UNMC designated one of three national endoscopic surgery testing centers

October 23, 2013 Comments (0) News Like

The University of Nebraska Medical Center is one of the first three centers in the country to be designated as a testing center for the Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery (FES) program.

OMAHA, Neb. (Oct. 23, 2013)—The program is a comprehensive educational and assessment tool designed to teach and evaluate the fundamental knowledge, clinical judgment and technical skills required for basic gastrointestinal endoscopic surgery. It also teaches fundamentals of endoscopic surgery in a consistent, scientifically accepted format and to test cognitive and technical skills, while improving the quality of patient care.

“Being able to use flexible endoscopy for upper GI procedures and colonoscopies is a very important skill for surgeons,” said Dmitry Oleynikov, M.D., the Joseph and Richard Still Endowed Professor of Surgery. “Just like you have to pass a driving test to be able to drive a car, the testing center will allow us to make sure that surgeons are proficient in endoscopic procedures.”

The UNMC center was made possible in part by a donation from Paul Hodgson, M.D., establishing the Paul E. Hodgson, M.D. Innovations in Surgical Technology Fund through the University of Nebraska Foundation. Dr. Hodgson, former chairman of the UNMC Department of Surgery, died Aug. 28 at the age of 91.

Dr. Hodgson’s fund paid for half of the equipment and materials needed for the testing center. The other half of the funding will come from the Alton K. Wong, M.D., Distinguished Professorship held by pediatric surgeon Ken Azarow, M.D.

The testing center equipment is located in the Dr. Wayne and Eileen Ryan Surgical Simulation Suite in the Sorrell Center.

“Under the guidance of our chairman, Dr. David W. Mercer, and his unequivocal support of educational efforts, the department of surgery is on the path to becoming a regional and national leader in surgical education,” said Chandra Are, M.B.B.S., vice chair for education and associate professor, surgical oncology. “Obtaining the designation as a testing center for the FES program is another milestone in satisfying the vision of our department to become an educational powerhouse.”

Being designated as a FES testing center culminates a lengthy certification process for UNMC, Dr. Oleynikov said, and is indicative of how UNMC “has become a leader in education in the region.”

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Gendelman, Bidasee honored at 2013 Innovation Awards

October 11, 2013 Comments (2) Innovation Week, News Like

OMAHA, Neb., (Oct. 10, 2013)—Howard Gendelman, M.D., took top honors, receiving the Innovator of the Year award, and Keshore Bidasee, PhD, claimed the Most Promising New Invention to close out the seventh annual Innovation Week at the University of Nebraska Medical Center Thursday evening.

Dr. Gendelman and Dr. Bidasee received their awards during the UNMC Research Innovation Awards Ceremony and Reception in the Durham Research Center auditorium before an estimated crowd of 200. The Innovation Awards — sponsored by UNeMed Corporation, the technology transfer office at UNMC — also honored all the UNMC technologies that were invented, patented or licensed during the previous year.

Afterward, Dr. Gendleman said scientists didn’t do their work for awards and accolades.

Howard Gendelman; M.D.; greets the audience after accepting the Innovator of the Year award during UNeMed’s annual Innovation Awards Ceremony in the Durham Research Center auditorium Thursday; Oct. 10. “There’s going to be many hurdles; the UNMC researcher told the crowd.; It takes not smarts; but determination to get over those hurdles.”

“”We embrace, love, cherish the journey,” he said. “It’s like climbing a mountain. The sport isn’t getting to the top, the sport is in the climb.”

Dr. Gendelman was honored for his work against degenerative and infectious brain diseases. In early 2013 he built a partnership with a major pharmaceutical company for an improved treatment and the possible eradication of HIV. Later the same year, Dr. Gendelman’s new therapy for Parkinson’s disease entered a human proof of concept study.

Both may revolutionize how those diseases are treated, and both are based off an initial discovery he made soon after completing graduate school in 1979.

Jonas Salk, the famed inventor of the Polio vaccine, was among those who reviewed Dr. Gendelman’s discovery all those years ago. As Dr. Gendelman related during his acceptance speech Thursday night, Salk was not impressed by the young Dr. Gendelman’s work.

Salk, one of the most celebrated American researchers of the last 60 years, advised Dr. Gendelman to choose a new path of study. Despite Salk’s enormous reputation, Dr. Gendleman made an unlikely decision.

He chose to prove him wrong.

“There’s going to be many hurdles,” Dr. Gendelman said. “It takes not smarts, but determination to get over those hurdles.”

Picture are (from left) UNeMed President Michael Dixon, Keshore Bidasee and Jennifer Larsen, UNMC’s vice chancellor for reseaerch. Bidasee was honored at the Innovation Awards on Thursday, Oct. 10, with the Most Proimising New Invention of 2013.

Keshore Bidasee, PhD, was honored with the Most Promising New Invention for his work in diabetes. Dr. Bidasee, who joined UNMC in 2002, developed a potentially groundbreaking treatment for complications associated with diabetes.

In opening remarks, UNeMed president and CEO Michael Dixon, PhD, said UNMC researchers amassed 525 new inventions in the previous five years.

“That’s 525 new ideas that didn’t exist, 525 new solutions,” Dr. Dixon said to the gathering. “Keep that in the back of your mind tonight, because it’s not about the one or two, it’s about the whole that we’re here to honor.”

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Eight startups featured at first Demo Day

October 9, 2013 Comments (0) Innovation Week, News Like

Shane Farritor, an engineer at UNL and co-founder of Virtual Incision, displays his new surgical device during UNeMed Corporation’s inaugural UNMC Startup Company Demonstration Day Monday afternoon in Omaha.

OMAHA, Neb. (Oct. 8, 2013)—Eight companies formed around recent technology developed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center demonstrated their innovations and discoveries during the inaugural UNMC Startup Company Demonstration Day Monday afternoon.

Inventions displayed spanned a wide array of biomedical development that ranged from small surgical robots and nanoparticles to next generation antibiotics and innovative research tools.

Hosted by UNeMed Corporation, the event was part of Innovation Week, an annual showcase of UNMC research discoveries and developments. Innovation Week continued Tuesday with a special seminar from GlaxoSmithKline Director of HIV Medicinal Chemistry Brian Johns, PhD, who delivered a talk about the development and discovery of Tivicay — a powerful new HIV treatment that recently earned FDA approval. Innovation Week concludes Thursday at the Innovation Awards Ceremony and Reception.

Monday’s demonstration day drew in an estimated 120 people into the Durham Research Center’s auditorium.

“I would say about 90 percent of them weren’t from UNMC, which is what we wanted,” UNeMed President and CEO Michael Dixon said after. “We wanted to give the community a chance to put their hands on the world-class research here. It belongs to them.”

Virtual Incision co-founder Shane Farritor — the University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineer who is partnered with UNMC researcher Dmitry Oleynikov — opened the slate of presentations with a demonstration on a surgical device designed to improve surgeries that remove part of the large intestine.

Farritor said current techniques and tools are often performed through small incisions, or laparoscopically. But those tools can be counter-intuitive and difficult to use.

“I couldn’t tie my shoes with laparoscopic tools, but I could with this,” he said.

The afternoon concluded with a presentation from Dave Saunders, the vice president of product development at Trak Surgical. Saunders also presented a surgical tool, a hand-held bone saw for joint replacement surgeries that could revolutionize the procedure.

Current knee replacement operations require a surgeon to prepare the joint by screwing guides, or jigs, on the patient’s bones by drilling several holes. Saunders compared the jigs to a carpentry set that resembled something “inspired by the Spanish Inquisition.”

Designed by a team led by UNMC’s Hani Haider, the saw eliminates entirely the need for jigs with an integrated guidance system that helps surgeons make even more precise cuts.

The crowd also saw presentations from Motometrix, which can detect concussion’s just by the nearly imperceptible changes in a person’s balance; Elegant Instruments, a startup built by two graduate students who devised a better tool for research lab technicians; Prommune, a company built on Sam Sanderson’s promising next generation antibacterial; ProTransit Nanotherapy, which plans to deliver powerful anti-skin cancer agents with nanoparticles; Cardiosys, a data analysis platform with predictive capabilities; and Radux, a device company that makes products to protect physicians from radiation as they work on patients while undergoing x-rays.

Presentations can be viewed here.

Innovation Week began Monday morning, and concludes Thursday at 4 p.m. in the Durham Research Center auditorium with the UNMC Research Innovation Awards Ceremony and Reception.

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Meet UNeMed Staff – Jason Nickla

October 4, 2013 Comments Off on Meet UNeMed Staff – Jason Nickla Blog Like

by Agnes Lenagh, UNeMed

For UNeMed, Innovation Week provides an opportunity to expose the UNMC research community to technology transfer. UNeMed needs to demonstrate that anyone can be an inventor and offer ideas to improve health.

With Innovation Week just around the corner, we sat with UNeMed staffers and chatted about Innovation Week.

Jason Nickla

Director of Intellectual Property

“Dude, a free t-shirt” – Nickla

Q: What does Innovation Week mean to you?
A: Dude, a free t-shirt.

Q: What is your favorite memory of Innovation Week?
A: Extra cookies for me from the un-attended lawyer’s talk.

Q: What one thing does everyone need to know about Innovation Week?
A: Free t-shirts are handed out on Monday.

Q: What do you hope the UNMC community will gain from attending Innovation Week?
A: Duh, free t-shirts.

Q: How has innovation grown on campus?
A: Innovatively.

Q: How do you define innovation?
A: Differently than I define invention, which is actually more important … but invention week doesn’t sound as cool as innovation week. What was the question again?

Q: Why is innovation so important?
A: It is the reason we get free t-shirts.

Q: What connections between innovation, strategy, and leadership do you see on campus?
A: Innovators, strategists, and leaders can all be seen wearing their new free t-shirts.

Q: Which Innovation Week event are you looking forward to most? Why?
A: Getting a free t-shirt. Isn’t it obvious why?

Join us next next Monday and meet the UNeMed staff in person while you wait in line to grab your free t-shirt!

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Meet UNeMed Staff – Caronda Moore

October 3, 2013 Comments Off on Meet UNeMed Staff – Caronda Moore Blog Like

by Agnes Lenagh, UNeMed

For UNeMed, Innovation Week provides an opportunity to expose the UNMC research community to technology transfer. UNeMed needs to demonstrate that anyone can be an inventor and offer ideas to improve health.

With Innovation Week just around the corner, we sat with UNeMed staffers and chatted about Innovation Week.

Caronda Moore

Licensing Associate

“I’m looking forward to Demo days because I like to see an idea grow and become fruitful.” – Moore

Q: What does Innovation Week mean to you?
A: A week to celebrate UNMC’s contributions to advancing healthcare and scientific research through innovation and inventions.

Q: What is your favorite memory of Innovation Week?
A: The T-shirt and give-a-ways but also how pretty the stage looks before the innovation awards.

Q: What one thing does everyone need to know about Innovation Week?
A: That they too could be a leader in inventions and innovation and there are perks and benefits of submitting those to the UNeMed team.

Q: What do you hope the UNMC community will gain from attending Innovation Week?
A: Knowledge about the growth of an idea from a concept to implementation to rewards and consumer benefits.

Q: What connections between innovation, strategy, and leadership do you see on campus?
A: Start-up companies based around UNMC technology and the willingness of UNMC to assist those companies in development.

Q: Which Innovation Week event are you looking forward to most? Why?
A: I’m looking forward to my alias winning the iPad because I want one. Seriously though I’m looking forward to Demo days because I like to see an idea grow and become fruitful.

Join us next time when we sit down with another UNeMed staff member.

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Meet UNeMed Staff – Agnes Lenagh

October 2, 2013 Comments Off on Meet UNeMed Staff – Agnes Lenagh Blog Like

by Agnes Lenagh, UNeMed

For UNeMed, Innovation Week provides an opportunity to expose the UNMC research community to technology transfer. UNeMed needs to demonstrate that anyone can be an inventor and offer ideas to improve health.

With Innovation Week just around the corner, we sat with UNeMed staffers and chatted about Innovation Week.

Agnes Lenagh

Licensing Associate

“Innovation happens when you make the unexpected a reality by thinking outside of the box.” – Lenagh

Q: What does Innovation Week mean to you?
A: Innovation Week is an opportunity to meet face to face with the UNMC Research Community and let them know we exist and are here to help. We celebrate innovation on campus and showcase those inventors that gave the extra mile by working with us.

Q: What is your favorite memory of Innovation Week?
A: Helping with the kick off event last year. I’ve participated in the past as a spectator, but Innovation Week 2012 was my first as part of the UNeMed crew. I got to appreciate all the hard work everyone does to put the events together and got to enjoy my latte before the event officially started.

Q: What do you hope the UNMC community will gain from attending Innovation Week?
A: That UNeMed is not just here this one week, but that our doors are always open to inventors of all backgrounds across campus. It would be awesome if we schedule meeting to discuss ideas and any possible inventions or research tools that might exist at UNMC.

Q: How do you define innovation?
A: Innovation happens when you make the unexpected a reality by thinking outside of the box. It’s the result of laying awake at 3 am after a well-caffeinated day.

Q: Why is innovation so important?
A: Without innovation, technology would be stagnant and there would be no advancements in the world.

Q: Which Innovation Week event are you looking forward to most? Why?
A: Demo Day because we will get to see the fruits of our labor as startups showcase their companies. It’s amazing how an idea can go from being developed in a lab to being used as a technology that improves the lives of people in so many different ways.

Join us next time when we sit down with another UNeMed staff member.

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Meet UNeMed Staff – Qian Zhang

October 1, 2013 Comments Off on Meet UNeMed Staff – Qian Zhang Blog Like

by Agnes Lenagh, UNeMed

For UNeMed, Innovation Week provides an opportunity to expose the UNMC research community to technology transfer. UNeMed needs to demonstrate that anyone can be an inventor and offer ideas to improve health.

With Innovation Week just around the corner, we sat with UNeMed staffers and chatted about Innovation Week.

Qian Zhang

Licensing Associate

“Innovation is the driving force for the economy at all times.” – Zhang

Q: What does Innovation Week mean to you?
A: It is an opportunity to showcase UNeMed services to the UNMC research community, to promote the spirit of innovation and creativity, and to link academic research to industry development.

Q: What do you hope the UNMC community will gain from attending Innovation Week?
A: UNeMed is resolving to promote the culture and mindset of innovative and applicable science that can benefit the well-being of patients.

Q: How do you define innovation?
A: Creative thinking that solves problems.

Q: Why is innovation so important?
A: Innovation is the driving force for the economy at all times.

Q: What connections between innovation, strategy, and leadership do you see on campus?
A: I see the leadership at UNMC emphasize innovation as a strategic focus, which promotes the innovative atmosphere on campus.

Q: Which Innovation Week event are you looking forward to most? Why?
A: The kickoff event… because the participation of researchers is always phenomenal compared to other events.

Join us next time when we sit down with another UNeMed staff member.

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Meet UNeMed Staff – Charlie Litton

September 30, 2013 Comments Off on Meet UNeMed Staff – Charlie Litton Blog Like

by Agnes Lenagh, UNeMed

For UNeMed, Innovation Week provides an opportunity to expose the UNMC research community to technology transfer. UNeMed needs to demonstrate that anyone can be an inventor and offer ideas to improve health.

With Innovation Week just around the corner, we sat with UNeMed staffers and chatted about Innovation Week.

Charlie Litton

Communications Associate

“Anyone, whether they’re a med student or a part of the support staff, can have a great idea.” – Litton

Q: What does Innovation Week mean to you?
A: It’s well deserved recognition of the amazing research we see at UNMC.

Q: What one thing does everyone need to know about Innovation Week?
A: That Innovation doesn’t need to come from the best-funded, most respected researcher. Anyone, whether they’re a med student or a part of the support staff, can have a great idea.

Q: What do you hope the UNMC community will gain from attending Innovation Week?
A: Inspiration.

Q: How has innovation grown on campus?
A: My head is still spinning just getting up to speed on all the innovation from the last six months. Ask me again next year.

Q: How do you define innovation?
A: Saying to yourself: There must be a better way. And then finding it.

Q: Which Innovation Week event are you looking forward to most? Why?
A: Demonstration Day. This is the first year we’re putting this event on, but I think this has the potential to be a fantastic addition to the regular list of Innovation Week events. It gives the community a wonderful chance to see in practical terms the kind of things their university is developing and how they’re making the world a better place. It will be interesting to see how well it is received.

Join us next time when we sit down with another UNeMed staff member.

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GSK scientist to speak at Innovation Week event

September 27, 2013 Comments Off on GSK scientist to speak at Innovation Week event Innovation Week, News Like

OMAHA, Neb. (Sept. 27, 2013)—Brian Johns, PhD, GlaxoSmithKline‘s director of HIV medicinal chemistry, will deliver a one-hour presentation about Tivicay, a reportedly more effective and less expensive HIV treatment recently approved last month by the FDA.

Brian Johns, PhD

The title of the seminar is “Making a difference: The discovery and development Tivicay.” The presentation will be held in the Durham Research Center I auditorium beginning at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 8.

Sponsored by UNeMed Corporation, the seminar is a part of Innovation Week, a series of events celebrating the innovation and research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Innovation Week begins Monday, Oct. 7 at 9 a.m. in the DRC-I atrium with an open house where visitors can register for a chance at a free iPad, and pick up a free UNeMed T-shirt and other goodies. UNeMed will also offer free beverages from Jo-On-The-Go.

Later the same day, beginning at 2:30 p.m., UNeMed will host the first-ever UNMC Startup Company Demonstration Day in the DRC-I auditorium. Demonstration Day is a free and open event that will feature at least eight new companies formed on the basis of technology developed at UNMC. Each company will deliver a short, 10-minute presentation, followed by a brief question and answer forum. UNeMed will then host a reception in the atrium with complimentary snacks and refreshments.

Space is limited, so reserve a seat for UNMC Startup Company Demonstration Day at https://unmcdemoday.eventbrite.com.

Innovation Week culminates on Thursday, Oct. 10 with the UNMC Research Innovation Awards Ceremony and Reception beginning at 4 p.m. The awards ceremony will recognize the new inventions, patents and licensed technologies at UNMC over the previous year, and UNeMed will also present two special awards honoring an “Innovator of the Year” and the “Most Promising New Invention.”

The free iPad winner will also be announced during the ceremony, but the entrant must be present to win.

The event is free, but space is limited, so reserve a seat for the Innovation Awards at https://iw2013.eventbrite.com.

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Meet UNeMed Staff – Val Gunderson

September 27, 2013 Comments Off on Meet UNeMed Staff – Val Gunderson Blog Like

by Agnes Lenagh, UNeMed

For UNeMed, Innovation Week provides an opportunity to expose the UNMC research community to technology transfer. UNeMed needs to demonstrate that anyone can be an inventor and offer ideas to improve health.

With Innovation Week just around the corner, we sat with UNeMed staffers and chatted about Innovation Week.

Val Gunderson

Office Manager

“Anyone can be an inventor, all you need is a great idea.” – Gunderson

Q: What is your favorite memory of Innovation Week?
A: The prize drawing from the bubbling caldron (dry ice)…the effect was really neat!

Q: What one thing does everyone need to know about Innovation Week?
A: Anyone can be an inventor, all you need is a great idea.

Q: What do you hope the UNMC community will gain from attending Innovation Week?
A: The understanding of how important our innovators on campus are to UNMC and Nebraskans in general.

Q: How has innovation grown on campus?
A: With UNeMed’s guidance, I think there is a much better understanding on campus regarding the handling and protection of intellectual property and new inventions. This in turn has fostered many more ideas coming forth.

Q: What connections between innovation, strategy, and leadership do you see on campus?
A: I believe that by supporting UNMC’s inventors we are elevating our products and services and differentiating ourselves from our competitors. These innovative individuals play an important role in leadership on campus.

Q: Which Innovation Week event are you looking forward to most? Why?
A: The Awards Reception, because that means the completion of another successful innovation week and Awards Ceremony!

Join us next time when we sit down with another UNeMed staff member.

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Ware named president-elect of Nebraska Paralegal Association

September 26, 2013 Comments Off on Ware named president-elect of Nebraska Paralegal Association News Like

OMAHA, Neb. (Sept. 26, 2013)—The Nebraska Paralegal Association (NePA) named UNeMed patent associate Mindy Ware, ACP as the president-elect during their annual meeting on Sept. 19 at the DC Centre.

Mindy Ware, ACP

Ware, currently NePA’s secretary on the board of directors, will officially assume the new role when her 1-year term begins on Oct. 1. When the term is up, she will then take on the role of president on Oct. 1, 2014.

Kim Hansen, of the Omaha World-Herald, is the outgoing president, and will be succeeded by the current president-elect, Teresa Barnes, ACP, of the Omaha law firm Gross & Welch.

The president-elect traditionally chairs the Continuing Legal Education Committee, which presents two seminars each year, including a two-day conference every fall. The president, meanwhile, oversees all operations including regular board of directors meetings.

Founded in 1976, the Nebraska Paralegal Association is a volunteer organization serving the legal profession with more than 200 members statewide.

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Meet UNeMed Staff – Mindy Ware

September 26, 2013 Comments Off on Meet UNeMed Staff – Mindy Ware Blog Like

by Agnes Lenagh, UNeMed

For UNeMed, Innovation Week provides an opportunity to expose the UNMC research community to technology transfer. UNeMed needs to demonstrate that anyone can be an inventor and offer ideas to improve health.

With Innovation Week just around the corner, we sat with UNeMed staffers and chatted about Innovation Week.

Mindy Ware

Patent Associate

“We give away lots of free stuff and you just might learn something that can inspire you to become our next new inventor.” – Ware

Q: What does Innovation Week mean to you?
A: It’s an opportunity to meet people that I may not know on a face to face basis and recognize them for their hard work.

Q: What is your favorite memory of Innovation Week?
A: Just our fun high jinx behind the t-shirt table during the kick off morning.

Q: What one thing does everyone need to know about Innovation Week?
A: We give away lots of free stuff and you just might learn something that can inspire you to become our next new inventor.

Q: What do you hope the UNMC community will gain from attending Innovation Week?
A: That they will know what UNeMed is and what we do.

Q: How has innovation grown on campus?
A: We steadily increase our invention numbers and inventors each year.

Q: Which Innovation Week event are you looking forward to most? Why?
A: Demo day – I am excited to see our inventions at the next level getting pitched to be taken to the marketplace.

Join us next time when we sit down with another UNeMed staff member.

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Meet UNeMed Staff – Steve Schreiner

September 25, 2013 Comments Off on Meet UNeMed Staff – Steve Schreiner Blog Like

by Agnes Lenagh, UNeMed

For UNeMed, Innovation Week provides an opportunity to expose the UNMC research community to technology transfer. UNeMed needs to demonstrate that anyone can be an inventor and offer ideas to improve health.

With Innovation Week just around the corner, we sat with UNeMed staffers and chatted about Innovation Week.

Steve Schreiner, PhD

Vice President & Director of Licensing and Marketing

“Through innovation, people’s lives are changed for the better.” – Schreiner

Q: What does Innovation Week mean to you?
A: A chance to acknowledge those who have identified or created something new, while motivating others to do the same.

Q: What do you hope the UNMC community will gain from attending Innovation Week?
A: An increased awareness of thinking of ways to innovate.

Q: Why is innovation so important?
A: Through innovation, people’s lives are changed for the better. Think affordable automobiles, air travel, internet, electric light.

Q: What connections between innovation, strategy, and leadership do you see on campus?
A: Campus leaders are engaged in motivating, identifying, and rewarding innovators on campus to improve public health.

Q: Which Innovation Week event are you looking forward to most? Why?
A: The Innovation Awards ceremony. To hear all of the groaning when a potential iPad winner isn’t present to win!!

Join us next time when we sit down with another UNeMed staff member.

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Meet the UNeMed Staff – Michael Dixon

September 23, 2013 Comments Off on Meet the UNeMed Staff – Michael Dixon Blog Like

by Agnes Lenagh, UNeMed

For UNeMed, Innovation Week provides an opportunity to expose the UNMC research community to technology transfer. UNeMed needs to demonstrate that anyone can be an inventor and offer ideas to improve health.

With Innovation Week just around the corner, we sat with UNeMed staffers and chatted about Innovation Week.

Michael Dixon, PhD

President and CEO

“Innovation allows us to live longer, healthier, more productive lives.” – Dixon

Q: What does Innovation Week mean to you?
A: It’s the one week each year where we get to shine a bright light on innovation and technology development here at UNMC. As research has grown, it is amazing to sit here in UNeMed and see 70, 80, or 90 new inventions come in each year. There are amazing technologies that have the potential to fundamentally improve the quality of healthcare not only in the US, but across the world!

Q: What is your favorite memory of Innovation Week?
A: Meeting Robert LeVeen and learning more about the humble beginnings of his discovery (LeVeen Needle Electrode) and how it was a disruptive technology that completely opened up a new field of interventional oncology.

Q: What one thing does everyone need to know about Innovation Week?
A: Innovation Week only lasts 5 days, but true innovation takes years to develop. New discoveries don’t often happen as a eureka moment. It is the relentless pursuit of new knowledge that leads to new discoveries and innovative solutions.

Q: Why is innovation so important?
A: Innovation is progress. In healthcare, innovation provides better devices, diagnostics and therapeutics. Innovation allows us to live longer, healthier, more productive lives.

Q: Which Innovation Week event are you looking forward to most? Why?
A: Demo Day. It will be the first time that UNMC has had this many active startup companies on campus, telling their story. The combination of entrepreneurs, faculty, students, venture capital and community members should provide for an exciting afternoon/evening.

Join us next time when we sit down with another UNeMed staff member.

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UNMC Startup Company Demonstration Day planned for Oct. 7

September 19, 2013 Comments (2) Innovation Week, News Like

OMAHA, Neb. (Sept. 17, 2013)—For the first time, the public will get the chance for a close and personal look at new startup companies formed by the innovative research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

SCHEDULED SPEAKERS:

Luis and Danny Lopez, Co-Founders, CardioSys — CardioSys combines advanced mathematical modeling and predictive analytics with data visualization in order to provide helpful insights into the health of individuals. Using fluid algorithms, our platform allows health insurers, third-party administrators, and brokers to forecast preventable life events and mitigate risk.

Anna Boyum, Founder, Elegant Instruments, LLC — A development company that creates and commercializes innovative biomedical technologies to advance healthcare and biomedical research. Its mission is to make life better through the simple and effective solutions it provides. Two University of Nebraska students, Anna Brynskikh Boyum and Tom Frederick, founded the Omaha-based startup.

Sam Sanderson, Founder, Prommune Inc. — Early stage biotechnology company focused on the human and veterinary medicine applications of a novel therapeutic strategy for fighting infections by awakening the body’s own natural immune defenses. Host-directed immunotherapy, or HDI, is induced by a structurally engineered peptide known as EP67. Prommune’s EP67 selectively engages and activates the cell population responsible for innate immunity — the body’s first line of defense against bacterial, viral and fungal infections.

Gary Madsen, CEO, ProTransit Nanotherapy — A seed stage company focused on delivering medication with unique nanoparticles that are nontoxic and biodegradable. The nanoparticles stabilize the drug, have a slow-release profile and can penetrate cell membranes to deliver powerful medications where they can be most effective. The first of several applications of this technology will be delivering antioxidant enzymes in sunscreens and cosmetics to the deep layers of the skin to help prevent premature wrinkles, age spots and even cancer.

Greg Gordon, Founder, Radux Devices, LLC — Created in 2012 to help develop two UNMC inventions that improve radiation protection and decrease orthopedic stress for physicians. The devices also improve workflow and operating table management in endovascular/fluoroscopy suites.

Bruce Lichorowic, CEO, Trak Surgical, Inc. — A surgical tool company built around an innovative software and bone saw package that could change the way joint replacement surgeries are performed. The device is a next generation handheld surgical tool that uses software and a guidance system that may completely eliminate the need for expensive jigs and the specialized staff needed for current orthopedic surgeries

Shane Farritor, Co-Founder, Virtual Incision, Corp. — Founded in 2006, Virtual Incision Corp. is a start-up company developing miniature robotic devices that are placed inside the body during laparoscopic surgery. VI surgical robots are introduced through laparoscopic ports using a special insertion device. Once inside, the robots are controlled by the surgeon and enable complex procedures to be performed with minimally invasive techniques.

Sponsored by UNeMed Corporation, the inaugural UNMC Startup Company Demonstration Day will be held Monday, Oct. 7, at 2:30 p.m. in the Durham Research Center I auditorium. UNeMed is the technology transfer office that helps UNMC’s groundbreaking research go beyond the laboratory.

Demonstration Day is a free and open event that will feature at least six new companies formed on the basis of technology developed at UNMC. Each company will deliver a short, 10-minute presentation, followed by a brief question and answer forum. UNeMed will then host a reception in the atrium with complimentary snacks and refreshments.

Space is limited, so reserve a seat for UNMC Startup Demonstration Day at https://unmcdemoday.eventbrite.com. UNMC employees who register online will also be automatically entered for a chance to win a free iPad 2.

Demonstration Day is a new element of UNeMed’s annual Innovation Week, a celebration of the world-class research and discovery at UNMC.

Innovation Week kicks off with an open house Monday, Oct. 7, at 9 a.m. in the DRC I atrium, where visitors can register another entry for the free iPad drawing, and pick up a free UNeMed T-shirt and other goodies. UNeMed will also offer free beverages at the open house.

UNeMed will host a seminar on Tuesday, Oct. 8, but those details have not yet been finalized.

Innovation Week culminates on Thursday, Oct. 10 with the UNMC Research Innovation Awards Ceremony and Reception beginning at 4 p.m. At the conclusion of the awards, UNeMed will draw for the free iPad 2. The winner must be present to claim the prize or a new name will be drawn.

The event is free, but space is limited, so reserve a seat for the Innovation Awards at https://iw2013.eventbrite.com.

All UNMC employees and students who register and attend the Innovation Awards Ceremony are eligible to win the free iPad.

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UNMC awarded $11.2 million nanotechnology research grant

September 18, 2013 Comments Off on UNMC awarded $11.2 million nanotechnology research grant News Like

Projects include studies into pancreatic cancer, lupus, hypertension/obesity

by John Keenan, UNMC

OMAHA, Neb., (Sept. 17, 2013)—The University of Nebraska Medical Center has been awarded more than $11.2 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, funding that will allow the university to continue and expand its cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research into nanotechnology.

The grant, which will be awarded over five years, will fund the continuation of an Institutional Development Award to the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE).

UNMC researcher Tatiana Bronich, PhD, is the principal investigator on the grant. Dr. Bronich is the Parke-Davis Chair in Pharmaceutics, UNMC College of Pharmacy, and the director of the Nebraska Center for Nanomedicine. Nanomedicine uses nanomaterials, small polymeric particles, to deliver drugs safely to disease sites, such as cancer tumors.

Tatiana Bronich, PhD

“This will further and solidify our efforts in the areas of drug delivery and nanomedicine,” Dr. Bronich said.

“It allows us to continue our truly interdisciplinary research at the university.”

In addition, the grant will support two research core facilities: the bioimaging core, directed by Michael Boska, PhD, radiology department; and the nanomaterials core, co-directed by Dr. Bronich and Dong Wang, PhD, pharmaceutical sciences.

The Nanomedicine COBRE provides UNMC with unique expertise and resources, said Jennifer Larsen, M.D., vice chancellor for research.

“Dr. Bronich has done a great job, not only in mentoring faculty actively involved in this COBRE, but in actively engaging other faculty, including clinical faculty, to identify new opportunities to extend this work into clinical care,” Dr. Larsen said.

The renewal of the Nebraska Center for Nanomedicine grant is a significant accomplishment, said Courtney Fletcher, Pharm.D., dean of the College of Pharmacy.

“This grant was first funded in 2008, with the scientific mission to improve drug delivery, through basic and applied advances in nanotechnology, in order to advance treatment of human diseases,” he said. “This five-year renewal provides the strongest evidence possible that Dr. Bronich and her team of scientists have made considerable progress on this mission — and most importantly, has laid out a compelling plan for their future work.”

Dr. Fletcher said the renewal also affirms that the drug delivery program at the College of Pharmacy and UNMC is both a national and international leader in this area of work — “work that is fundamental to advancing the efficacy of drug therapy,” he said.

The COBRE grant will support five projects:

Project: MUC4 nanovaccine for pancreatic cancer

Principal investigator: Maneesh Jain, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology
Mentor: Joyce Solheim, PhD, professor, Eppley Cancer Institute

Project: Renal drug targeting for the treatment of lupus nephritis

Principal investigator: Karen Gould, PhD, associate professor, genetics, cell biology and anatomy.
Mentor: Tatiana Bronich, PhD, Parke-Davis Chair in Pharmaceutics

Project: The role of nanoformulated Cu/ZnSOD in reducing systemic hypertension in obesity

Principal investigator: Saraswathi Viswanathan, PhD, assistant professor, internal medicine – diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism
Mentor: Irving Zucker, PhD, professor and chairman of the cellular and integrative physiology department

Project: Development of metabolically active linkers (MALs) to improve diagnostic and radiotherapeutic HPMA copolymers

Principal investigator: Jered Garrison, PhD, assistant professor, pharmaceutical science
Mentor: Surinder Batra, PhD, professor and chairman, biochemistry and molecular biology, Distinguished Helen Freytag Professor of Cancer Biology, associate director for training and education, Eppley Cancer Institute

Project: Neuroprotective regulatory T cells as vehicles for nanoformulated growth factor delivery to an injured brain

Principal investigator: Matthew Kelso, Pharm.D., PhD, assistant professor, cellular/integrated physiology
Mentor: Howard Gendelman, M.D., chair of pharmacology and experimental neuroscience, Margaret R. Larson Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious

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Projects include studies into pancreatic cancer, lupus, hypertension/obesity

The COBRE grant will support five projects:

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