The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) recently issued thirteen U.S. patents to UNM Rainforest Innovations during the months of January, February, and March for technologies invented at the University of New Mexico. The patents, issued during UNM Rainforest Innovations’ 2021 fiscal third quarter, are for a variety of technologies created by researchers in the Departments of Chemistry; Internal Medicine; Pathology; Nanoscience & Microsystems; Molecular Genetics & Microbiology; Electrical & Computer Engineering; Language, Literacy, & Sociocultural Studies; Physics & Astronomy; the Center for Biomedical Engineering; the Center for High Technology Materials; and the Center for Micro-Engineered Materials.
Issued Patent for “Cationic Liposomes for Cancer Immunotherapy”
Patent No. 10,881,612, issue date January 5, 2021
Inventors: Rita Serda, Ismail Mustafa Meraz
Disclosed are positively-charged, cytotoxic nanoparticle compositions comprising immune modulators (such as the toll-like receptor (TLR)-4 ligand, monophosphoryl lipid (MPL)-A), and Interleukin (IL)-12)), which exhibit enhanced uptake by mammalian cancer cells, and cause increased cancer cell death and/or an increased release of cancer antigens following direct injection to populations of cancer or tumor cells. Also disclosed are nanoparticlevectored, immunomodulatory compositions that stimulate antigen presenting immune cells and T cells, and support the development of anti-cancer immunity in mammalian hosts. The disclosed cationic liposomes represent an important advance in the area of cancer immunotherapeutics.
Issued Patent for “Flow Cytometry Apparatus Pulling Sample Stream Through Observation Chamber”
Patent No. 10,884,007, issue date January 5, 2021
This technology is currently licensed.
Inventors: Bruce Edwards, Larry A. Sklar, Ronald D. Salesky
Described here is a flow cytometry apparatus that includes a flow cytometer having a suction or negative-pressure intake probe, a support for a microplate having a plurality of sample wells, and motive elements operatively connected to at least one of the probe and the support for moving the intake probe and the support relative to one another so that the intake probe is sequentially aligned with different sample wells of the microplate. The apparatus has no fluid pumping elements between the support and the flow cytometer so that a bubble-separated sample stream is forced to the flow cytometer solely by virtue of a negative pressure communicated via the intake probe.
Issued Patent for “Method for Simultaneous Spectrally Resolved Detection or Imaging of Items in Multiple Flowing Streams”
Patent No. 10,900,902, issue date January 26, 2021
This technology is currently licensed.
Inventors: Andrew Shreve, Steven W. Graves, Bruce Edwards, Jaime Javier Juarez
This technology provides a method to simultaneously detect emission intensity or images at multiple distinct emission wavelengths in the analysis of parallel sample streams in a flow-based analysis system and apparatus for performing the described method.
Issued Patent for “Method for Simultaneous Spectrally Resolved Detection or Imaging of Items in Multiple Flowing Streams”
Patent No. 10,903,035, issue date January 26, 2021
Inventors: Francesca Cavallo, Daniel W. van der Weide, Max Lagally
Described here is a self-assembling element fabricated using integrated circuit techniques that may provide a small diameter helical conductor surrounding an electron beam for the construction of a vacuum electronic device such as a traveling-wave tube for terahertz scale signal.
Issued Patent for “Compositions and Methods for Controlling Cellular Function”
Patent No. 10,907,219, issue date February 2, 2021
Inventors: Fu-Sen Liang, Wei Wang
This disclosure describes compositions and methods that involve a first modular component and a second modular component. The first modular component includes a first target molecule coupled to a first dimerizing moiety. The second modular component includes a second target molecule coupled to a second dimerizing moiety. The first dimerizing moiety dimerizes with the second dimerizing moiety when the first dimerizing moiety binds a chemical induced proximity (CIP) inducer.
Issued Patent for “Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer”
Patent No. 10,914,800, issue date February 9, 2021
Inventors: Victor Acosta, Andrejs Jarmola, Lykourgos Bougas, Dmitry Budker
Technologies relating to a magnetic resonance spectrometer are disclosed. The magnetic resonance spectrometer may include a doped nanostructured crystal. By nanostructuring the surface of the crystal, the sensor-sample contact area of the crystal can be increased. As a result of the increased sensor-sample contact area, the output fluorescence signal emitted from the crystal is also increased, with corresponding reductions in measurement acquisition time and requisite sample volumes.
Issued Patent for “Composition Comprising PCSK9 Peptide Conjugated to a Qbeta Carrier and Methods of Using the Same”
Patent No. 10,925,938, issue date February 23, 2021
This technology is currently optioned.
Inventors: Bryce Chackerian, Alan Remaley, John T. Schiller, Marcelo Amar
This technology provides a vaccine construct comprising an antigenic PCSK9 peptide and an immunogenic carrier, and methods of using the same that are effective to lower blood cholesterol levels in a mammal and treat dyslipidemias and related disease states in a mammal without the frequency of administration required by passive immunity strategies.
Issued Patent for “Arrays of High-Aspect-Ratio Germanium Nanostructures with Nanoscale Pitch and Methods for the Fabrication Thereof”
Patent No. 10,930,490, issue date February 23, 2021
Inventors: Francesca Cavallo, Vijay Saradhi Mangu, Max G. Lagally
Methods for fabricating thin, high-aspect-ratio Ge nanostructures from high-quality, single-crystalline Ge substrates are provided. Also provided are grating structures made using the methods. The methods utilize a thin layer of graphene between a surface of a Ge substrate, and an overlying resist layer. The graphene passivates the surface, preventing the formation of water-soluble native Ge oxides that can result in the lift-off of the resist during the development of the resist.
Issued Patent for “System and Methods for the Computation of the Forward and Inverse Discrete Periodic Radon Transform on GPUs and CPUs”
Patent No. 10,943,322, issue date March 9, 2021
Inventors: Marios Pattichis, Cesar Carranza, Daniel Llamocca Obregon
Described here are fast and a scalable algorithms and methods adaptable to available resources for computing (1) the DPRT on multicore CPUs by distributing the computation of the DPRT primary directions among the different cores, and (2) the DPRT on GPUs using parallel, distributed, and synchronized ray computations among the GPU cores with “ray” referring to one of the sums required for computing the DPRT or its inverse along a prime direction.
Issued Patent for “System and Methods for Parallel Processing Motion Estimation of Digital Videos”
Patent No. 10,949,985, issue date March 16, 2021
Inventors: Marios Pattichis, Victor Manuel Murray Herrera, Paul A. Rodriguez-Valderrama
An AM-FM representation is used to derive AM and FM based equations that can be applied to two consecutive frames in parallel to derive motion estimates. The multidimensional AM-FM representations provide general representations of non-stationary content in digital images. The AM-FM estimate captures single images and features of a video that can lead to different applications in image and video analysis, for example, computer-aided diagnosis in medical applications or monitoring micro-movements of rocky material in the pit slopes.
Issued Patent for “Privacy-Preserving, Mutual PUF-Based Authentication Protocol”
Patent No. 10,956,557, issue date March 23, 2021
This technology is currently licensed.
Inventors: James Plusquellic, Wenjie Che, Dylan Ismari
The present invention describes an authentication protocol using a Hardware-Embedded Delay PUF (“HELP”), which derives randomness from within-die path delay variations that occur along the paths within a hardware implementation of a cryptographic primitive, for example, the Advanced Encryption Standard (“AES”) algorithm or Secure Hash Algorithm 3 (“SHA-3”). The digitized timing values which represent the path delays are stored in a database on a secure server (verifier) as an alternative to storing PUF response bitstrings thereby enabling the development of an efficient authentication protocol that provides both privacy and mutual authentication.
Issued Patent for “Growth of Cubic Crystalline Phase Structure on Silicon Substrates and Devices Comprising the Cubic Crystalline Phase Structure”
Patent No. 10,957,819, issue date March 23, 2021
Inventors: Steven R.J. Brueck, Seung-Chang Lee, Christian Wetzel, Mark Durniak
A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes providing a substrate comprising a first material portion and a single crystal silicon layer on the first material portion. The substrate further comprises a major front surface, a major backside surface opposing the major front surface, and a plurality of grooves positioned in the major front surface. A buffer layer is deposited in one or more of the plurality of grooves. A semiconductor material is epitaxially grown over the buffer layer and in the one or more plurality of grooves, the epitaxially grown semiconductor material comprising a hexagonal crystalline phase layer and a cubic crystalline phase structure disposed over the hexagonal crystalline phase.
Issued Patent for “Activated GTPase-Based Assays and Kits for the Diagnosis of Sepsis and Other Infections”
Patent No. 10,962,541, issue date March 30, 2021
Inventors: Tione Buranda, Jacob Ongudi Agola, Scarlett Swanson, Angela Wandinger-Ness, Peter C. Simons, Virginie Bondu, Soumik BasuRay
In one embodiment, the invention provides a method of diagnosing sepsis or a virus-related infection (often a viral hemorrhagic fever infection) in a subject by detecting and measuring the level of a set of sepsis and virus infection-associated-GTPase biomarkers in a sample obtained from the subject using multiplexed flow cytometry. Related kits are also provided. In a preferred embodiment, the invention provides point of care diagnostic methods for determining an early stage sepsis or the severity of a virus infection, especially in a hospital or other setting.