Indiana University has had a long-standing history in driving innovation, bringing groundbreaking inventions to market to benefit lives within Indiana and globally.

Here are the most recent patents awarded in the past two months from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:

• An “all-in-one” cartridge apparatus for mass spectrometry use for protein detection or quantitation: The developer is Nicholas Manicke, an associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology, and forensic and investigative sciences at the School of Science at IU Indianapolis. The cartridges preconcentrate targeted proteins from blood plasma, with the capability to digest the proteins into smaller peptides before ionization for mass spectrometry detection. The cartridge provides a simple-to-use, robust tool for clinical diagnostics for identifying proteins in samples.
• Compounds to treat neurological disorders: The developers are Samy Meroueh, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Fletcher White, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the IU School of Medicine; and Alexander Obukhov, an associate professor of anatomy, cell biology and physiology at the IU School of Medicine. There is a pressing need for non-addictive compounds that treat pain and avoid the drawbacks of existing pain medicines. The compounds target a small protein-protein interaction that is often hyperactive and leads to pain; by inhibiting that interaction, the compounds can be used to help treat neuropathic pain, chronic pain and epilepsy.
• A collaborative filtering method for health records: The developers are Titus Schleyer, a professor of biomedical informatics at the IU School of Medicine, and Xia Ning, a professor of biomedical informatics, computer science and engineering at Ohio State University. The method accesses, combines and filters relevant patient data from one or more electronic health records to improve patient diagnosis and treatment.
• Inhibitors to treat and prevent diseases such as pulmonary arterial hypertension: The developers are Roberto Machado, chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep and Occupational Medicine at the IU School of Medicine; and Angelia Lockett, an assistant professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine. The inhibitors have been shown to prevent and reverse vascular remodeling — a structural change that can lead to damage or rupture of arterial walls that occurs due to pulmonary arterial hypertension — significantly improving treatment for this disease.
• An improved cathode material for lithium-ion batteries: The developer is Jian Xie, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University in Indianapolis. The nanostructured graphene composite can provide high specific capacity and energy for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which improves their performance. Lithium-ion batteries have many uses in electronic devices, appliances, transportation, etc.
• A feeding analysis system for infants: Developed by Christopher Lang, a professor of mathematics at the School of Natural Sciences at IU Southeast. The system collects and analyzes nutritive sucking and feeding data to evaluate an infant’s feeding patterns to help with diagnosing and screening of diseases and for evaluating responses to therapy for patients with feeding difficulties. This device has wide applications in medical settings, hospitals, NICUs and clinics, as well as in child care centers and the home.

These innovations were disclosed to the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office. The mission of the office is to transfer IU innovations from lab to market for public benefit and global impact. The office files patents to facilitate commercialization of the innovation.