An antibody with the potential to stop breast cancer in its path. A nanoparticle that can address a side effect of the treatment that hemophiliacs cannot live without. A "quantum dot" with the potential to treat cancer or harvest the power of the sun. An air purifier that kills the world's nastiest toxins.
No, they're not the stuff of science fiction.
These are some of the new inventions that were patented in 2008 by University at Buffalo researchers, a year that has seen the number of UB patents more than double from nine in 2007 to 21 last year.
More than 40 of these UB researchers were honored for their efforts to bring their research out of the lab and into the marketplace at the UB Inventors and Entrepreneurs Reception held March 5 in the Center for Tomorrow on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.
The reception also honored 11 UB technologies that were licensed to industry and the three most recent "graduates" of UB's Technology Incubator.
"The jump we saw this year in our patent activity is a testament to the intense and growing commitment we are seeing among our scientist-entrepreneurs, who increasingly seek ways to get their scientific advances out into society," said Robert J. Genco, vice provost and director of the UB Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR), which co-sponsored the event with the UB Office of the Vice President for Research.
"They know that the most important scientific discovery in the world may provide little value to society if it goes no further than a journal publication," he continued. "Today, UB is honoring its professors who have taken the critical steps toward using their scientific and technological expertise to address some of the world's most profound problems."
Genco and Kenneth M. Tramposch, associate vice president for research, addressed the inventors. President John B.Simpson and Provost Satish K. Tripathi also congratulated the inventors.
Some of the newly patented inventions are: