The University of Iowa Research Foundation (URIF) has launched a new website offering a cleaner look and revamped content to help researchers and scholars more easily learn how to protect and commercialize their intellectual property. The website may be found at https://uirf.research.uiowa.edu/. The site was designed by Modei Akyea, web and design project manager in the Office of the Vice...

Boston Scientific Corp. has exercised its option to acquire the remaining shares of University of Iowa startup Farapulse Inc., which has developed a method for precisely and safely treating abnormal heart rhythms. Last September, Boston Scientific signed an investment agreement with an option to acquire Farapulse (originally Iowa Approach), a company founded by UI Assistant Professor of Internal...

Sarah Sapouckey and Hozhabr Mozafari barely had time to break in their office chairs as the University of Iowa Research Foundation’s first-ever post-doctoral fellows when COVID-19 sent them—and most everyone else on campus—home to work remotely. But that hasn’t slowed down their work to have faculty translate their research into commercial inventions and applications. Sapouckey joined the...

Cardio Diagnostics, a University of Iowa faculty startup, has commercially launched a new home clinical test for assessing patients’ heart disease risk. The product, the Epi+Gen CHD at-home sampling kit, was made possible through a license held by the UI Research Foundation. Heart disease and stroke are the first and fifth leading causes of death in the United States, respectively and are...

The Office of the Vice President for Research has secured institutional access to UIDPConnect 2020, which will offer an array of programming from Sept. 21-25 to help research faculty and staff develop and enhance partnerships with industry. UIDPConnect 2020 will include online sessions applicable to colleagues across a range of roles, from research leadership to contracting and sponsored research...

University of Iowa spinoff Cardio Diagnostics Inc., a company that assesses genetic and epigenetic DNA markers to monitor a patient's risk for heart disease, was recently selected a “one to watch” in this year’s inaugural Spinoff Prize, organized by Nature Research and Merck KGaA. The prize is intended to showcase and celebrate global excellence in the commercialization of research through the...

Given its dramatic impact on daily life at the University of Iowa, the global spread of COVID-19 makes it tempting to feel pessimistic. Certainly, this is an unprecedented and challenging time on a scale seen by few people alive today. But stories of quiet heroism, of people on campus and across the state going above and beyond to help one another during this crisis, are emerging every day. They...

In a joint venture with the Graduate College, the University of Iowa Research Foundation (UIRF), which helps campus inventors and creators protect and commercially license intellectual property (IP), has hired its first-ever post-doctoral student to support the office while acquiring first-hand experience of a potential and unique career path for new scientists. Sarah Sapouckey, who has a Ph.D. in...

A representative with Ximbio, the world’s largest non-profit dedicated to broadening access to life science research tools, will be available at the University of Iowa Research Foundation (UIRF) table during the Research Services Fair Oct. 10. The fair starts at 1 p.m. at Hancher Auditorium and concludes with a Science on Tap presentation from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Ximbio was created by Cancer...

A root canal can be challenging under the best of circumstances, for the patient and the dentist. While the patient may be happily oblivious to the experience thanks to the miracle of modern-day anesthetics, the endodontist faces twin challenges while rooting around in your mouth: thoroughly and quickly cleaning and disinfecting the area being treated, and promoting rapid healing. A new instrument...

A new journal article by a senior licensing associate in the University of Iowa Research Foundation (UIRF) argues that academic tech transfer activities contribute enormously to society and the economy, and that diminishing funding of those efforts jeopardize U.S. dominance in research-based discovery and innovation. Writing in the June 2019 issue of les Nouvelles, the journal of the Licensing...

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to sees it, did it happen? And if researchers make discoveries with commercial potential but don’t protect and license their inventions, will they ever reach the market? Unlikely, says University of Iowa Research Foundation (UIRF) Executive Director Marie Kerbeshian, who is also an assistant vice president in the Office of the Vice President for...