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...

A growing number of Iowa-based companies trace their roots to federally funded University of Iowa research that helps them create jobs, generate wages, boost the local and state economy, and produce new knowledge, inventions, and services, according to a recent report by The Science Coalition (TSC). The report, “Sparking Economic Growth: How Fundamental Research Drives Economic Growth and...

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...

Research on faulty genetic material by University of Iowa (UI) Carver College of Medicine professor Christopher Ahern recently was licensed by Tevard Biosciences, a company that is seeking to treat certain forms of epilepsy. However, the innovative UI treatment approach being developed by Tevard holds the promise of becoming a platform with medical applications far beyond those for epilepsy. The...

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...

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has named University of Iowa cystic fibrosis and gene therapy researcher John Engelhardt, PhD, a 2019 Fellow. Engelhardt, who is professor and head of anatomy and cell biology in the UI Carver College of Medicine and director of the UI Center for Gene Therapy, is recognized for his work in developing gene therapies to treat cystic fibrosis (CF). The...

A University of Iowa (UI) spin-out company developing a drug-delivering mechanism to prevent the onset of post-traumatic osteoarthritis recently earned second place—and $25,000—in the 2019 John Pappajohn Iowa Entrepreneurial Venture Competition. CartilaGen, which licensed university intellectual property through the UI Research Foundation (UIRF), focuses on preventative therapies for the onset of...