Oxford University offers 8 new licensing opportunities

8 Licensing Opportunities

Oxford scientists have developed 8 new inventions which are available for licensing and further commercial opportunities: 

1. Portable Water Purification Device
2. High capacity antennas for wireless communication devices
3. Automated text analysis tool
4. Photoelectrochemical ruler to size objects on the micron scale
5. Anisotropic, self-inflating tissue expander
6. Dual mode liquid crystal display technology
7. Novel microspheres for drug delivery to bone
8. Software programme to determine HLA Typing

1. Portable Water Purification Device

Oxford engineers have designed a revolutionary device, which is cheap, lightweight and will produce 8 litres per hour of potable water. This is enough to meet the drinking water needs of a group of up to 30 people. The device requires no power, pressure or pumping by hand: simply pour dirty water in at the top, and the gravity-driven device will remove all particulates before passing the water through a membrane that removes bacterial and viral contamination The clean water is stored, ready for use. A laboratory prototype has been successfully tested. The lightweight, gravity driven device for purifying water to potable standard, an ideal solution for emergency flood situations, is available for licensing.

The device is entirely made of plastic, and will fold up into a small, lightweight package for ease of transport (e.g. by helicopter) and storage (e.g. by households for emergencies). It is expected to have a useful lifetime of 2-3 months. These features make it ideal for emergency situations, and military applications are also likely.

Floods are the second-most common natural disaster worldwide. Provision of drinking water for flood and emergency victims is a major logistical challenge – and not just in the developing world. In the floods of June 2007, 350,000 people were left without water after a single water treatment station was flooded in Gloucestershire. Their water was supplied by tanker transport.

Of course boiling is one way to purify water, but energy is not always available in such situations. Small-scale water filter devices are already commercially available for purifying water to potable standard, but they have a number of drawbacks:

• It is often necessary to pump by hand to produce the water
• The volume produced is sufficient for one person’s drinking water requirements but not sufficient for washing or for a family group
• Iodine or another chemical purifying agent is often needed, giving a taste to the water

One available product uses osmosis to produce a sugary drink in a bag, but again this gives water with a taste, each bag is for single use only and the supply of the drink is limited in volume. Even so, such bags were extensively used in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the US.

Patent Status:

• This work is the subject of a patent application, and Isis is keen to talk to companies interested in developing the commercial opportunity that this represents.

Reference:

• Project Number 2710

 

2. High capacity antennas for wireless communication devices

Oxford researchers have developed a compact antenna design, which consists of three independent elements capable of transmitting and receiving all three possible orthogonal polarisations of an electromagnetic wave. The planar antenna assembly provides critical advantages for consumer electronics as compared to the conventional designs, which cannot be used in smaller devices because of size constraints.  The inventors are seeking to commercialise this technology. Furthermore, the Oxford antenna design can be configured in various ways depending on whether the link required is reliable and robust or of a high capacity.

The Telecommunications Industry Association has recently reported that the overall market for wireless-enabled devices in the US alone is expected to reach $24.5 billion by 2009.  The popularity of Internet Protocol Television and the advent of versatile wireless devices have triggered the demand for improved antenna design that is compatible with either high quality reliable signal or high bandwidth traffic. 

The proposed Oxford antenna design will conserve space, reduce cost and  provide easy integration into wireless devices such as: Mobile phones, Smart phones, Mobile TVs, PDAs, Laptops, Car windscreens and healthcare devices.

Patent status

• This work is the subject of a UK patent application, and Isis would like to talk to companies interested in commercialising this opportunity.

Reference:

• Project Number 3075

3. Automated text analysis tool

Parsing is the process of inferring the grammatical relations between words in a sentence. The Oxford researchers have developed a novel parser of naturally occurring text, which uses a sophisticated linguistic theory and exploits recent advances in Machine Learning to accurately and efficiently analyse text by understanding the grammatical structure of sentences. Isis would like to talk to companies interested in developing the commercial opportunity that this technology represents.

The Oxford parser is:

• Robust – does not break down when faced with novel sentence structures
• More linguistically advanced than existing robust parsers – uses a sophisticated grammar of English allowing recovery of long-range dependencies between words
• Efficient – 10x faster than comparable linguistically motivated parsers
• Accurate – recovers dependencies between words at over 85% accuracy on newspaper text

The parser has been used to analyse 1 billion words of text in less than 5 days using only 18 processors. The Oxford invention opens the door for sophisticated text processing on an unprecedented scale, for use in information retrieval and extraction, text mining, and any application that requires automated understanding of large volumes of text.

Growth in personal computing, affordable storage capacity and the Internet boom have fuelled an information explosion. With large and growing collections of digital media at our fingertips, the question arises how best to explore, learn from, and find information in these vast data repositories. Keyword query is the most widely used method for searching the web and other texts for information. However, the quality of keyword search is limited by the simplicity of the query itself, pervasive ambiguity in language, and the computer’s lack of knowledge of language and the world.   Development of more sophisticated linguistic tools is at the forefront of research in artificial intelligence and language processing. The Oxford technology represents a significant advance towards intelligent computational analysis of text, which could revolutionise search and lead to natural and more efficient methods for human-computer interaction.

Reference:

• Project Number 2804

 

4. Photoelectrochemical ruler to size objects on the micron scale

Oxford researchers have developed a new approach to the sizing of objects on the micron scale using the spatial sensitivity of electrochemical measurements.  The technology which could be used to measure nanowires is available for commercialisation.

Voltammetry is an electroanalytical method used in analytical chemistry and industrial processes.  Information about an analyte is obtained by measuring current as potential is varied.  The method has long been concerned with temporal measurements, but developments have seen it used to probe spatial domains.  Voltammetric measurements have been used to determine the size and precise location of inert particles of known shape.  More recently, the technique has been used to address the issue of particle shape.  In all these developments the objects of interest have been submerged in solution to facilitate the use of voltammetrically driven concentration profiles to make the necessary measurements.  Oxford researchers have shown that voltammetry can be used for sizing objects without the need for them to be submerged in a solution.

The white light of a xenon lamp is reflected perpendicular to the surface of the electrode, over which the microwire is placed. A microwire of well-defined dimensions is positioned across a regular array of identically sized microbands. The photoelectrochemical reaction only takes place at illuminated areas of the electrode and not at electrode areas that are covered by the shadow of the microwire; thus, the generated photocurrent provides a reliable measurement for the size of a microwire. Microwires ranging from 50 to 1000 microns have been measured. The inventors are confident that this concept could be expanded to measure nanowires if the width of the microbands and the separating surfaces were adjusted accordingly.

Patent Status:

• The technology is the subject of a UK patent application.

Reference:

• Project Number 3391

5. Anisotropic, self-inflating tissue expander

Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed a novel tissue expander, for use in reconstructive surgery, with the ability to expand in only one direction.

A novel, anisotropic, self-inflating, hydrogel tissue expander has been developed using characterised compounds that can be machined or shaped appropriately for the desired application.  The device, which can be sterilised, markedly increases the potential indications for which this restorative tool may be employed.  By controlling both the anisotropic processing technique and the device composition, it is possible to accurately tailor the ultimate expansion ratio and the expansion rate within a wide range The device may be further enhanced by the incorporation of drugs, growth factors or radio-opacifiers in order to tailor the device to specific clinical indications.  The technical feasibility and anisotropic efficacy of the device has been determined by means of a preclinical study.

Tissue expanders are essential in providing extra soft tissue for a wide range of reconstructive techniques.  However they have a number of disadvantages.  Inflatable silicone balloons are bulky and unsuitable for small delicate areas.  They must be regularly inflated by means of a filling port, which is both time demanding and painful for the patient and there is a risk that the device may leak.  Self-inflating hydrogel expanders have heralded a significant advance.  However they expand isotropically at an uncontrolled rate and have limited expansion limits.  Therefore their use in specific applications such as cleft palate surgery, syndactyly (fused digit) release and facial reconstruction has been limited.  There is a clinical need for an anisotropic device, offering unidirectional and controlled expansion, especially in confined anatomical locations.

Patent Status:

• This work is the subject of patent application, and Isis would like to talk to companies interested in developing the commercial opportunity that this represents.

Reference:

• Project Number 1514

 

6. Dual mode liquid crystal display technology

A liquid crystal display device with an ability to switch between a fast response mode and a power saving mode has been developed by Oxford inventors. The liquid crystal display (LCD) device has recorded a fast LC response time of less than 1 ms. Furthermore, the device can be switched to a low power bi-stable reflective mode that requires no power at all to keep a particular image displayed on the screen for a very long period of time. The fast transmissive mode is capable of being driven with a colour sequencing backlight where a full colour cycle takes less than 3 ms. 

Display Search estimates the worldwide market for Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) to be in excess of $90 billion by 2009.  However, LCDs face stiff competition from other flat panel display technologies such as Plasma, Projection and Organic Light Emitting Diodes. Therefore LCDs must continue to improve in order to maintain leadership. State-of-the-art LCDs have slow Liquid Crystal (LC) response times, which inhibit overall performance.  An improvement in this area can potentially increase the overall brightness, colour gamut, resolution and efficiency of the display.

The invention makes it possible to eliminate the colour filters in an LCD, opening up two exciting opportunities:

• Improved performance
• Increase in the overall brightness
• Increase in the device resolution
• Reduction in the power consumption
• Manufacturing simplicity
• Reduction in the transistor elements by a third
• Reduction in the number of processing steps

Patent Status:

• This work is the subject of a UK patent application, and Isis would like to talk to companies interested in commercialising this opportunity. Please contact the Isis Project Manager to discuss this further.

Reference:

• Project Number 2813

 

7. Novel microspheres for drug delivery to bone

The Oxford inventors have developed a quick and simple method to load a wide range of drugs within calcium phosphate coated poly (DL-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres. Using hydroxyapatite as a coating material around a core of PLGA confers novel benefits to the microspheres.

This novel structure provides dual functionality in a single microsphere; namely osteoconductivity and high drug entrapment efficiency. This translates into microspheres that target bone directly, encourage new bone growth and provide controlled drug release over several weeks as the microspheres degrade. To realise these properties in a single microsphere is a significant advancement on current drug delivery mechanisms and a prerequisite in the design of suitable bone delivery devices.

The microspheres provide a flexible delivery mechanism that can be tailored to suit the needs of individual drugs and disease states. There is minimal drug leakage or polymer degradation and it is feasible to manipulate the rate of drug release and the size of the particles by making adjustments during the manufacturing process. The microspheres lend themselves to local drug delivery either by direct injection or implantation into bone, addition into bone cement during a surgical procedure or as a coating on metal implants. The components used to create the microspheres are FDA approved materials. It is also possible to deliver combinations of drugs or sequential release of different drugs via the microspheres – for example both an antibiotic and an analgesic, or a combination of anti-cancer drugs, or a combination of growth factors. This releases multiple drugs in a single step at sites proximal to the bone disease thereby minimising the number of invasive procedures performed on patients.

The entrapment of a drug in a polymeric microsphere is not a novel concept. However, current methods to achieve this are far from satisfactory because the microspheres result in low encapsulation efficiency and drug denaturation. There is a clear need to develop an efficient drug delivery system which overcomes these challenges.

Patent Status:

• This work is the subject of patent application, and Isis would like to talk to companies interested in developing the commercial opportunity that this represents. Please contact the Isis Project Manager to discuss this further.

Reference:

• Project Number 3303

8. Software programme to determine HLA Typing

A novel, reliable and highly cost-effective method of gaining an understanding of the structure of an individual’s HLA profile has been developed by Oxford scientists.

An algorithm and statistical software for probabilistic prediction of alleles at classical HLA loci has been developed that allows the determination of the HLA serotype presented by an individual, without the current array of expensive, and often inaccurate, typing methods and technologies.  Tissue typing is used in a wide range of biological and medical fields, particularly in relation to screening individuals for transplantation etc.  To HLA type an individual currently costs approximately £500, making screening programmes particularly costly.  Further, while routine serological methods are reliable for HLA class I typing, they are currently uncertain for HLA class II typing partly owing to the poor quality of the antisera used.  Since HLA class II typing is important for BMT, a more accurate method for HLA II typing is needed.  If the mutation rate and the recombination frequency at any given locus are known then it is possible to calculate the likely path through the gene.  This means that only a minimal set of markers are required for a prediction of the complete region.  This avoids the use of tagging methods that require knowledge of what has been investigated previously and expands the possibilities for typing in a highly cost-effective manner.  

Available for licensing is a software programme, which allows the mapping and prediction – with a minimum of between 90 and 95% accuracy of an individual’s HLA II type, based on any of the widely available DNA chip platforms.  For any screening programme, this allows a huge reduction in the number of individuals who actually have to be typed, and consequently a considerable cost saving.  This will be of particular interest to drug companies, manufacturers of SNP arrays, users of SNP arrays and those involved in the investigation and treatment of autoimmune disease. It will also be of interest to those involved in understanding and predicting prognosis and disease progression, and to drug developers.  It also has considerable application in vaccine trial covariance and clinical study understanding.

Patent Status:

• This work is the subject of patent application, and Isis would like to talk to companies interested in developing the commercial opportunity that this represents. Please contact Dr David Phillips, Project Manager, at Isis Innovation Ltd. to discuss this further.

Reference:

• Project Number 337