USU Scientists Receive Stimulus-Funded Tech Commercialization Grants
Utah State University chemist Tom Chang and physicist Timothy Doyle are among the university’s first recipients of USTAR Technology Commercialization Grants, which are funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Chang, associate professor of organic chemistry, and Doyle, research associate professor in physics, were among five USU researchers selected from 16 submitters in the first round of program funding.
Chang’s project, “Efficacy Study of New Antibiotics,” will use the USTAR funds for scale-up synthesis of NEOF004, a novel, synthetic, aminoglycoside-derived antibiotic.
“We’re trying to stay ahead of dangerous bacteria that rapidly evolve resistance to known antibiotics,” Chang says. “We’re studying a new drug, modified from an existing antibiotic, that may be safe and effective in battling such gram-positive infections as MRSA.”
MRSA, short for “Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus,” is a virulent bacterium that causes serious infections often leading to permanent disability or death.
Doyle is developing “Radiation Detection and Localization Simulations,” a radiation detection technology to locate and identify controlled radioisotopes, including strategic nuclear materials.
“Current tools for detecting radioactive materials are big and bulky and require a small moving van for transport,” Doyle says. “We’re developing a system that could be easily carried by one person with a hand truck.”
Security efforts at airports, borders and port authorities will benefit from the new technology, he says.
“Current methods make it difficult to simultaneously identify and locate radioactive materials, such as weapons-grade uranium that could be smuggled into the country by one person,” Doyle says. “Our proposed method is safe, simple, cost-effective and easy to deploy.”
The system is based on the Compton effect, a well-known physics principle involving gamma ray scattering.
USTAR launched the TCG program in August 2009 to advance innovative technologies to market from Utah’s public colleges and universities. Upcoming grant proposal submission deadlines for the quarterly program are March 31 and June 30. For more information, visit USU’s USTAR TCG Web site.
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Contact: Tom Chang, 435-797-3545, tom.chang@usu.edu
Contact: Timothy Doyle, 435-797-8081, tim.doyle@usu.edu
Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto, 435-797-3517, maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu
Tom Chang, associate professor of organic chemistry, received a TCG grant to study a novel antibiotic that may be effective in combating dangerous bacteria resistant to existing drugs.
USU research physicist Tim Doyle is developing a cost-effective and easily portable method for locating and identifying radioisotopes, including strategic nuclear materials, in such sites as airports, ports and other border crossings.
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