MILWAUKEE – The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Research Foundation (UWMRF) announced the award of $500,000 in new catalyst grants with support from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. The funding will seed seven new research projects ranging from new tools to aid in drug discovery, to a method of water monitoring using fiber optics, to models for more accurate short-term prediction of wind speed, which could be used to advance wind-generated power.
The funding for the latest projects brings the total funds awarded under the UWM Research Foundation’s Catalyst Grant Program to more than $1.3 million.
The Catalyst Grant Program is helping foster basic discovery at UWM and bring those discoveries closer to commercialization. Several important outcomes from the program to date include:
* License agreement completed for biomedical start-up company.
* 33 new inventions disclosed as a result of Bradley support.
* Three new patent applications filed related to Bradley phase 1 support.
* $2 million in new grant proposals related to Bradley phase 1 projects.
The following seven proposals were chosen:
Peter Geissinger, associate professor, chemistry
“Fiber Optic Sensor for Water Quality Monitoring”
Guilherme Indig, associate professor, chemistry
“Environmentally Friendly Pigments”
Valerica Raicu, assistant professor, physics
“Investigating Protein Interactions for Drug Development”
Rebecca Klaper, Shaw assistant scientist, WATER Institute
“Tool for Evaluating Toxicity of Nanomaterials”
Lei Ying, assistant professor, electrical engineering & computer science
“High Speed Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)”
Jun Zhang, professor, electrical engineering & computer science
“Automated Patient Search for Breast Cancer Trials”
Joe Bockhorst, assistant professor, electrical engineering & computer science
“Improved Wind Forecasting Methods”
“The Bradley Foundation’s origins are in innovation and entrepreneurial drive, which are the legacy of Lynde and Harry Bradley,” said Michael W. Grebe, President and CEO of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. “It is in this spirit that we support these groundbreaking research projects at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.”
“These projects represent the very best in terms of scientific merit and public benefit, commercial opportunities, and they are helping to build UWM’s research clusters,” said UWMRF President Brian Thompson. “We are grateful for the vision of the Bradley Foundation in helping us support this promising work.”
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(CONTACT: Brian Thompson, 414-229-3397, briant@uwmfdn.org.)
