February 9, 2006
Three UW faculty receive grants from the Washington Technology Center
The Washington Technology Center (WTC) recently awarded grants to eight Washington researchers teamed with local companies to commercialize new technologies. Three of these grants went to UW faculty.
The 2006 Research and Technology Development (RTD) award recipients from the UW are:
- Alex K.Y. Jen, professor and Boeing-Johnson chair, Materials Sciences and Engineering;
- Thomas Vaisar, research assistant professor, School of Medicine; and
- Gael Kurath, affiliate associate professor, pathobiology, School of Public Health and Community Medicine.
Through support from WTC, these collaborative partners are working to revolutionize everything from cardiovascular disease detection to energy-efficient light bulbs to DNA-based vaccinations for fish.
Advanced Electroluminescent Sciences, Woodinville, is teamed with Jen on a new technology for more efficient lighting. The Department of Energy estimates that over $50 billion in electricity costs is wasted annually in the U.S. due to the low efficiency of lighting sources. AES’s technology is based on Light Emitting Diodes or LEDs, which are commonly used in everything from watches and calculators to traffic lights and laser printers.The company is looking to advance these LEDs to the stage where they can be used for general lighting. A spin-out from the UW, AES is working with UW researchers to develop and prototype polymer-based organic LEDs (OLEDs) that will replace incandescent and fluorescent bulbs used in homes and businesses. If successful, the new bulbs will be more durable, energy efficiency, and cost-effective than current lighting on the market.
Insilicos, Seattle, is partnered with Vaisar to develop a faster, more affordable diagnostic test for cardiovascular disease using Insilicos’ plasma analysis software. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. Nearly one-quarter of all Americans has some form of the disease and 6 million patients are admitted to the hospital for treatment annually. High cholesterol is one of the well-known risk factors. Current diagnostic tests measure the ratio of different forms of cholesterol to determine individuals at risk for heart disease. However, these tests incorrectly diagnose about 70 percent of people at risk. With the assistance of the WTC grant, Insilicos and Vaisar’s team will test this new diagnostic tool in a clinical setting. Insilicos is also exploring the application of this tool to diagnose and treat other medical issues, including diabetes.
Northwest Marine Technology, Anacortes, is working with and the U.S. Geological Survey Western Fisheries Research Center to develop an experimental vaccine delivery device to inoculate fish with DNA-based vaccines. Disease in fish can devastate hatchery and aquaculture production causing billions of dollars in financial losses annually. The ability to vaccinate fish against disease makes a monumental difference in protecting against these financial losses. DNA-based vaccines have proven highly effective in protecting fish against viral pathogens. However, fisheries resources managers don’t have a way to deliver the vaccines in a large-scale, economical manner, requiring the vaccines to be delivered manually. This process, which is conducted on more than a million fish, is expensive — roughly $300 million a year — and labor intensive. Northwest Marine Technology is creating a novel device that is fully-automated, safe, cost-efficient and effective in preventing disease. The grant will go toward development and testing of the vaccine delivery device on a lab population of rainbow trout at the Western Fisheries Research Center.
WTC allocates more than $1.3 million annually to the Research and Technology Development Grants program, which provides seed funding to principal investigators teamed with entrepreneurial companies on technology research projects that show strong commercial potential. Applicants are eligible for financial awards ranging from $100,000 for initial proof-of-concept projects to up to $300,000 for multi-phase research.
The process is competitive and the goal is clear: to transition the state’s most promising innovations into commercial products, company growth and high-wage jobs. The Washington Technology Center has supported 285 technology commercialization projects through its RTD program over the last decade.
These grants have proved effective in helping novel technologies move from “good ideas” to commercially viable ventures. From this initial funding, academic researchers and companies are better able to attract add-on funding from federal grants, angel investors, and industry partners.
Annual follow-up surveys show that WTC–assisted faculty and companies have been successful in leveraging RTD grants into more than $400 million in additional funding. WTC estimates that through its work with Washington entrepreneurs and academic researchers, over 7,000 new technology jobs have been created in our state, many of these from RTD Award recipients.
More information about WTC’s Research and Technology Development grants program is available online on WTC’s website at www.watechcenter.org
