UNM Rainforest Innovations

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) recently issued eleven U.S. patents to UNM Rainforest Innovations during the months of July, August, and September for technologies invented at the University of New Mexico. The patents, issued during UNM Rainforest Innovations’ 2021 fiscal first quarter, are for a variety of technologies created by researchers in the Departments of Pharmacy; Molecular Genetics & Microbiology; Pathology; Chemical & Nuclear Engineering; Electrical & Computer Engineering; Physics & Astronomy; the Center for Biomedical Engineering, the Center for High Technology Materials; the Center for Emerging Energy Technologies; and the Ceramic & Composite Materials Center.

Issued Patent for “Dry Powder Nebulizer”
Patent No. 10,702,664, issue date July 7, 2020
This technology is currently licensed.
Inventors: Nicola Jeanne Maynard, Hugh D.C. Smyth

This technology describes a dry powder delivery device that may be configured to provide micronized dry powder particles to airways of a user. The device may include a cylindrical container delimiting a chamber containing at least one magnetically-responsive object, a motor external to said chamber, a magnet external to the chamber and rotatably coupled with the motor, and an outflow member configured to direct airflow to a user. The magnetically-responsive object may be coated with micronized dry powder particles, and the motor may be operable to rotate the magnet about an axis. Rotation of the magnet creates a magnetic field that causes the magnetically-responsive object to move in response to the magnetic field and collide with a side wall of the container to deaggregate the dry powder particles and aerosolize the dry powder in the chamber.

Issued Patent for “System and Methods for Random Parameter Filtering”
Patent No. RE48,083, issue date July 7, 2020
Inventors: Pradeep Sen, Aliakbar Darabi

The invention produces a higher quality image from a rendering system based on a relationship between the output of a rendering system and the parameters used to compute them. Specifically, noise is removed in rendering by estimating the functional dependency between sample features and the random inputs to the system. Mutual information is applied to a local neighborhood of samples in each part of the image. This dependency is then used to reduce the importance of certain scene features in a cross-bilateral filter, which preserves scene detail. The results produced by the invention are computed in a few minutes thereby making it reasonably robust for use in production environments.

Issued Patent for “Rapid Design of Deployable Antennas for CubeSats”
Patent No. 10,733,335, issue date August 4, 2020
Inventors: Joseph Costantine, Sergio Pellegrino, Maria Sakovsky

This invention describes a system and method for designing an antenna wherein a plurality of antenna designs are visually compared using performance metric plots that distinguish between geometries that meet all requirements and designs that do not.

Issued Patent for “Treatment of Autophagy-Based Disorders and Related Pharmaceutical Compositions, Diagnostic and Screening Assays and Kits”
Patent No. 10,736,910, issue date August 11, 2020
Inventors: Vojo P. Deretic, Eliseo F. Castillo

In one embodiment, the invention provides a method of treating a subject suffering from a Mycobacterium infection by administering to the subject a therapeutically-effective amount of a degradative autophagy agonist or a secretory autophagy antagonist. In another embodiment, the invention provides a method of treating a subject suffering from one or more diseases selected from the group consisting of a Mycobacterium infection, an inflammatory disorder, an immune disorder, a cancer and a neurodegenerative disorder by administering to the subject a therapeutically-effective amount of a TBK-1 antagonist (e.g. BX795 or amlexanox). Related pharmaceutical compositions, diagnostic and screening assays and kits are also provided.

Issued Patent for “Systems and Methods for Measuring Absorption Coefficients of Doped Optical Fibers”
Patent No. 10,739,229, issue date August 11, 2020
Inventors: Mostafa Peysokhan, Arash Mafi

Described here is a system for measuring an absorption coefficient of a doped optical fiber that may include: a laser source configured to transmit laser light at a selectable wavelength; a single-mode optical fiber including an end configured to splice to the doped optical fiber; two or more multimode fibers at a side of the doped optical fiber, spaced apart along the side of the doped optical fiber, configured to collect spontaneous emissions from the side of the doped optical fiber; and/or a photodiode or power meter connected to the two or more multimode fibers. Also described is a method for measuring an absorption coefficient of a doped optical fiber that may include: collecting, from a side of the doped optical fiber, an emission spectrum using two or more multimode fibers; and/or calculating the absorption coefficient form using the emission spectrum and McCumber theory.

Issued Patent for “Method of Diagnosing and/or Monitoring Therapy of Atherosclerosis”
Patent No. 10,744,214, issue date August 18, 2020
This technology is currently licensed.
Inventor: Jeffrey P. Norenberg

The present invention is directed to novel non-invasive diagnostic took to dispose numerous disease states and/or conditions. The presets invention, represents a clear advance in the art which presently relies on tissue biopsy for diagnoses of these disease states. The novel imaging probe is capable of detecting infected cells, as well tissue. The methods described herein are able to diagnose, treat and/or monitor the therapy of numerous diseases and conditions including atherosclerosis, atherothrombosis, cerebral vascular disease, cerebral ischemia, cerebral infarct and meningitis as well as pneumonitis, pericarditis, multiple sclerosis, lupus erythematosus and pancreatitis, among others.

Issued Patent for “Structure, Synthesis, and Applications for Poly(phenylene) Ethynylenes (PPEs)”
Patent No. 10,750,746, issue date August 25, 2020
This technology is currently licensed.
Inventors: David G. Whitten, Thomas S. Corbitt, Ying Wang, Linnea K. Ista, Kirk S. Schanze, Anand Parthasarathy, Eunkyung Ji, Motokatsu Ogawa, Dimitri Dascier, Eric H. Hill

The present disclosure provides novel poly(phenylene ethynylene) (PPE) compounds, methods for synthesizing these compounds, and materials and substances incorporating these compounds. The various PPEs show antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal activity.

Issued Patent for “Light-Emitting Device having Self-Cooled Semiconductor Laser”
Patent No. 10,770,861, issue date September 8, 2020
Inventors: Marek Osinski, Gennady A. Smolyakov

This invention describes a light-emitting device having a self-cooled semiconductor laser having a laser cavity.

Issued Patent for “Treatment and Prevention of Fungal Infections”
Patent No. 10,772,851, issue date September 15, 2020
This technology is currently licensed.
Inventors: Aaron Kurt Neumann, Harry Pappas, David G. Whitten, Rina Sylejmani, Matthew Graus, Kirk S. Schanze

Various embodiments disclosed relate to treatment of fungal infections. The present invention provides a method of treating a fungal infection including contacting a fungus including a .beta.-glucan that is at least partially masked from immune system detection with a therapeutically effective amount of a compound that at least partially unmasks the .beta.-glucan to increase immunogenicity of the fungus.

Issued Patent for “Resonance Avalanche Photodiodes for Dynamic Biasing”
Patent No. 10,777,698, issue date September 15, 2020
Inventors: Majeed Hayat, Payman Zarkesh-Ha

Described here are systems and methods for implementing a resonance circuit, including an avalanche photodiode, in which a resonance frequency of the resonance circuit is matched with the frequency of a dynamic biasing signal of the avalanche photodiode, can be used in a variety of applications. In various embodiments, a method for blocking and/or compensating current injection associated with the parasitic capacitance of APDs operated under dynamic biasing may be substantially realized by the matching of the resonance frequency of a resonance circuit including the avalanche photodiode with the frequency of an applied dynamic biasing signal. Additional systems and methods are described that can be used in a variety of applications.

Issued Patent for “Biological and Stand-Alone Super-Capacitors for Water Treatment”
Patent No. 10,784,548, issue date September 22, 2020
Inventors: Carlo Santoro, Alexey Serov, Plamen B. Atanassov; Francesca Soavi, Catia Arbizzani

This invention describes supercapacitive bioelectrical systems (SC-BESs) wherein the anode and cathode act as electrodes for a self-powered internal supercapacitor. The BES may further be enhanced by the use of optimized catalysts and enzymes to increase cell voltage and the use of a third capacitive electrode (AdE) short-circuited to the BES cathode and coupled to the BES anode to improve the power output of the self-powered internal supercapacitor.

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