Indiana University researchers foster innovation by bringing revolutionary inventions to the market, benefiting the lives of those in Indiana and beyond.

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

• Better health care search recommendations: The developers are Titus Schleyer, a professor of biomedical informatics at the IU School of Medicine, and Xia Ning, a former professor of computer information science on the Indianapolis campus and current faculty member at Ohio State University. The model for filter searches recommends terms based on clinicians’ previous searches and individual patient visits to aid clinicians in decision-making and improve patient care.
• A molecular memory device for magnetoelectronic devices: The developers are Ruihua Cheng, a professor of physics at the IU School of Science in Indianapolis and former IU research assistant Aaron Mosey. The molecular memory device delivers nonvolatile magnetoelectronic memory operations for spintronic and magnetoelectronic devices such as data storage devices or sensors. The device has low power consumption and has applications such as cache memory and transistors in flexible displays.
• Human ear stem-cell generation for hearing-loss drug discovery: The developers are Karl Koehler, adjunct assistant professor of otolaryngology, and Eri Hashino, the Ruth C. Holton Professor of Otology and the vice chair for research in the Department of Otolaryngology, both in the IU School of Medicine. Nearly half a billion people have hearing loss worldwide, but there are no effective pharmacological, genetic or cell therapies. This method can generate human inner-ear stem cells to be used for clinical cell therapy or drug discovery.
• Calculation of radiation doses to improve radiotherapy treatment: The developers are Huan Yao, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the IU School of Medicine; Feng-Ming Kong, a clinical professor at the University of Hong Kong School of Clinical Medicine; Jian-Yue Jin, managing director of radiation oncology at University Hospitals; and Hong Zhang, assistant professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The method provides calculation for an effective dose of radiation to circulating immune cells in cancer patients. The method can be incorporated into radiotherapy treatment planning systems to optimize a patient’s treatment plans and improve survival.
• Valvular heart disease treatment: The developer is Jingwu Xie, a former professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine. The method administers a therapeutically effective amount of at least one hedgehog pathway inhibitor to a patient in a single dose. The hedgehog signaling pathway is a network of signals in the body that play an important role in the regulation of cell growth and the proper formation of organs and tissues, but can also induce cardiac abnormalities. Utilizing the inhibitor lessens the severity of valvular heart disease and the duration of the illness.

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.