15 Good Minutes: Jen Heemstra

Jen Heemstra, PhD is a Professor of Chemistry at Emory University. In 2017, Jen and her research group moved from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah to the Department of Chemistry at Emory University. Research in the Heemstra lab is focused on harnessing the molecular recognition and self-assembly properties of nucleic acids for applications in biosensing and bioimaging. For Emory Professor Jen Heemstra, Ph.D., her career in supramolecular chemistry is constantly focusing on both creativity and innovation. To Heemstra, this field of supramolecular chemistry is fun and exciting, since it is a field that involves constant learning Read More …

15 Good Minutes: Eric Wagner

For Emory Orthopedic Surgeon Eric Wagner, MD, research isn’t just a side pursuit. Despite maintaining a busy clinical practice, Wagner has managed to make research into what he calls a “second career.” Wagner and his partner, Michael Gottschalk, MD, currently have over 45 ongoing projects, with topics running the gambit from managing opioid addiction to helping tendons heal. Wagner has published over 185 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and his work has had a substantial impact in improving patient outcomes from orthopedic procedures. “We take some complex surgeries where patients don’t traditionally do as well and try to make them better Read More …

15 Good Minutes: Erik Dreaden

Erik Dreaden, PhD is an assistant professor in Emory’s department of pediatrics and department of biomedical engineering, a shared department between Emory and GA Tech. The Dreaden Lab has been working hard to create an exciting light-responsive immunotherapy technology. This unique technology works to target cancer cells using light. The goal of this developing technology is to improve current cancer therapies and immunotherapy. Dreaden’s interest in the field of cancer grew over time, as cancer has been a large part of his life. His father battled melanoma and colon cancer, so it has personally impacted his work and touched him. Read More …

From the Director: COVID-19’s Impact on Technology Transfer

Todd Sherer, PhD is the Associate VP for Research and Executive Director of the Emory Office of Technology Transfer. In this article, Todd Sherer discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the technology transfer industry and on the Emory Office of Technology Transfer specifically. Humankind has longed for better ways of doing things for centuries.  More recently, this phenomenon to make products that solve problems, as well as to create jobs and wealth, has been termed the “innovation economy”.  The demand for technology innovation is global, and there is always the desire to make people healthier and happier. However, Read More …

15 Good Minutes: Nathan Jui

For Emory Assistant Professor Dr. Nathan Jui, the inspiration for his career in organic chemistry evolved in part from interests in cooking and building. Jui enjoys working on both of these in day to day life and sees similarities with his chemistry interest. Despite the complicated nature of his work, Jui believes that chemistry is similar on to these tasks as it similarly involves manipulating matter, just on a much smaller scale. In his research career, Jui uses this basic chemistry principle for groundbreaking scientific research in areas from cancer drugs to gene expression. “Life is a bunch of molecules Read More …

15 Good Minutes: Hee Cheol Cho

Issues surrounding cardiovascular health and disease are personal for Dr. Hee Cheol Cho. Dr. Cho lost his father to a heart attack, and his father lost his siblings to heart attacks. “The topic of cardiovascular disease is embedded in my family and blood,” Dr. Cho said. Hee Cheol Cho, Ph.D. is a stem cell and cardiology researcher, Urowsky-Sahr Scholar in Pediatric Bioengineering, and Associate Professor at the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Pediatrics at Emory and Georgia Tech. Dr. Cho’s research focuses on cardiac pacemaker cells and developing a gene-and cell-based treatment for cardiac arrhythmia. His “biological pacemaker” is a Read More …

Meet the 2021 Annual Celebration Awardees

Each Spring, Emory’s Office of Technology Transfer hosts an Annual Celebration of Technology and Innovation. Though we weren’t able to gather in person to celebrate this year, we are extremely proud of the 2021 awardees. We took time to interview several of this year’s awardees to learn more about their technologies and their reaction to winning an award! 2021 Innovation of the Year – Serological Test for SARS-CoV-2; John Roback, MD, Ph.D. Can you introduce yourself? “John D. Roback, MD PhD.  I am a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medical Director of Emory Medical Laboratories, and Executive Vice-Chair for Read More …

Interviews with 2020 Annual Celebration Awardees

Each Spring, Emory’s Office of Technology Transfer hosts an Annual Celebration of Technology and Innovation. In preparation of announcing the 2021 awardees, we spoke with several award recipients from 2020 about their experience with OTT’s Annual Celebration. 2020 Innovation of the Year – Autonomic Formation of Large-Scale Wireless Mesh Networks; Sergio Gramacho, Ph.D. Can you introduce yourself? “I am Sergio Gramacho, an avid learner and applier who had the opportunity to formally study Electrical Engineering (BS), Business (MBA) and Computer Science (Master, PhD) in different moments of my career.” What did you enjoy about winning an award? “This award was Read More …

Annual Celebration: Where Are They Now?

Each Spring, Emory’s Office of Technology Transfer hosts an Annual Celebration of Technology and Innovation. In preparation of announcing the 2021 awardees, we spoke with several award recipients from previous years about their experience with OTT’s Annual Celebration. 2009 Innovation of the Year – Novel PET Imaging Agents; Mark Goodman, Ph.D.  Can you introduce yourself? “I am Mark Goodman; I am a professor of Radiology and Imaging Sciences. I have secondary appointments in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology. I am the Emory Endowed Chair in Imaging Science.” What did you Read More …

The Institutional Review Boards 101

New discoveries of therapies and drug mechanisms are not always the daily news headline, but today ethical guidelines exist to continue to keep a standard of the production of any new medication or treatment. However, the history of clinical research has not always been so ethical. For instance, the PHS Syphilis Study in Tuskegee, AL and the Willowbrook Hepatitis Experiments, are only two of many notorious examples of horrifically unethical clinical trials. The purpose of this article is to bring light into the role of the Institutional Review Boards (IRB) in relationship to on ongoing clinical trials today to ensure Read More …

15 Good Minutes: Hari Trivedi

After completing an undergraduate degree in engineering at Georgia Tech, Emory Assistant-Professor Dr. Hari Trivedi began medical school with an open mind about what field to specialize in. While exploring different fields, Trivedi began to grow interested in the intersection of medicine and technology. He eventually settled on his chosen field, radiology, after witnessing how it combined his interests in both medicine and engineering. “During radiology rotations, I thought radiology was just so cool because radiologists get all the newest toys,” Trivedi said. “I remember seeing my first 3D reconstruction of a CT scan, and that’s when I was like, Read More …

Understanding AI Lingo in Healthcare

With the ever-growing incorporation of technology into medicine over the past decade, healthcare industries have advanced to integrate novel technology innovations. Such innovations include artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), 3D-printing, robotics, and so on. One of these innovations, artificial intelligence (AI), holds promise in improving patient care while reducing costs. This technology has been applied in areas such as patient diagnosis and monitoring, treatment protocol development, radiology, and drug development. While some of this might seem like science-fiction, it’s being incorporated every day in the healthcare field. To help introduce you to this new world below, we’ve compiled a Read More …

15 Good Minutes: Ichiro Matsumura

For Emory Professor of Biochemistry Ichiro Matsumura, PhD, inspiration to pursue a career in research came from an unlikely source: a concussion. When Matsumura was in college at MIT, he got into a bike accident that left him hospitalized for several months. After being released from the hospital, Matsumura was prepared to retake all his courses from that semester over the summer. However, one of Matsumura’s professors, Harry Lodish, gave him the option to write a report from a list of topics instead of retaking the course, given that he had done well on the class’s first midterm. The topic Read More …

Algorithms and Healthcare: The Future is Coming

Computers are everywhere it seems, even in our healthcare. While they aren’t quite at the level of (find some movie reference with something futuristic) they are making significant contributions. One of those contributions is algorithms which are contributing in areas from imaging, diagnosing, and predicting. To help solve dilemmas such as this, healthcare professionals are increasingly turning to algorithms, which use machine learning techniques that enable computers to learn information without human input. Algorithms create a formulaic process for healthcare professionals to evaluate patient symptomology and decide on the best course of treatment. While they cannot replace human decision-making or Read More …

15 Good Minutes: William Wuest

Antibiotics have been one of the most consequential innovations in human history, allowing us to treat a wide variety of bacterial diseases that could otherwise be damaging or fatal. However, bacterial resistant to these antibiotics is on the rise, necessitating a constant drive to discover new antibiotic drugs as older ones are rendered less effective. One of the scientists on this forefront of this push is Emory Associate Professor and Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator, William Wuest, PhD. Wuest runs a lab that is focused on finding novel antibiotics to fight bacterial infections. Recently he and his team have made Read More …

Be Ware of Preprints: Protect Your Intellectual Property First

Who owns the rights to a new innovation described in a research paper? If a patent is in place, the answer is simple: the owner. Generally, the lengthy, and confidential, peer-review process means that authors of unpublished work have ample time to submit an invention disclosure and to have their technology transfer office review and if necessary, file a patent, ensuring that any new invention is protected prior to any public disclosure. However, the rise of “preprint” services, which allow authors to publish preliminary findings ahead of peer-review, has complicated this process. Preprints can severely hamper the ability of authors Read More …

15 Good Minutes: Cassandra Quave

When most people think about medicine, plants are not what immediately jumps to mind. However, for Emory Assistant Professor Cassandra Quave, PhD, the relationship between plants and medicine is career-defining. Quave is an ethnobotanist, meaning she studies human interaction with plants and their potential medical properties. Her work has led to important discoveries including treatments for eczema and skin infections. Quave describes her research as investigating compounds on a fundamental level, derived from their source in plants. She and her lab then determine whether the compound has properties that would allow it to be used in medicine. “In a single Read More …

The Differences between SBIR and STTR Cheat Sheet

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs both provide Small Business Administration (SBA) grants to small businesses for research. The two programs share the same three phases, with separate federal contracts awarded for Phases I and II. Phase I is innovation and research, where the scientific merit and commercial viability of an innovation is studied.  Phase II focuses on the innovation’s development, demonstration and delivery. Phase III involves preparation for commercial rollout and is funded by outside sources rather than the SBA. While the two programs share many similarities, they have some important differences Read More …

Clinical Trials 101

Any time a new drug appears on the market, the final product is a result of years of research and testing. The time from conception to FDA approval for medications takes 12 years on average. An important and time-consuming aspect of this process are clinical trials. By testing a drug on gradually increasing numbers of patients and volunteers, researchers are able verify that it is both safe and effective in treating the disease or condition. Only when the first three steps of this process are complete can the drug be approved and commercially distributed. Phase 1 is the shortest of Read More …

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare

The healthcare industry generates a lot of data. X-rays, pathology slides, patient vitals, clinical trial information; we have mountains of information accessible at the touch of a button. But it’s costly and time-inefficient for humans to manually pour over it. So what do we do with all of this data? The field of intelligence (AI) allows not only to let us analyze all our data, but to find subtle and complex patterns in them. Machine learning algorithms are particularly responsible for these advancements. Engineers have developed software that’s able to look at a dataset, find relationships between a bunch of Read More …