Contact: Will Sansom, (210) 567-2579

Funding for three of the five South Texas Technology Management awards were presented for projects involving UT Health Science Center San Antonio investigators.
Printer Friendly Format

SAN ANTONIO (Feb. 4, 2009) — South Texas Technology Management (STTM), the regional technology transfer office that serves four University of Texas institutions — UT Brownsville (UTB), UT Pan American (UTPA), UT San Antonio (UTSA) and the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio — announced Feb. 4 five new award recipients of the Proof of Concept: Short Proposals to Accelerate Commercialization grant program.

The Proof of Concept program provides awards of up to $25,000 to faculty of the four STTM-served institutions to advance UT inventions toward successful commercialization. The grants are intended to support short-term, tightly focused projects to help bridge the gap between promising inventions and market-ready innovations.

Three of five projects involve UT Health Science Center investigators
Of proposals submitted by the October 2008 deadline, five projects were funded at a total of $109,000, including four to investigators at the UT Health Science Center:

• $25,000 to Kyumin Whang, Ph.D., Lianrui Chu, Ph.D., and H. Ralph Rawls, Ph.D., of the UT Health Science Center Department of Restorative Dentistry's Division of Biomaterials, for the proposal “Development of an Antimicrobial Acrylic Resin.” The project will optimize and characterize technology for the production of antimicrobial resins designed for dental, orthopedic and craniofacial surgery applications
  
  
• $25,000 to Renata Bastos, M.D., assistant professor in the UT Health Science Center Department of Surgery's Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, for the proposal “Inflatable Aortic Shunt.” The award will support a multi-institution project involving Dr. Bastos and collaborators from the Health Science Center, UTSA and UTPA, and will fund the design, construction and testing of a prototype shunt for use in aortic surgery
  

  Renata Bastos, M.D., assistant professor in the UT Health Science Center Department of Surgery, received $25,000 to study an inflatable aortic shunt.

  
  
• $9,000 to Jorge Lopera, M.D., of the UT Health Science Center Department of Radiology, for the proposal “Hand-Held Device to Measure Angulations During CT-Guided Procedures.” The award will support a multi-institution project involving Dr. Lopera and UTPA collaborators for development and testing of a prototype device to facilitate computed tomography procedures.
  
  
• $25,000 to Emilio Garrido, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Center for Biomedical Studies at UTB, for the proposal “Neurotargeting Via Cell-Type-Specific Neurotropic Ligands.” Dr. Garrido’s project will advance the development of therapeutic agents for central nervous system disorders.
  
  
• $25,000 was awarded through a Proof of Concept Roadrunner grant to Andrew Tsin, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Biology at UTSA, for the proposal “Adaptive Optics and Retinal Imaging: Constructing a Prototype for a Diagnostic Instrument.” Dr. Tsin’s project will advance development of an instrument to diagnose eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and cancer. Proof of Concept Roadrunner grants are available to UTSA faculty through a supplement to the Emerging Technology Fund award that established the UTSA Institute for Cyber Security with Professor Ravi Sandhu as founder and executive director.

During the first year of the STTM Proof of Concept Grant Program, STTM awarded more than $240,000 to fund 14 projects in two rounds of funding. An additional $50,000 was awarded to fund two projects through Proof of Concept Roadrunner grants.

The grants provide an important source of funding to enhance the commercial potential for UT inventions. Proof of Concept funds can be used to validate commercial feasibility, perform in vitro or in vivo studies, develop prototypes or produce biological materials. STTM encourages faculty to publish Proof of Concept project results and use the results as a basis for exploring additional funding, sponsored research and commercial licensing opportunities. For a complete list of award recipients, please visit www.utsttm.org.

The Proof of Concept Spring 2009 solicitation will be announced in March and will close in April 2009. For more information about the program, selection criteria and application requirements, visit www.utsttm.org or contact Claude Longoria at (210) 567-2147.

# # #
South Texas Technology Management is the regional technology transfer office serving the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, UTSA, UTPA and UTB. STTM provides comprehensive intellectual property services for technologies developed by faculty, staff and students. STTM is dedicated to the protection and licensing of these technologies in order to further research and development, protect the interests of the faculty and the University, enhance economic development and provide humanitarian value to the community. By facilitating the development and commercialization of UT inventions, STTM is fostering and encouraging the creation of new and cutting-edge technologies.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $668 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $16.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $36 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 25,600 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and other health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, dentistry and many other fields. For more information, visit www.uthscsa.edu.