“These faculty members have a passion for knowledge and discovery, and a commitment to the university to ensure that their work is transferred to the private sector for commercial development and to the public sector for the common good,” UofL President James Ramsey said during the award ceremony. “They wish their inventions to be available to the world for the benefit of humankind.”

A patent is a grant made by a government that confers upon the creator of an invention the sole right to make, use, and sell that invention for a set period of time.  It protects the idea behind the invention described.

A license is the agreement that then allows the outside party to move forward to develop, distribute and sell that innovation in the commercial market.

 

Paula J. Bates, School of Medicine. Bates is an associate professor of medicine, with joint appointments in the departments of biochemistry and molecular biology and as an associate scientist of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center. One of her major research interests is a class of anticancer agents known as “G-rich oligonucleotides” or “GROs,” which she discovered in collaboration with Drs. John Trent and Donald Miller. These inhibit the growth of many different types of cancer cells, but have no effect on normal cells, and are also being widely used throughout the world as tumor-targeting ligands. Bates co-founded (with Drs. Trent and Miller) a Louisville-based biotechnology company named Aptamera to develop GROs, which culminated in one of the GROs (AGRO100, later renamed AS1411 and then ACT-GRO-777) becoming the first in its class to enter human clinical trials. Bates’ current research focuses on mechanistic aspects of GRO activities and—in collaboration with Drs. M. Tariq Malik and Martin O’Toole—she is developing GRO-linked nanoparticles for use in cancer therapy, imaging and drug delivery. In collaboration with Dr. G. B. Hammond from the Department of Chemistry, Bates is also studying anticancer compounds derived from Amazonian plants and a novel synthetic agent that selectively kills cancer cells.

Scott D. Cambron, Speed School of Engineering. Cambron is a doctoral candidate and instructor in the department of mechanical engineering. He is working full time as a research engineer in the department of bioengineering. He received the 1st Place Award at the 2003 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition Conference in the Bachelor Level Student Paper Competition in Bioengineering. He has four peer-reviewed publications, eight conference papers, one issued patent and two provisional/non-provisional patents. He has an active engineering role with UltraTrace Detection, LLC, a university-based startup company with colleagues at UofL.

Jonathan “Brad” Chaires, School of Medicine. Jonathan “Brad” Chaires is a professor in the department of medicine and the fepartment of biochemistry and molecular biology. He holds the James Graham Brown Chair of Cancer Biophysics and is also a senior scientist in the James Graham Brown Cancer Center. His current research interests are in the physical biochemistry of nucleic acids and their interactions, with particular emphasis on the integration of thermodynamics into the rational drug design process. In addition, he has pioneered the use of differential scanning calorimetry as a diagnostic tool. Chaires is a founder of Louisville Biosciences Inc.  

Jason Chesney, School of Medicine: Chesney joined the faculty of the University of Louisville and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center in 2002. Since then, he has developed several clinical and translational research programs and assumed multiple administrative roles at the Brown Cancer Center, and is the director of the clinical trials program. His laboratory recently discovered a drug that inhibits 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase and an optimized derivative of this drug entered phase I clinical trial testing in Spring 2014. Chesney also has an active immunotherapeutics program that is focused on testing novel approaches to cause durable remissions through induction of tumor immunity in advanced solid malignancies. His group was the first to demonstrate that Denileukin Diftitox can deplete the T regulatory cells that suppress immunity against cancers, causing objective tumor regressions in cancer patients.

Brian F. Clem, School of Medicine. Clem works with a highly collaborative and synergistic group of investigators that include a computational biologist, biophysicist and cancer biologist in order to identify novel approaches to the treatment of cancer. His lab studies the role of genetic alterations on metabolism during the transformation of normal, healthy cells to cancer cells and identifies novel molecular targets for chemotherapy development. Previously, he was the lead investigator of the identification of the first small molecule inhibitor of 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase, 3PO, as well as a novel inhibitor of choline kinase, CK37. Both compounds have been commercially licensed and a more potent derivative of 3PO is currently undergoing phase I clinical trials in cancer patients. Although his studies have implications for multiple tumor types, Dr. Clem seeks to identify novel agents with activity against breast and lung cancer, as well as leukemias.

Ayman El-Baz, Speed School of Engineering. El-Baz is associate professor in the department of bioengineering. He has developed new techniques for analyzing 3D medical images. His work has been reported at several prestigious international conferences (e.g., CVPR, ICCV, MICCAI, etc.) and in journals (e.g., IEEE TIP, IEEE TBME, IEEE TITB, Brain, etc.). His work related to novel image analysis techniques for lung cancer and autism diagnosis have earned him multiple awards, including: first place at the annual Research Louisville 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012 meetings, and the “Best Paper Award in Medical Image Processing” from the prestigious ICGST International Conference on Graphics, Vision and Image Processing (GVIP-2005).

Xiao-An Fu, Speed School of Engineering. Fu is an associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Louisville. He was a key contributor to a number of research projects funded by DARPA and NASA including SiC MEMS and SiC JFET-based integrated circuits for high temperature applications. He invented a process for deposition of low stress polycrystalline SiC suitable as MEMS structure materials. His current research interests include chemical microsensors, microreactors, breath analysis for development of a noninvasive diagnostic tool for detection of early lung cancer, trace gas detection, active tuberculosis and other pulmonary diseases, analysis of neurotransmitter and advanced semiconductor thin films for integrated circuit and solar cell applications. He has authored three U.S. patents.

Nichola C. Garbett, School of Medicine. Garbett is an assistant professor of medicine and assistant director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center Biophysical Core Facility. She was part of a Brown Cancer Center research team, with Drs. Jonathan B. Chaires and A. Bennett Jenson, which made a key discovery that the melting pattern of blood plasma, called a plasma thermogram, can be used as a diagnostic method for early detection, diagnosis and monitoring of disease. She has continued to develop this technology as part of her independent research program centered on the development of biophysical approaches for medical diagnostics. Her recent PLOS ONE publication received international attention for the potential role of plasma thermograms in cervical cancer diagnosis. Current focus is on the development of plasma thermograms for monitoring of recurrence and therapeutic response in melanoma patients, in collaboration with Drs. Jason A. Chesney and Donald M. Miller. She is a co-inventor on patent applications describing the plasma thermogram technology and a co-founder of a start-up company, Louisville Bioscience, Inc., formed to develop and commercialize plasma thermograms as a new diagnostic technology.

Gerald B. Hammond, College of Arts and Sciences.  Hammond holds the Endowed Chair in Organic Chemistry. He came to UofL in 2004 as professor of chemistry and University Scholar. Hammond’s research interests include synthetic methodologies, including gold catalysis and organofluorine chemistry, natural products isolation and drug discovery. Hammond is author of close to150 publications and six patents.

Susan Harkema, School of Medicine . Harkema is associate research director of the University of Louisville’s Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center and the director of research at Frazier Rehab Institute. She is also the director of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation’s Neurorecovery Network. Harkema’s research is focused on understanding neural mechanisms responsible for human locomotion and the level of plasticity — or the ability to change and recover — after neurologic injury. She and her colleagues have developed an intervention called locomotor training that re-teaches walking by providing sensory cues the neural circuitry of the spinal cord recognizes and promotes better muscle patterns for walking. The results of these studies contribute to the knowledge about the fundamental mechanisms that control human locomotion; this may provide strategies physical therapists can use for walking rehabilitation after neurologic injury occurs. Her current work is focused on the use of epidural stimulation in combination with locomotor training to increase the excitability of the spinal cord and augment return of function

Cindy Harnett, Speed School of Engineering. Harnett came to the University of Louisville department of electrical and computer engineering in 2006, and she is an associate professor. Her lab uses micro- and nanofabrication to create three-dimensional sensors and actuators with applications in microfluidics, biotechnology and environmental research.

James (Jay) Hoying, School of Medicine.  Hoying is the chief of the division of cardiovascular therapeutics at the CII and professor in the departments of surgery and physiology/biophysics. He has over 26 years of experience in basic and applied biological sciences with a focus in vascular biology and repair. He holds a number of patents related to growing and manipulating capillaries in the laboratory and cell-based therapies. He was recently elected as a fellow of the American Heart Association, and he is a co-founder and the president of Riviera Medical Technologies, LLC, a local biotech company.

Suzanne T. Ildstad, School of Medicine. Ildstad is the director of the Institute for Cellular Therapeutics (ICT), the Jewish Hospital Distinguished Professor of Transplantation, and professor of surgery at UofL.  ICT is a multidisciplinary translational research program focused on the development of novel cell-based therapies for the treatment of diseases. In 1998, the Institute relocated to UofL to join the hand transplant initiative. Her research on mixed chimerism to induce tolerance to organ allografts and treat nonmalignant diseases such as sickle cell anemia and autoimmune disorders is being applied in numerous Food and Drug Administration approved translational clinical trials, including kidney tolerance, sickle cell disease, and MS.

Douglas Jackson, Speed School of Engineering. Jackson has worked as a research engineer for the university and for various medical device companies. His interests are lab-on-a-chip devices, inductively coupled telemetry, low power circuits and printed circuit board design.

Bennett Jenson, School of Medicine. Jenson is a board-certified pathologist who is professor of vaccinology at UofL. He spent 20 years at Georgetown University as a surgical pathologist, where he, Shin-je Ghim and Richard Schlegel were co-inventors of Gardasil/Cervarix, the cervical cancer vaccines. He and Shin-je Ghim were awarded a patent for diagnosing and protecting dolphins against papilloma virus, and received the Manatee Conservation Award Fish and Wildlife Division, Department of Interior for re-establishing manatee migration routes in Florida in 2008. He is an inventor and co-founder of Louisville biosciences, a company that has exclusive rights to thermograms in medicine.

Kyung A. Kang, Speed School of Engineering. Kang is a professor in the department of chemical engineering and graduate program director for the department. Her current research interests are molecular sensing; gold nanoparticle for highly sensitive and specific disease diagnoses; nano-contrast agent for multi-modality imaging; nanoparticle mediated cancer hyperthermia; biomedical application of near infra-red; and characterization of primo vascular system. She holds several U.S. patents.

Robert S. Keynton, Speed School of Engineering. Keynton is the chair, professor and the Lutz Endowed Chair of Biomechanical Devices of the department of bioengineering.  He co-founded two companies, Assenti, LLC and Ultra Trace Dectection, LLC with colleagues at UofL. His research interests include BioMEMS, microfluidics, lab-on-a-chip devices, nanofabrication, MEMS modeling, micromechanical machining, and cardiovascular mechanics.

LaCreis Kidd, School of Medicine. Kidd’s research seeks to identify, evaluate and validate complex gene-gene interactions that may serve as effective predictors of prostate cancer detection, prognosis and clinical response/survival following therapeutic treatments in ethnically diverse sub-groups. Ultimately, her goal is to design a “SNP panel” to help clinicians predict individuals who are likely to develop aggressive disease and/or respond favorably to aggressive treatment based on a patient’s genetic signature. Her research involves advanced statistics and in silico tools to screen thousands of genetic mutations for their capacity to predict disease outcomes, followed by validation of targets using machine learning algorithms. She has received three patents for her work involving genomic signatures of prostate cancer. Currently, her research program seeks to understand how short non-coding RNAs, namely oncomirs, control aggressive prostate cancer behavior.

John Kielkopf, College of Arts and Sciences. Kielkopf’s current research includes determining the properties of extra-solar planets, the development of astronomical instrumentation and software, and passive remote optical sensing with uses in health care, diagnostic medicine, structural and machine health assessment, and the measurement of turbulence in clear gases. His interest in astronomy education and student research experiences led to the development in 1978 of Moore Observatory located in the university’s Horner Wildlife Refuge in  Oldham County, and the Shared Skies collaboration with Mt. Kent Observatory in Queensland.

Jon Klein, School of Medicine. Klein is the founder of the University of Louisville Core Proteomics Laboratory, one of the first university-based core proteomics laboratories in the United States. The Clinical Proteomics Program is focused solely on clinical biomarker discovery. His own proteomics research has focused on biomarkers of kidney disease. Most recently the Core Proteomics Laboratory collaborated with investigators at Boston University Medical School to identify the target antigen responsible for idiopathic membranous nephropathy, work that was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. In collaboration with others, the Core Proteomics Laboratory has performed proteomics research in the fields of cancer biology, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, macular degeneration and sleep apnea. Klein is a co-founder and president of Pharos Medicine, Inc., a UofL spin-off company, that develops clinical decision tools that incorporate proteomics-discovered biomarkers and computer methods to guide drug dosing.

Amanda Jo LeBlanc, School of Medicine. LeBlanc joined the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute in 2012 and serves as an assistant professor in the department of physiology and biophysics. She has an extensive research background in cardiovascular physiology, focusing almost exclusively on myocardial perfusion and function in models of both aging and gender-specific cardiology. Her research encompasses myocardial and microvascular regenerative medicine, age- and sex-specific coronary physiology, regulation of blood flow, cell-based delivery and therapeutics, cardiovascular toxicology, adipose-derived cells and microvessels, fabrication of tissue-engineered patches, and neovessel formation and inosculation. Utilizing adipose-derived stromal vascular cells, LeBlanc has co-developed a cell-laden epicardial patch for post-myocardial infarction repair, a technology that is patent-pending. Along with Drs. Stuart K. Williams and James Hoying, their studies have shown that implanting the adipose-derived cell patch onto scar tissue where the heart attack had occurred previously, the regenerative cells on the patch acted to stabilize the function of the left ventricle and prevented worsening of the damaged cardiac tissue. LeBlanc is also investigating related cellular therapies specifically for treating post-menopausal women with ischemic microvascular disease.

Kenneth McLeish, School of Medicine. McLeish is professor of medicine and director of the research laboratories for the division of nephrology and hypertension at UofL. He also serves as shief of the renal section at the Robley Rex VA Hospital. McLeish’s research focuses on the mechanisms of inflammation, most recently the control of granule release from neutrophils. This research led to the development of peptides that inhibit granule release from human neutrophils and thereby diminish acute inflammation.

Michael Merchant, School of Medicine. Merchant is an associate professor in the departments of medicine and pharmacology and toxicology, as well as the co-director of the University of Louisville Core and Clinical Proteomics Laboratories. Merchant’s research focuses on the application of mass spectrometry-based proteomic methods to study human health and disease. His personal research focuses on the identification and confirmation of biomarkers associated with renal disease, or complications associated with renal disease such anemia or cardiovascular disease. Merchant is a co-founder and chief technical officer for Biomarker Discovery of Pharos Medicine, Inc., a UofL spin-off company that develops clinical decision tools that incorporate proteomics-discovered biomarkers with computer methods to guide drug dosing.

Donald Miller, School of Medicine. Miller is director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center and associate vice president of health affairs. Since his arrival in Louisville, the Brown Cancer Center has recruited more than 100 new cancer-related faculty and its research funding has grown by more than 200-fold. The Brown Cancer Center has developed a nationally recognized research program in cancer drug development with more than a dozen novel treatments being studied in their labs. The unique strengths of BCC scientists have led to formation of the Advanced Cancer Therapeutics (ACT), a university/private investor partnership to develop novel therapeutics from the Brown Cancer Center labs. Miller is a medical oncologist with a specific interest in the treatment of malignant melanoma. In collaboration with Drs. Paula Bates and John Trent, also at the Brown Cancer Center, his laboratory discovered and developed AS1411, an oligonucleotide aptamer which binds to the protein, nucleolin, and inhibits the growth of a variety of tumor cell types. Drs. Miller, Bates and Trent founded Aptamera, a successful biotech company to commercialize this discovery. His laboratory is currently studying short DNA sequences which cause cancer cells to “commit suicide.”

John Naber, Speed School of Engineering. Naber is professor and associate chair of the electrical and computer engineering department. He has nine granted U.S. patents and five granted international patents. He is founder of five high-tech start-up companies that have spun out of the Speed School of Engineering, including: Assenti LLC (implantable sensing system for glaucoma), OrthoData Inc (implantable sensing system for spinal fusion), Simon Sounds (wireless temperature monitor for infants), Ultra-Trace Detection LLC (sensing system for explosives) and True Secure SCADA (cyber security systems).

Michael H. Nantz, College of Arts and Sciences. Nantz earned his PhD in 1987 from Purdue University working in the field of natural product synthesis. He then explored asymmetric synthesis using boron reagents as a postdoctoral researcher at M.I.T. In 1989, Nantz joined the faculty at the University of California, Davis and began a research program in organic synthesis. He joined the chemistry department at UofL in 2006 as Distinguished University Scholar. Nantz has obtained 13 U.S. patents. His current research interests are focused on developing functional magnetic nanoparticles for applications in thermotherapy.

Kimberly Noltemeyer, VP Business Affairs. Noltemeyer is a project manager in the Office of the Vice President for Business Affairs. Her work began at the university as a HR security systems analyst handling PeopleSoft HR Security, which eventually merged into a project management role in Human Resource. Projects included open enrollment, employee data verification and HR storage and retention to name a few. After moving to the Business Affairs Office in 2009, work in the emergency management and preparedness side of the university has brought exposure to new and exciting projects. Some of the emergency preparedness projects include the Cardsafety Phone Application and the Tornado Awareness Video. Noltemeyer partners with the university’s emergency manager, Dennis Sullivan, to help the university to mitigate, prepare, respond and recover from any emergency.

Deepankar Pal, Speed School of Engineering. Pal works in the area of three- dimensional finite element simulations of additive manufacturing processes, with a particular focus on modeling of metal laser sintering and solid state additive manufacturing processes. He serves as a co-principal investigator on funded research grants focused on simulation, validation and optimization of metal based additive manufacturing technologies. He is a named inventor on multiple patents focused on novel numerical approaches for 3-D simulation of thermomechanical phenomena in metal based additive manufacturing processes.

Madhavi Rane, School of Medicine. Rane is an associate professor in the department of medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology. The focus of her research is the regulation of signal transduction pathways that control neutrophil activation and apoptosis in various models of inflammation. As neutrophils are short lived cells that do not differentiate, her laboratory has developed antibody and protein transduction methodologies to over-express or sequester proteins of interest. Her work identified a new role for heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27) as a scaffolding protein for Akt in the promotion of neutrophil survival. Her current work has identified Nuclear Factor Erythroid-derived 2 (NF-E2), a novel Hsp27 binding protein that is also an Akt substrate, as a modulator of neutrophil apoptosis and inflammation.

Thomas Roussel, Speed School of Engineering. Roussel is an assistant professor in the department of bioengineering. As a full-time member of the research staff at UofL since 1999, he has co-authored over 25 peer-reviewed papers, 60 conference papers, one book chapter, five patents, and eight provisional/non-provisional patent applications. His multi-disciplinary research interests include lab-on-a-chip devices, MEMS sensors and microfabrication, solid modeling and finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics, embedded control systems, and implantable devices for epidural spinal stimulation. Along with colleagues from UofL, he is a founding member of two companies, Assenti, LLC, and Ultra Trace Detection, LLC.

Lauren Seber, School of Medicine. Seber was employed by the University of Louisville in July 2009 to begin work as a research technologist in the lab of Keith Davis located at the Owensboro Cancer Research Program. Her research aims were the purification and characterization of plant-produced proteins for the treatment and prevention of cancer. In June, Lauren began working in the lab of Nobi Matoba, also located at the Owensboro Cancer Research Program. Her research aims include the expression, purification, and biochemical/biophysical characterization of potential anti-HIV antibodies produced in tobacco.

Haval Shirwan, School of Medicine. Shirwan is Dr. Michael and Joan Hamilton Endowed Chair in Autoimmune Disease, professor of microbiology and immunology and director of the molecular immunomodulation program at the Institute for Cellular Therapeutics. His research focuses on the modulation of immune system for the treatment of immune-based diseases with particular focus on type 1 diabetes, transplantation, and development of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases.

Brent Stucker, Speed School of Engineering. Stucker is the Clark Chair of Computer Aided Engineering and a professor of industrial engineering. He holds simultaneous appointments in mechanical engineering, bioengineering and the School of Dentistry. Stucker is also the CEO and co-founder of 3DSIM, LLC, a company focused on commercializing the world’s most efficient algorithms for simulating additive manufacturing processes. Stucker’s research is focused on additive manufacturing (a.k.a. 3-D printing) technologies and their applications, with projects ranging from new materials development for biomedical implants and aerospace/defense structures to multi-scale modeling and control of additive manufacturing machines. He is a named inventor on numerous issued and pending patents and is one of the world’s leading researchers in additive manufacturing,

Dennis Sullivan, Environmental Health and Safety. Sullivan is the assistant director of the department of environmental health and safety and serves as the university emergency manager. Sullivan has been involved with emergency management at the university since 1999 and has developed plans and programs to enhance emergency preparedness and response to campus emergencies. He has chaired the university’s Emergency Notification Committee during the development and implementation of UofL Alert. He coordinated the development of the Severe Weather Awareness video (winning a national award from CSHEMA). Sullivan also was the chairperson of the committee that developed the UofL Cardsafety Phone Application the received an award from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He is also adjunct faculty at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Management Institute and has assisted in the development of two FEMA courses: Infection Control for Emergency Responders and Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Higher Education.

Sucheta Telang, School of Medicine. Telang practices neonatal medicine at Kosair Children’s Hospital and conducts research in the Molecular Targets Program at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center. Her research currently focuses on the examination of a regulatory enzyme, PFKFB4, in the glycolytic metabolism of cancer cells with the goal of validating this enzyme as a target for the development of small molecule inhibitors. Telang also has developed multiple mouse models of cancer for the examination of PFKFB4 and other enzymes involved in tumor metabolism in vivo.

John Trent, School of Medicine. Trent is a professor of medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology and chemistry. He is leading the drug discovery efforts at the Brown Cancer Center with collaborators and three anticancer candidates have been licensed to Biotech for future development. He has established a state of the art computational biology facility at the Brown Cancer Center. The Trent Laboratory, in partnership with the Kentucky Dataseam Initiative, is also using Kentucky School District computers in GRID computing for accelerating cancer drug discovery in over 50 K-12 school districts. He is the director of the JG Brown Cancer Center Molecular Modeling Facility, and the director of the Brown Cancer Center Kosair Charities Pediatric Oncology Research Program. He co-founded Aptamera along with Don Miller and Paula Bates in 2001 after they discovered AGRO100, the first anticancer DNA aptamer to enter clinical trials. A successful Phase I clinical trial of Aptamera’s lead drug, AGRO100 (now designated AS1411) led to the acquisition by Antisoma, which AS1411 performed successfully in two Phase II cancer clinical trials. Another first in class drug (PFK-158) based on a molecule he discovered, in collaboration with Jason Chesney, and developed by Advanced Cancer Therapeutics, started human cancer Phase I clinical trials in 2014.

Silvia M. Uriarte, School of Medicine. Uriarte is an assistant professor of medicine, with an associate appointment in the department of microbiology and immunology. In 2005, she joined Dr. Kenneth R. McLeish group as a senior post-doctoral fellow and starting working in the role of neutrophil degranulation in the inflammatory response. In collaboration with Drs. Kenneth R. McLeish and Madhavi Rane, the design of novel TAT-SNARE proteins that can selectively block neutrophil degranulation without compromising the antibacterial properties of the innate immune cells were developed and recently approved by the United States Patent Trademark Office.

Kevin Walsh, Speed School of Engineering. Walsh is the Samuel T. Fife Endowed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the founding director of the UofL Micro/NanoTechnology Center (MNTC) and its associated 10,000-square-foot class 100 cleanroom facility. In 2008, Walsh and his team started the “KY nanoNET Initiative” which is an NSF-funded statewide network for the coordination of all the micro and nanotechnology efforts in the Commonwealth. He has 12 awarded patents and is co-founder of four technical start-up companies (Assenti, OrthoData Technologies, UltraTrace Detection and Simon Sounds).

Stuart Williams, School of Medicine. In 2007,  Williams was selected as the scientific director of the newly established Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, a partnership between Jewish Hospital and UofL. Dr. Williams’ research interests have focused on medical devices, regenerative medicine and infection control. He developed and patented the first methods to use fat-derived stem cells for therapeutic use. His entrepreneurial spirit has resulted in 16 issued U.S. patents with numerous patents pending. He has founded three biotechnology companies, maintained active managerial positions and has been an active consultant to the medical device and pharmaceutical community.

Bo Xu, College of Arts and Sciences. Xu is a research assistant professor. His research interest includes development of novel and environmentally friendly synthetic methodologies, especially synthesis of novel fluorinated building blocks for drugs and advanced materials.