Immunotherapeutic drugs have been found to be effective in treating several types of cancer. However, lasting responses are reported in less than 30% of patients.

The $99,311 award will help advance the development of a novel compound that has been shown to enhance the efficacy of existing immunotherapy treatments. 

The preservation of cells, tissues and organs is commonly required in the fields of biological research and clinical medicine. Cryoprotectant agents (CPAs) are generally used to improve the post-thaw viability of cryopreserved biological samples.

Current CPAs are commonly applied at high extracellular concentration in order to assure a reasonable deliver into cells. At high concentrations, these CPAs are often toxic and always require careful removal during post-thaw processing.

The $70,000 reward (with a $70,000 match from an industry sponsor) will advance a novel pore-forming molecule which temporarily alters cell permeability, allowing low-cost, non-toxic, low concentration CPAs to be effectively delivered across cell membranes.

Internal suturing is a necessary procedure during many surgeries. Sutures must be placed quickly and consistently to manage costs and avoid patient risks. Some surgeons choose to utilize staplers, which save time but introduce additional complications.

The $99,390 award will assist in creating an intracorporeal auto-suturing device which promises to increase surgical efficiency and safety while reducing the suturing learning curve for young surgeons.

Wind energy technology needs improved energy production and higher reliability to maintain/grow market share and to reduce the cost of its production. Design innovations to improve wind turbine performance (energy production), system reliability, required infrastructure and maintenance reduces the overall usage costs.

The turbine blades affect all these factors, since they are the main tools that convert wind energy into mechanical motion. Current blade design prevents the wind turbine from being used to full potential. However, modifying the design could increase production by 11% for a commercial wind turbine.

The $94,362 award will help Hall and his post-doctoral student Hamid Khakpour with the design of a new wind turbine blade with active morphing twist capability to increase wind turbine performance and reliability.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important tool used extensively in clinical medicine. Approximately 40 million MRI scans are performed annually in the US, 40% requiring the use of a contrast agent to enhance imaging.

All FDA-approved contrast agents currently use gadolinium (Gd), a rare earth element once considered safe, but is now linked to Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis. The FDA and EMA have become increasingly concerned about Gd deposits in brain tissue, bone and skin of patients with multiple exposures and have placed restrictions on the use of Gd contrast agents.

Morrow’s team will use the $49,735 award to develop a new MRI contrast agent which replaces Gd with iron-derived compounds.

Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) are a class of molecules which promise to selectively deliver chemotherapeutic drugs precisely to cancer cells, avoiding toxic side effects typically associated with chemotherapy. Despite significant recent advancements, ADCs have suffered from lack of efficacy in low-antigen-expressing patients and off-target toxicity.

The $80,000 award will assist Dhaval and his team in using antibody engineering approaches to improve cellular delivery of ADCs, thereby mitigating their toxic effects and improving their potency.

Many believe that the future of factories and manufacturing includes the deployment of collaborative robots (or “cobots”) that are able to physically interact with humans to gain unique and synergistic benefits. Before the broad deployment of cobots, they must be designed and tested to assure the protection of people working within close proximity. As recipients of a $55,720 award, Dr. Ehsan Esfahani and his team are focused on making cobots a reality with a robot hand that is safe to interact with humans. They have developed a variable stiffness robotic gripper that is able to detect unwanted collisions by adjusting itself to protect those around it. The team is currently launching a startup company to commercialize the gripper, while licensing technology from the University.

While lithium-ion batteries are the common choice in consumer electronics and electric vehicles, their storage capacity is limiting. To overcome this issue, Dr. Mark Swihart and Adam Raszewski have turned to silicon, which can hold 10 times as many lithium ions as current materials, thereby boosting energy storage capacity. This team is using their $62,320 award to investigate the production, characterization, and testing of silicon-carbon nanostructures for lithium-ion battery anodes. The funds will also support the development of a unique process and material, which promises a low-cost manufacturing route to higher-capacity batteries.

Given the national opioid crisis, many in the medical community have greatly reduced their prescriptions. With that change comes the reality that the need for good alternatives to treat post-surgical and chronic pain remains. Dr. Arin Bhattacharjee, Dr. Elsa Daurignac, and doctoral student Rasheen Powell are collaborating to develop non-opioid analgesics, which promise long-lasting post-surgical pain control. They received a $98,777 award that will enable them to demonstrate efficacy at 24 hours in a post-surgical pain model, provide evidence of reduction in pain behavior and characterize the extended analgesia duration.

Improving survival rates during respiratory failure is also an unquestionable need within the medical and healthcare sectors. Under the guidance of Dr. Bora Baysal, a pathologist at Roswell Park, his $87,000 award is focusing on the development of an anti-mortality drug for hypoxic lung disease. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which can cause hypoxia, is the third leading cause of death in the United States as it hinders a patient’s ability to adequately capture oxygen from the air. Once fully developed, this drug expects to increase survival and reduce dependency on supplemental oxygen.

As the type 2 diabetes epidemic grows in prevalence, identifying a simple, effective and realistic alternative to the now-required daily insulin shots is both critical and timely. Dr. Qing Lin and Husan-Yi Wu were awarded $81,250 for their work in seeking a solution to this dilemma with a new drug and application that promises to treat diabetes, while also reducing blood sugar weight. In addition to treating the condition, another promising element of their approach is that the proposed therapeutic would be taken orally, thereby eliminating the need for insulin injections and reducing medical waste from injection pens.

Current cardiac pacemakers require special wires (leads) to deliver energy to the heart. One issue with leads is that they are dependent on battery power, and batteries eventually need to be replaced. Additionally, leadless pacemakers that are much smaller and placed directly into the heart chamber are almost impossible to replace. Dr. Amin Karami and Mostafa Anbarani are using their $50,000 award funding to develop a solution for this. They are working to create an energy harvesting device that will capture energy from a beating heart to power a leadless pacemaker, which will result in more efficient implants and reduce the need for follow-up procedures for patients.

Dr. Rosemary Dziak and Dr. Mark Swihart have been awarded $64,000 for their work to find a solution to the ethical and patient concerns around regenerative bone therapy. Current bone grafting materials are often either extracted from cadavers or from patients themselves. While synthetic materials are available, they are infrequently used. To further the field of synthetic grafting and address the aforementioned concerns, this team is exploring the optimization of a nanocalcium sulfate product for the development of synthetic nano bone grafting materials that will provide both superior strength and usability characteristics.