Application

There is a continuing need in point-of-care (POC) and clinical settings for more rapid and accurate testing to detect protein biomarkers of disease. Current methods of protein detection in bodily fluids can be costly, inaccurate, and time consuming. This technology yields quick, quantitative results with no significant sample preparation. Overview

Successful disinfection of contact lenses is of the utmost importance in the prevention of the spread of pathogenic bacterial infection to the user. Many solutions today fail to provide effective antimicrobial properties. This water soluble N-halamine compound acts as a powerful disinfectant that thoroughly kills microbes in a contact lenses soaking solution. The effectiveness and stability of this compound has been demonstrated, and it has also been shown to be non-bleaching towards dyes found in many contact lenses. Overview | U.S. Patent Application

This versatile drug delivery platform can control and modulate the release of a single therapeutic or multiple therapeutics in response to a variety of stimuli.  Small molecule drugs and nucleic acid therapeutics (e.g., RNAi) can be incorporated into injectable particulate or implantable drug systems in such a way as to release the drugs under certain conditions.  A single formulation can incorporate different drugs that are released at different rates. Overview | U.S. Patent Application

This new form of non-crystalline cellulose exhibits physical properties drastically different from a-cellulose and MCC. These unique properties include changes in morphology, surface area, porosity, crystallinity, bioavailability and viscosity in the wet form and density, melting point, reactivity, and water absorption in the dry form. Potential applications include use as a novel pharmaceutical excipient. NCCI Business Plan Executive Summary | U.S. Patent 7,977,473 (excipient applications)

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis and inflicts as many as one million Americans with such symptoms as abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, and weight loss. Alpha defensins — naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides — have shown an ability to inhibit the inflammatory process, thus serving as a potential therapeutic for these and potentially other inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. Overview | U.S. Patent No. 7,528,107

There is a need for an easily assembled targeted drug carrier particle that has efficient assembly/conjugation, proper binding characteristics and can be efficiently produced on a large scale. This invention utilizes landscape phage proteins, which can be screened to specifically bind to a variety of targets, and their intrinsic ability to become spontaneously associated with micelles and liposomes. Overview | U.S. Patent 8,137,693 | U.S. Patent 8,252,324

Proteon nucleating centers (PNCs) consist of 1- to 2-nm nanoparticles that contain 40–300 non-ionic metal atoms. These nanoclusters have been shown to scavenge misfolded proteins to form proteons: clusters of up to 100,000 protein molecules with metal centers. Thus, PNCs have tremendous potential in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases associated with misformed proteins, including prion-related diseases, neurological diseases, blood diseases and cancer. Overview | U.S. Patent No. 7,138,255 (Parent)
View glioma cells treated with PNCs: Images | Video

Increasing evidence suggests that ubiquitin ligases play a role during progression of several neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Huntingdon’s, Parkinson’s and ALS. Auburn has developed a highly selective inhibitor of TRAF6, an E3 ubiquitin ligase. The use of this inhibitor is expected to be of interest as a reagent, as a pharmacological tool and as a therapeutic. Overview | U.S. Patent No. 7,491,501

The p62 protein has been identified as the significant contributor to several metabolic pathways that lead to metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and other related diseases. This invention provides a method for detecting the level (or absence of) the p62 protein as a diagnostic tool. A pharmaceutical composition is also contemplated for therapeutic supplementation. U.S. Patent 7,608,412

Oral administration of low doses of jellyfish collagen have been demonstrated to delay the onset and and to suppress collagen-induced rheumatoid arthritis in animal models. Because jellyfish collagen is more homogeneous than bovine or chicken type II collagen, it showed a superior effect in suppressing the onset of arthritis in rats. Overview | U.S. Patent No. 6,894,029

Targeting to muscle: Overview | U.S. Patent No. 6,329,501
Targeting to brain/CNS: U.S. Patent No. 6,399,575
Targeting to glial cell tumors: U.S. Patent No. 7,094,868 | U.S. Patent No. 7,642,063

These self-plasticizing copolymers allow for the assessment of a wide variety of ions without experiencing the negative effects of leaching, typically caused from using plasticizers. The key application for these sensors are for the detection of low levels of ions in bodily fluids for medical testing and research. Overview | Parent U.S. Patents: 7,201,876; 7,678,252; 7,247,489

This patch clamp technique utilizes a laser source to generate a voltage across the membrane of target cells. This voltage generation allows for detailed studies of ion channel activity and throughput levels not currently achievable by other methods. This technology has potential applications in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, neuroscience and nanotechnology. Overview | U.S. Patent No. 7,807,042

Biological materials can be preserved for extended periods -- even at room temperature -- by simply adding an aqueous polymer solution and drying to a film. The sample can then be fully restored with water. This solves many of the problems with current preservation methods such as dehydration of the sample, expense, and use of cumbersome cryogenics or toxic materials. Overview | Video of bacteria preservation and recovery after two weeks
U.S. Patent No. 7,022,514 | U.S. Patent No. 7,473,550 | U.S. Patent No. 7,604,807

This work is the first demonstration of the use of landscape phage as recognition elements for biosensors. As superior substitutes for antibodies, phage exhibit many features such as high affinity, field stability, and low cost that show utility in a variety of real-time applications. Overview | U.S. Patent 7,267,993 | U.S. Patent 7,670,765 | Related U.S. Patent: 7,138,238

This system and method for observing, collecting and analyzing olfactory characteristics of human or animal subjects produces data that can then be compared to various standards, providing a quantitative tool to study breathing patterns and quality. This technology has potential applications in clinical diagnostics and research tools, and has been exclusively licensed for canine-based detection. Overview | U.S. Patent No. 6,979,298

These chip-based microfluidics systems enable the rapid study of the behavior of biological enzyme reactions on microliter, nanoliter, and picoliter scales. The Protein Kinetics Chip allows for faster and less expensive determination of enzyme kinetic parameters using much less material than conventional experiments. The Kinetic Landscaper increases throughput, scope, control and automation to create 3-D landscapes of an enzyme’s general kinetic parameters. Both could be adapted for use with other biological interactions, such as protein:protein binding. Protein Kinetics Chip Overview | Kinetics Landscaper Overview | U.S. Patent Application
Additional microfluidic technologies: US 7,906,074 | U.S. Patent Publication 20110056575

The widespread meat species adulteration found in heat-processed meat products and retail meat markets can have serious health consequences. These monoclonal antibodies are capable of meat species identification in raw and cooked meats and thus can detect species substitution. Additionally, they are useful indicators of end-point cooking temperature. Overview | U.S. Patent No. 6,288,215 | U.S. Patent No. 7,344,848 (end point)

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