New UNMC researcher looks at early stage leukemia

December 23, 2013 Comments (0) News

OMAHA, Neb. (Dec. 23, 2013) — R. Kate Hyde, PhD, joins the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s research staff, specializing in leukemia research.

Hyde was featured in the Dec. 23, 2013 issue of UNMC Today, excerpted below:

Now, she works with mouse models with a subtype of acute myeloid leukemia. The difference is that now they can study the disease from its first mutation.

Kate Hyde, PhD (Photo: UNMC)

“When you see a patient in clinic, it’s only after full blown leukemia,” Dr. Hyde said. “You don’t know what the initial stages are. But with the mouse model, we can control when they start expressing the protein that we know is the first step. We look at the consequences of this one protein by itself without the complications of the other mutations found in patient samples.”

Understanding how this first happens is integral to drug design and drug testing, Dr. Hyde said. This is what she works on.

Read the entire article here.

 

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Current Treatments and Innovative Advances in Diabetes Research

November 27, 2013 Comments (1) Blog

Most diabetes therapies in existence are focused on lowering blood sugar

by Caronda Moore, UNeMed | Nov. 27, 2013

While talking to an older woman during a networking lunch the other day we came across the subject of diabetes. She told me her doctor recently diagnosed her with diabetes, but she doesn’t understand why it’s such a big deal. “I’m fine,” she said. She figured she could deal with the disease without the use of her primary care physician. I told her that because of her age and weight that I’m pretty sure her doctor diagnosed her with type 2 diabetes, and she should take advantage of her doctor’s knowledge and expertise.

Caronda Moore

“Many [diabetes patients] have misconceptions about diabetes, its seriousness, the ways it’s treated, and the new ways researchers are working to improve the syndrome.” – Moore

We discussed the importance of diabetes and how it’s a metabolic disorder characterized by high blood sugar because the body can’t produce enough insulin or is insensitive to it. It’s a serious condition with several complications such as vascular dysfunction, heart failure, neuronal damage, kidney failure, and blindness.

She became fascinated as our conversation progressed into how doctors currently treat diabetes and the new therapies that are being developed.

I’m sure she is not alone in her thinking. Many have misconceptions about diabetes, its seriousness, the ways it’s treated, and the new ways researchers are working to improve the syndrome. As we approach the end of November — Diabetes Awareness Month — let’s take a look at current diabetes treatments and some recent innovative advancements to treat the disease as well as areas for exploration.

Diabetes is a vascular disease and life expectancy depends on managing the ABCs of diabetes: hemoglobin A1C, blood pressure, cholesterol and clotting. “In spite of controlling these with near perfect control we still have issues,” said Dr. Cyrus DeSouza, the chief of Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology & Metabolism at UNMC’s Department of Internal Medicine.

DeSouza, who earned his medical degree in India in 1994, has been working in clinic and laboratory diabetes research since 2000. He is currently working with two large NIH-funded clinical trials:

1) Using vitamin D to prevent prediabetes from progressing to type 2 diabetes
2) Determining the best medication to treat type 2 diabetic patients after metformin.

In diabetes everyone gets the same treatment, and most therapies are focused on lowering blood sugar. Type 1 diabetics get insulin and type 2 diabetics get metformin followed by sulfonylurea, followed by insulin.

Dr. Cyrus DeSouza

Dr. Cyrus DeSouza

“New diabetes drugs are abundant, but they bring a false enthusiasm,” DeSouza said. Adding that there have been numerous medications discovered, but only a handful of classes have FDA approval.

Diabetes is a vascular disease that leads to many end organ complications, and it’s the most common cause for dialysis and legal blindness among driving adults. One way to treat diabetes and these symptoms is with organ transplantation. The entire cornea can be replaced, and new surgical techniques focus on just replacing the damaged portion.

In addition to kidney transplantation, type 1 diabetic patients could also receive a kidney-pancreas transplant at the same time. This can remove the need for insulin administration.

Other recent advances include promising new gadgets like glucose-monitoring devices, insulin pumps and the artificial pancreas which are all still in development.

The glucose monitoring device and the insulin pump are not connected, but one tracks blood sugar and alarms if levels are too high or too low. The insulin pump allows patients to tell the pump how much insulin to inject after they determine their blood sugar levels. Unfortunately, measuring the blood sugar still requires a blood sample, and there’s little hope of that changing anytime soon.

“Patients want a non-invasive method, but none of them have ever been FDA approved,” DeSouza said.

But the Medtronic artificial pancreas has just received FDA approval, however all the devices still require patient input.

“Artificial pancreas has some significant progress to it,” DeSouza said, “but it is about 20 minutes behind the current glucose reading, and you don’t know what the current reading is.”

DeSouza said, “Thus far, we have no proven therapies that lower blood sugar and prevent vascular problems.”

“Statins are the best therapy we have at the moment,” he said.

In addition to lifestyle therapy, statins are prescribed for diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease to manage a dangerous form of cholesterol known as LDL or low density lipoprotein, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Researchers at UNMC have discovered a new therapy that targets chemical compounds generated by the breakdown of sugar and fats to slow the progression of diabetic end organ complications. This new therapy also reduces blood sugar and is currently available for licensing through UNeMed.

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Gene therapy treatment could lower blood sugar while repairing damage caused by diabetes

November 14, 2013 Comments (3) News

UNMC research on diabetes complications finds new fix for organ failures

by Charlie Litton, UNeMed

OMAHA, Neb. (Nov. 14, 2013)—A pantheon of chronic system failures await nearly everyone with diabetes. Kidney dialysis, cataracts, high blood pressure, heart failure and lower limb amputation are just a few.

Any combination of diabetic complication is a virtual certainty.

Far less certain, however, is how so many different systems could be affected by diabetes, which partly explains why most modern treatments only help manage the disease.

Keshore Bidasee, PhD, a researcher at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, may have found a new way to treat diabetes that could improve the function of damaged organs like the kidneys, heart and eyes while also lowering blood sugar levels.

Keshore Bidasee, PhD, a researcher at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, may have found a new way to treat diabetes that could improve the function of damaged organs like the kidneys, heart and eyes while also lowering blood sugar levels.

Understanding the common thread between these wide-ranging diabetic complications lies at the foundation of potentially groundbreaking research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. That research could do far more than just help 21 million Americans simply manage their diabetes. It could prevent those complications in the first place, and may even help repair damaged organs.

UNMC’s Keshore Bidasee, who holds a doctorate in analytical chemistry, believes he has the culprit, and may have found a way to keep it from wreaking its usual havoc.

In its essence, diabetes is a disease of the blood vessels. So, any organ that relies on blood supply—which is to say all of them—will suffer from the long and continuous assault that diabetes wages.

There are three major types of diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes begins in the pancreas with the loss of beta cells, which normally release a blood-sugar regulating hormone called insulin. But most people suffer from the most common form: Type 2 diabetes, where the pancreas still has the ability to produce insulin, but the body develops resistance to the hormone. A third, although rare, form of the disease may occur in about 5 percent of expecting mothers. Known as gestational diabetes, this form is often temporary, and the mother recovers soon after childbirth.

In all types, the amount of sugar in the blood stream increases, and that somehow damages the blood vessels. It was previously unknown what exactly causes that damage or if the cause was specific to each organ.

Bidasee and his team think they found the answer in a small molecule called methylglyoxal, a naturally occurring byproduct of high blood-sugar that can cause a cell to “misbehave.” The misbehaving cells can then set off a chain reaction that destroys the endothelium, the single layer of cells that line the inner walls of blood vessels that control blood flow and pressure.

Keshore Bidasee, PhD

Dr. Bidasee

“What this means is high levels of methylglyoxal is a troublemaker,” said Bidasee, an associate professor in UNMC’s Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Science in the College of Medicine.

Completely eliminating the “troublemaker” would create additional problems. Methylglyoxal serves an important function beyond its destructive role in diabetes. It helps regulate sleep, and rids the body of other dysfunctional cells.

“Remove them, and you’re going to be in trouble,” Bidasee said.

With the help of the National Institutes of Health and the Gene Therapy Program at the University of Pennsylvania, Bidasee’s team created a harmless virus that “infects” methylglyoxal-producing cells with an enzyme called Glyoxalase-1. The enzyme eliminates the “troublemaker” where it causes problems, while leaving it free to perform its beneficial functions.

Early testing shows the treatment not only stops damage in the kidneys, eyes and heart, but also shows promise in halting cognitive decline—a major concern in elderly diabetics.
The gene transfer strategy even significantly reduces blood sugar levels.

“That was completely unexpected,” Bidasee said. “Sometimes you get lucky, right?”

———

UNeMed Corporation is the technology transfer office (TTO) for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, serving researchers, faculty and staff who develop new biomedical technology and inventions. UNeMed strives to help bring those innovations to the marketplace for a healthier and better world.

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UNMC researchers work to improve clinical outcomes of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients

November 6, 2013 Comments (0) News

by Lisa Spellman, UNMC

OMAHA, Neb. (Nov. 6, 2013)—Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center have discovered that patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma don’t respond well to the standard drug therapy used to treat this type of cancer if they have high levels of a gene called STAT3.

The findings are published in the November issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the medical journal of the American Society for Clinical Oncology.

“These results are significant in that it gives  oncologists a better understanding of the best way to personalize medical treatment for these patients and offer them hope for more positive outcomes,” said Kai Fu, M.D., PhD, associate professor at the Department of Pathology and Microbiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center

STAT3, or signal transducer and activator of the transcription 3 gene, is part of a family known as the STAT genes that provide instructions for making proteins that are part of essential signaling pathways related to cell proliferation and survival within cells.

When these genes are activated they move into the nucleus of the cell and bind to specific areas of DNA in regulatory regions near genes. The STAT proteins then regulate whether these genes are turned on or off.

Patients with this type of lymphoma are treated with a combination of immunotherapy using rituximab with a chemotherapy regimen that includes cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone, commonly referred to as R-CHOP.

“Using this combination of drug therapy usually has very good results but not in those patients with this specific type of lymphoma,” Dr. Fu said. “We wanted to find out why so we could figure out a way to change those outcomes.”

Dr. Fu and his team, along with UNMC investigators Julie Vose, M.D., James Armitage, M.D., John Chan, M.D., Dennis Weisenburger, M.D., and Timothy Greiner, M.D., initiated the study in 2005 with collaborators from 11 institutions around the world.

The work was supported in part by a Strategic Partnering to Evaluate Cancer Signatures grant from the National Institutes of Health, a career development award from the Lymphoma Research Foundation and a translational research grant from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

They began looking at the STAT3 gene and found that patients with high levels of the gene responded poorly to the standard chemotherapy compared to those with lower levels.

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is the fifth most common type of cancer in the United States and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, accounting for 31 percent of all cases, Dr. Fu said.

The next step in the research is to use a specific STAT3 inhibitor to see if it helps the R-CHOP chemotherapy regimen work more efficiently and improve patient survival rates by identifying those patients who are at higher risk, he said.

“We are very fortunate to be given the opportunity to be involved with many early phase clinical trials for the treatment of lymphoma including a new STAT3 inhibitor, which is based on this research,” Dr. Vose said.

Through world-class research and patient care, UNMC generates breakthroughs that make life better for people throughout Nebraska and beyond. Its education programs train more health professionals than any other institution in the state. Learn more at unmc.edu and follow us on social media.

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UNMC partners with Chinese university, hospital for glaucoma study

November 5, 2013 Comments (1) News

by Tom O’Connor, UNMC

OMAHA, Neb. (Nov. 5, 2013)—A University of Nebraska Medical Center ophthalmology research team is partnering with a Chinese university and hospital in a study aimed at improving understanding of glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the United States and worldwide.

The UNMC work is being led by Carol Toris, PhD, professor of ophthalmology & visual sciences, and Shan Fan, M.D., assistant professor. They are partnering with Tao Guo, M.D., a researcher with Tongji University and Tenth People’s Hospital in Shanghai.

The study is looking at aqueous humor dynamics and the role it plays in glaucoma. More than 60 million people in the world are living with glaucoma. It’s estimated that more than 80 million people will develop glaucoma by 2020.

Shan Fan, M.D., and Carol Toris, PhD, of UNMC, with Tao Guo, M.D., associate professor of ophthalmology, Tenth People's Hospital, Shanghai.

Shan Fan, M.D., and Carol Toris, PhD, of UNMC, with Tao Guo, M.D., associate professor of ophthalmology, Tenth People’s Hospital, Shanghai.

Glaucoma can occur when the optic nerve is damaged, and frequently this is associated with high intraocular pressure. That’s where aqueous humor dynamics come into play. To maintain intraocular pressure at a steady level requires a fine balance between the production, circulation and drainage of ocular aqueous humor.

Considered one of the leading experts in the world on aqueous humor dynamics, Dr. Toris and her UNMC research team has already studied healthy Caucasian adults, an ethnic group that is prone to a certain type of glaucoma.

Now in collaboration with Tenth People’s Hospital, they are measuring fluid flow in the eyes of healthy Chinese adults, an ethnic group that is prone to a different kind of glaucoma.

The team will compare data to identify differences that may help explain why people may get a particular kind of glaucoma. It is hoped that these findings could help determine the best treatments for the particular type of glaucoma.

“With a population of 1.35 billion, China is a fertile environment for finding research subjects,” said Quan Dong Nguyen, M.D., chairman of ophthalmology and visual sciences and director of the Truhlsen Eye Institute at UNMC. “It’s a great collaboration. To have all these patients studied on Chinese soil is indicative of how well the project is going.”

In the next two years, Dr. Nguyen said the Truhlsen Eye Institute hopes to combine forces on several other projects with Tongji University and Tenth People’s Hospital.

These projects include several areas of significant concern for visual loss such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, uveitis and ocular inflammation.

Through world-class research and patient care, UNMC generates breakthroughs that make life better for people throughout Nebraska and beyond. Its education programs train more health professionals than any other institution in the state. Learn more at unmc.edu and follow us on social media.

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New startup grows from Innovation Week connection

October 30, 2013 Comments (1) Innovation Week, News

by Charlie Litton, UNeMed

OMAHA, Neb. (Oct. 25, 2013)—It almost sounds like the start of a bad joke: A Russian, a Nebraskan and an MIT scientist are sitting at a table…

But here the Russian saw a problem and thought of a way to fix it. The Nebraskan knew how to make the vision a reality, and the MIT scientist brought the two together in a cross-pollination of disciplines and university campuses.

UNMC researcher Anna Brynskikh Boyum (right) chats with business partner Tom Frederick — an engineering doctorate candidate at UNL — during the 2013 UNMC Startup Company Demonstration Day reception in the Durham Research Center.

UNMC researcher Anna Brynskikh Boyum (right) chats with business partner Tom Frederick — an engineering doctorate candidate at UNL — during the 2013 UNMC Startup Company Demonstration Day reception in the Durham Research Center.

Anna Brynskikh Boyum left her home in Moscow in 2006 to chase her pharmacology doctorate at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. At the same time, Tom Frederick was finishing up his senior year at Mt. Michael High School in Elkhorn, Neb. And Shane Farritor, an MIT trained engineer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was likely working on some kind of small robot that might make wide-ranging things like surgery or railroads safer.

Farritor had already worked with Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA to help design the Mars rovers when he came to Omaha for the 2012 Innovation Awards—hosted by UNeMed Corporation, the technology transfer office at UNMC. He was there to receive an award for a securing his 13th U.S. patent, and meet with other University researchers and innovators.

Boyum, meanwhile, had been stewing on an idea for a few months, thinking, “I need an engineer’s take on this.” She hoped to find that help at the Innovation Awards ceremony. Then she saw Farritor browsing the buffet line at the Innovation Awards reception.

As a grad student in UNMC’s Center for Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine, Boyum spent a lot of her time in front of a cryostat machine, a tool that can shave frozen tissue samples into layers so thin it would take a stack of them to equal the average human hair.

Such thin slices can reveal a multitude of things, such as cancerous cells from a liver biopsy.

But the delicate slices tend to curl, wrinkle or tear before a lab technician can get the sample onto a slide for microscopic analysis. Often enough, they just melt away during the brief struggle.

Elegant Instruments' Versatool helps a researcher keep a thin slice of frozen liver from curling.

Here, Elegant Instruments’ Versatool helps a researcher keep a thin slice of frozen liver from curling or tearing so it can be placed on a slide for microscopic analysis.

Technicians fight with these frozen and nearly transparent samples with a set of tools they scrounge together from unexpected places.

“What I did, what everyone else did, and still does,” Boyum said, “is go to the art supply store for brushes. And a butter knife from home.”

The problem is each technician might have their own collection of tools, and they all need to be kept somewhere. All these tools are stored in cryostat machines, cluttering the way for technicians who follow.

But the bigger problem is the bristles wear out quickly, and the metal piece that holds the bristles to the handle, the ferrule, can conduct static electricity and the technician’s body heat to the sample. The transfer of heat and electrical charge makes handling the wispy samples that much more difficult.

What if all these brushes could be combined into one tool, specifically designed for the task?

She asked Farritor if it could be done.

Farritor, who secured his 14th patent this year, is perhaps best known for his work with UNMC researcher Dmitry Oleynikov creating surgical robots. Together, Farritor and Oleynikov founded a new company, Virtual Incision, which has attracted more than $3 million in investments so far. For his part, Oleynikov is listed with nine U.S. patents.

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.

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

Farritor passed Boyum’s idea to one of his graduate students, Tom Frederick, 24, a doctoral candidate in mechanical and material engineering.

“He gets requests all the time,” Frederick said of Farritor. “Every once in a while I’ll poke him for projects, which led him to say, ‘I met this pathologist at UNMC…'”

Frederick jumped on the idea with both feet.

What began as a simple idea, is now Versatool — An ergonomically designed handle with an integrated knife and interchangeable tips using a slick, magnetic coupling system. The design also conducts less heat and less static electricity.

Versatool features magnetic coupling system so technicians can quickly change tips for different tasks.

Versatool features a magnetic coupling system so technicians can quickly change tips for different tasks.

The elegant design perhaps inspired the name of the startup company they formed together, Elegant Instruments.

Boyum and Frederick completed the circle during the 2013 installment of Innovation Week. On Oct. 7, Boyum and Frederick were among the presenters for the first-ever UNMC Startup Company Demonstration Day. There, they officially launched their first product, which can be purchased online.

“Without that face-to-face meeting, this might not have happened,” Frederick said.

— — —

UNeMed Corporation is the technology transfer office (TTO) for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, serving researchers, faculty and staff who develop new biomedical technology and inventions. UNeMed strives to help bring those innovations to the marketplace for a healthier and better world.

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UNeMed’s Qian Zhang is AUTM 2014 scholarship winner

October 30, 2013 Comments (0) News

by Charlie Litton, UNeMed

OMAHA, Neb. (Oct. 29, 2013)—Qian Zhang, a post-doctoral fellow and licensing associate at UNeMed Corporation, was recently awarded a competitive scholarship from the Association of University Technology Managers.

Qian Zhang

Qian Zhang

Zhang, who received her doctorate in cancer biology in 2011, is one of just five national candidates who are expected to receive a Howard Bremer Scholarship. AUTM has not yet officially announced other scholarship recipients.

Named for a highly regarded advocate for technology transfer operations at the university level, the Howard Bremer Scholarships were created in 2002 “to foster educational opportunities for individuals who are committed to the vision of technology transfer and are novices in the field,” according to the AUTM website.

Zhang said she went to the 2013 annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, and credited some of her early successes to the large number of valuable contacts and friendships she developed there.

“I felt it was a really good learning opportunity for people new to technology transfer,” she said. “It’s also a great platform that gives an opportunity to university technology transfer people to interact with each other and with business development people from the industry.”

The Howard Bremer Scholarships are specifically aimed at students and professionals new to the technology transfer industry, and pays for travel and registration expenses for the 2014 AUTM Annual Meeting in San Francisco on Feb. 19-22.

A product of Linyi, China, Zhang pursued graduate school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and then briefly considered an academic research career. Soon after earning her doctorate, Zhang joined UNeMed as an intern while weighing her career options. A few months later, UNeMed signed her as licensing associate where she now helps evaluate and bring to market UNMC innovations.

“Technology transfer is still science-related,” she said. “It connects strongly to the research I did, and I enjoy it a lot.”

She has already made significant contributions to UNeMed’s mission, helping to open doors on international markets. Fluent in Chinese, Zhang was instrumental in brokering a licensing deal that could help bring a UNMC invention to the China market.

Zhang, 33, is also midway through the MBA program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and expects to receive her diploma by early 2015.

AUTM points to Howard Bremer as “one of the most important, most influential and most beloved” people in the technology transfer industry. He is often credited as playing a key role in the founding of AUTM in 1974—then called the Society of University Patent Administrators—and, more importantly, he is cited as a central player in the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980.

The Bayh-Dole Act allowed universities to own the intellectual property of technologies developed with federal funding. That revolutionary act essentially created the U.S. technology transfer industry as it exists today, and helped launch countless university research projects beyond the laboratory and into the marketplace.

Bremer died on Oct. 11, 2013, at the age of 90.

—

UNeMed Corporation is the technology transfer office (TTO) for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, serving researchers, faculty and staff who develop new biomedical technology and inventions. UNeMed strives to help bring those innovations to the marketplace for a healthier and better world.

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University calls for entrepreneurial awards nominations

October 24, 2013 Comments (0) News

OMAHA, Neb. (Oct. 24, 2013)—The University of Nebraska is calling for nominations and applications for two entrepreneurial awards that will be presented in spring 2014.

The Peter Kiewit Student Entrepreneurial Award is open to University of Nebraska students and student-teams that have “directed their energies, ideas, and talents toward community and business improvements with creative and innovative use of information technology.” Recipients of the Peter Kiewit Student Entrepreneurial Award receive a cash prize of $2,500. More information, including guidelines and application and nomination forms, can be found online at https://nebraska.edu/recognition-and-awards/peter-kiewit-student-entrepreneurial-award.html.

The Walter Scott Entrepreneurial Business Award is open to Nebraska businesses that create innovative opportunities for students, help build partnerships with the University of Nebraska or further the entrepreneurial and business community in the state. The winner receives $10,000 “to be used for the promotions and/or creation of multiple student work experiences in the fields of information science, technology, and engineering.”

More details, guidelines and application forms can be found online at https://nebraska.edu/recognition-and-awards/peter-kiewit-student-entrepreneurial-award.html.

Last year, the Peter Kiewit Student Entrepreneurial Award went to a team of graduate students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha who developed a business plan for STEM-Direct. STEM-Direct would provide affordable tutoring to high school and college students in science, technology, engineering and math.

Last year’s Walter Scott Entrepreneurial Award winner was Hudl, a Lincoln-based video analysis tool created by three University of Nebraska-Lincoln alumni. Hudl employs approximately 80 people, most of them UNL grads, and works primarily with high school and college athletics coaches to help them evaluate and share game and practice videos.

The deadlines for both awards are Nov. 11, 2013 for nominations and Jan. 6, 2014 is last day to submit an application.

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UNMC designated one of three national endoscopic surgery testing centers

October 23, 2013 Comments (0) News

by Vicky Cerino, UNMC

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

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.

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.”

Keshore Bidasee, PhD

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

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.

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

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

Jason Nickla

“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

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

Caronda Moore

“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

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

Agnes Lenagh

“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

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

Qian Zhang

“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

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

Charlie Litton

“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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