The Trask Innovation Fund at Purdue University in Indiana has awarded some $200,000 to help Purdue researchers take their discoveries to market. The awards cover research on alternative fuels, pharmaceutical drug dosage forms, assisted reproductive technology, and a mobile app for note-taking.
The Trask Innovation Fund is a program of the Purdue Research Foundation to help faculty members whose discoveries are being commercialized through the university’s technology transfer office. The four new projects represent the fund’s spring round of awards. The fund says it awards some $500,000 a year for commercialization.
The fund’s latest awards are:
– “Termite-Derived Biocatalysts for Use in Sustainable Energy Production,” Michael Scharf, associate professor and chair of the Department of Entomology, $40,590. The research aims to offer sustainable strategies for biofuel production that are compatible with existing agricultural systems in the United States, and do not rely on invasive plant species or the development of new cropping systems.
– “Development of Novel Prefabricated Film Based Dosage Forms: Eye on Commercialization,” Rodolfo Pinal, associate professor in the Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy, $49,999. The discovery provides a new design for prescription drug dosage forms that may help physicians customize drug doses, better control the drug release for particular patients and improve the efficiency of drug manufacturing.
– “Dynamic Imaging for In Vitro Embryo Viability Assessment: A new Assisted Reproductive Technology,” David Nolte, professor in the Department of Physics, $48,324. The technology provides multiple dimension imaging techniques that measure the health of a fertilized egg and enable assisted-reproductive technicians to guide selection and may increase the chances for successful in utero implantation.
– “Trask Initiative 3iD,” Bob McCullouch, research scientist in the Department of Construction Engineering and Management, $36,655. The researcher developed a mobile pad app called “paperlessMe,” that allows users to take notes and annotate PowerPoint slides. It can be used by an instructor to deliver slides and record lecture notes, and gives the student the ability to add notes to lecture or presentation slides.
The Trask Innovation Fund’s next deadline for submissions is 31 October 2012.
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