Tammy Kielian, Ph.D. – honored in 2012 as the Emerging Inventor – was named the 2015 Innovator of the Year during UNeMed’s annual Research Innovation Awards ceremony in October. UNeMed is UNMC’s technology transfer office.
Dr. Kielian, the Choudari Kommineni, D.V.M., Ph.D., Professor of Pathology in pathology and microbiology, is the first two-time winner of a major UNeMed award in the nine-year history of the program.
Her work on a potential cure for juvenile Batten disease and treatments for S. aureus biofilms made her an easy choice for the top award in 2015, said Michael Dixon, Ph.D., UNeMed president.
“Dr. Kielian is exactly the kind of scientist we love to celebrate during Innovation Week,” Dr. Dixon said. “Every day, she and her team do what it takes to move the science forward, and help us push her research into the real world where it has a chance to not just save lives, but save families.”
Her team is on the verge of clinical trials for two ways to fight juvenile Batten disease, a rare and fatal childhood neurodegenerative disease. One approach treats the disease using an existing class of drugs, but the other, a gene therapy treatment, is a potential cure.
In addition to this work, Dr. Kielian developed a new strategy for targeting the immune system to help prevent and treat Staphylococcus aureus biofilm infections.
Dr. Michael Wadman and Thang Nguyen.
Most promising new invention
UNeMed also honored all UNMC personnel who submitted a new invention, received a U. S. patent or licensed a technology. The Most Promising New Invention of 2015 was awarded to Michael Wadman, M.D., and Thang Nguyen, both of emergency medicine, for their innovative concepts of wound irrigation and oral airway management.
The irrigation system adjusts and maintains consistent pressure with solution to clean almost any wound. An airway management system, for emergency care providers, is still under development.
The awards ceremony was the culmination of Innovation and Research Week, a series of events to showcase and celebrate UNMC discoveries.
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Read more about Innovation Week.