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Surface Treatments of Perovskite Films to Improve Solar Cell Performance
20-0083 – Addressing long-term operational stability is a key hurdle to the widespread adoption of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Defects such nanocrystals and amorphous regions are known to initiate the degradation of perovskite films. Removal of these defective surface layers will enhance perovskite stability and improve their performance in PSCs. The present invention is directed to methods for... Read More
Perovskite-filled Membrane Composites for Flexible X-Ray Detectors
19-0091 – Flexible X-Ray detectors are increasingly sought due to their potential for reduced dose and their adaptability to unconventional imaging conditions in medical, industrial, and security settings. The present invention provides such highly sensitive, large-area X-Ray detectors based on perovskite-filled membrane (PFM) composites. These materials are formed by loading perovskite solution into... Read More
Non-twist Cable Braiding System
21-0028 – Current cable-braiding systems suffer from a trade-off between pitch (i.e., tightness) and the amount of twisting in the resulting assemblies because the carriers to which the cable strands are attached also rotate as they move around the central axis of the braiding machine. This carrier rotation induces a twist in the cable strand that is compounded with additional revolutions around the... Read More
Ultra-Long-Acting Implantable Drug Delivery System
18-0089 – HIV continues to be a serious global public health issue and is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. While there is no cure for HIV, antiretroviral therapy remains effective at controlling the virus and preventing transmission to other people. Antiretroviral drugs are used in the prevention and treatment of HIV and are often used in combination to combat against resistance to any one... Read More
Method of Improving Efficacy of CAR T Therapy
20-0049 – CAR T cell therapies have achieved siginficant success against hematological malignancies, but have shown limited efficacy in solid tumors. This is generally attributed to the immunosuppresive tumor microenvironment (TME). UNC investigators have demonstrated that CAR T cell persitance and traficking can be significantly improved by the administration of a STING agonist in combination with the... Read More
Chimeric Dengue Vaccine
19-0125 – Mosquito-borne Dengue Virus (DENV) is a major global public health concern with ~400 million new cases of DENV infections annually. There are four serotypes of DENV and exposure to one serotype does not guarantee immunity from infection by the other three serotypes. This is a significant problem as previous DENV infection puts individuals at an increased risk of developing hemorrhagic fever... Read More
2/4 Dengue Chimeric Vaccine
17-0116 – Mosquito-borne Dengue Virus (DENV) is a major global public health concern with ~400 million new cases of DENV infections annually. There are four serotypes of DENV and exposure to one serotype does not guarantee immunity from infection by the other three serotypes. This is a significant problem as previous DENV infection puts individuals at an increased risk of developing hemorrhagic fever... Read More
1/2 Chimeric Dengue Vaccine
14-0002 – Mosquito-borne Dengue Virus (DENV) is a major global public health concern with ~400 million new cases of DENV infections annually. There are four serotypes of DENV and exposure to one serotype does not guarantee immunity from infection by the other three serotypes. This is a significant problem as previous DENV infection puts individuals at an increased risk of developing hemorrhagic fever... Read More
4/3 Dengue Chimeric Vaccine
14-0150 – Mosquito-borne Dengue Virus (DENV) is a major global public health concern with ~400 million new cases of DENV infections annually. There are four serotypes of DENV and exposure to one serotype does not guarantee immunity from infection by the other three serotypes. This is a significant problem as previous DENV infection puts individuals at an increased risk of developing hemorrhagic fever... Read More
Dengue Vaccine
12-0090 – Mosquito-borne Dengue Virus (DENV) is a major global public health concern with ~400 million new cases of DENV infections annually. There are four serotypes of DENV and exposure to one serotype does not guarantee immunity from infection by the other three serotypes. This is a significant problem as previous DENV infection puts individuals at an increased risk of developing hemorrhagic fever... Read More
3 Point Removable Partial Dentures Design Educational Software
20-0159 – This educational software was developed by faculty in the UNC Adams School of Dentistry and the University of Iowa College of Dentistry, to help facilitate remote learning and schedule flexibility for the pre-clinical education of removable partial dentures. The RPD Design software is available for licensing for educational use, by clicking the appropriate link on the right. Included in the... Read More
3 Point Anatomy Builder Educational Software
20-0160 – This educational software was developed by faculty in the UNC Adams School of Dentistry and the University of Iowa College of Dentistry, to help facilitate remote learning and schedule flexibility for the pre-clinical education of dental anatomy. The Anatomy Builder software is available for licensing for educational use, by clicking the appropriate link on the right. Modules included with... Read More
Local Anesthesia for Procedures on Dental and Oral Structures Seminar Series
21-0062 – This virtual educational seminar series was created by clinicians from the UNC Adams School of Dentistry. The seminars are well suited to complement the local anesthesia coursework and existing texts, such as Malamed’s Handbook of Local Anesthesia, that are taught in Dental Hygiene, Dental Assisting, Dental Student, Medical Student, or Clinical Graduate Training programs. The individual... Read More
Nitrous Oxide/Benzodiazepines Anesthesia Seminar Series
21-0069 – This virtual educational seminar series was created by clinicians from the UNC Adams School of Dentistry. The seminars are well suited to complement the coursework for anesthesia with nitrous oxide or benzodiazepines that are taught in Dental Hygiene, Dental Assisting, Dental Student, Medical Student, or Clinical Graduate Training programs. The individual seminars can be viewed alone or in... Read More
Low-profile device for repeated intermittent or continuous drainage of urine from the bladder
20-0152 – Background Urine is produced continuously by the kidneys and then travels to the bladder where it is stored until the complex process of voiding occurs. The first step that occurs during normal voiding is a coordination between the muscles and nerves of the bladder and the central nervous system, to sense a full bladder, and then signal the simultaneous relaxation and contraction of specific... Read More
Engineered Lactate Oxidoreductases
20-0158 – L-lactate is an important biomarker for clinical diagnostics, fitness monitoring in athletes, and food quality control. In clinical settings, such as surgery, L-lactate concentration is measured to diagnosis lactic acidosis, which can be caused by tissue hypoxia, drugs, toxins, or other underlying diseases, such as liver disease, respiratory distress, or sepsis. Additionally, elevated... Read More
Biocompatible film for localized treatment of vulvar pain disorders
19-0083 – Background Vulvodynia is a chronic pain disorder characterized by vulva burning and soreness in the absence of a skin condition, infection, or external factors. Vestibulodynia is specifically pain felt on touch at the opening of the vagina, otherwise symptoms are absent. Pain is commonly described with insertion of a tampon or vaginal penetration, such as with sexual intercourse. It is... Read More
A method of sensory augmentation for balance rehabilitation
17-0085 – Background Neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease are associated with motor impairment. This loss of motor control produces gait and postural disorders and often results in falls and loss of ambulation. Unfortunately, these indications are also commonly observed in elderly people. Pharmacological treatments remain the most common... Read More
Contact Lens for Detecting Intraocular Pressure
20-0034 – Background Glaucoma is a progressive eye condition that damages the optic nerve leading to vision loss or blindness. The primary treatable risk factor for glaucoma patients is increased intraocular pressure (IOP). IOP is measured regularly in eye exams to screen, diagnose and assess treatment responses for glaucoma. Current devices used by ophthalmologists to measure IOP, such as the Goldman... Read More
Monolithic Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells via Blade Coating
19-0147 – Existing monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells rely on silicon with a polished front-side surface to accommodate solution-processed deposition of the perovskite top cell. This flat front surface of the silicon bottom cell, however, limits the amount of light absorbed by the tandem device and increases manufacturing costs due to the required polishing steps. Previous efforts to... Read More
De Novo Compartment Deconvolution and Weight Estimation of Tumor Tissue Samples Using Decoder
19-0094 – Tumors are mixtures of different compartments. While global gene expression analysis profiles the average expression of all compartments in a sample, identifying the specific contribution of each compartment remains a challenge. With the increasing recognition of the importance of non-neoplastic components, the ability to breakdown the gene expression contribution of each is critical.... Read More
LCK and SHP1 Engineering in CAR-T Cells
19-0107 – CD19-specific CAR-T cells encoding either CD28 or 4-1BB costimulatory endodomains promote antitumor activity in patients with B cell malignancies. Enhancing the kinetics of antitumor activity of 4-1BB, while preserving their longevity, may be critical in controlling rapidly progressive solid tumors. CD28 costimulation is generally associated with a very rapid tumor clearance as compared with... Read More
IL23 Cytokine T Cell Engineering for Cancer Immunotherapy
19-0145 – The development of inducible and selective engineering processes supporting T cell expansion and survival remain critical in adoptive T cell therapies in solid tumors. IL23 is a heterodimeric cytokine that consists of p19 and p40 subunits, both expressed by activated macrophages and dendritic cells. Activation-induced expression of the p19 subunit in T cells couples the release and activity... Read More
Methods And Compositions For CSPG4 Chimeric Antigen Receptor Targeting Cancer Cells
18-0087 – Glioblastoma (GBM) is a lethal primary brain cancer, surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy have little impact on survival. CSPG4 is an attractive target for immunotherapy in GBM, it is highly expressed in GBM with limited intratumoral heterogeneity little expression in the normal brain parenchyma. CSPG4 is expressed in considerable amounts not only in GBM but also other tumors including... Read More
DeepCGH: 3D Computer-Generated Holography using Deep Learning
20-0056 – Existing algorithms for computer-generated holography (CGH) rely on iterative approaches that require selecting between computation speed and hologram accuracy. This built-in tradeoff is increasingly incompatible with emerging CGH applications in optogenetics and virtual reality that demand production of high-resolution holograms on short time scales. The present UNC invention is a CGH... Read More
Subunit Vaccine Against Dengue Virus
20-0009 – Current approaches to Dengue Virus (DENV) vaccine design all make use of live attenuated viruses. This appraoch suffers from difficulties in desinging a vaccine formulation that can eleicit a balanced immune response against all four serotypes of DENV. Subunit vaccines, composed only of the immungenic E protein found on the surface of the DENV viral capsid, present an alternative appraoch to... Read More
Ultrasound Mediated Delivery of Therapeutics and Disruption of Drug Resistant Biofilms
20-0102 – Background Biofilms are aggregates of microorganisms embedded in a self-produced extracellular matrix and can attach to each other or to surfaces, including a patient’s skin or soft tissue, or an implanted medical device, such as a catheter. Microorganisms that make up biofilms can include bacteria, fungi, and protists. Biofilms are prevalent in many infections and are resistant to... Read More
Brain Infusion System Safety Sheath
19-0045 – Convection enhanced delivery (CED) is a method for delivering therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier to the brain and central nervous system. CED can be used to treat various disease, including brain tumors, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, and is generally characterized as a minimally invasive technique. While CED has shown some promise in clinical applications, the current... Read More
Grow-Up Declarative Memory Task
19-0068 – It is difficult to test a cognitive ability across development, because tasks needed to test cognitive ability evolve as the child grows. To solve this problem, UNC has designed and developed events for testing infant and toddler declarative memory that grow with the child. This product consists of 3-D printed objects and can be as simple as assembling a box and hammering a nail into the... Read More
Rapidly Synthesized Radiolabeled PET Tracers with Improved Biological Characteristics
16-0078 – Background Positron-emission tomography (PET) is a medical imaging technique that utilizes radiolabeled tracers to aid in disease diagnosis for oncology, neurology, cardiology, and infectious diseases. PET imaging allows for detailed characterization of physiological processes, such as metabolism and blood flow. Most often PET is utilized by oncologists for cancer diagnosis and identification... Read More
Surgical Bed and Ligature Holder for Generating a Mouse Model to Study Periodontitis
18-0024 – Periodontal disease results in a loss of gingival tissue, periodontal ligament, and is a major contributor to tooth loss in adults. It is estimated that nearly 50% of the adult population in the United States is affected by periodontal disease. Experimental animal models for periodontal disease are essential for understanding the origin and evolution of the pathology in humans and are... Read More
Early breast cancer screening method for differentiating malignant from benign lesions
20-0104 – Current ultrasound-based systems are not able to differentiate between malignant or benign breast lesions, which is an important aspect of early breast cancer screening. Early screening and identification of malignant tissue is important for patients to benefit from successful treatments. Researchers in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC Chapel Hill have developed an ultrasound... Read More
Quantitative Viscoelastic Response (QVisR) Ultrasound to Diagnose, Treat, and Monitor Disease in Patients
20-0010 – Diagnosis of a disease using non-invasive biomarkers is a much safer alternative compared to surgical methods. Non-invasive biomarkers also accelerate the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of patients. Researchers in the Department of Biomedical Engineering have developed a method, termed Quantitative Viscoelastic Response (QVisR) ultrasound, to quantitatively assess underlying tissue... Read More
Double-Profile Intersection (DoPIo) Elastography to Diagnose, Treat, and Monitor Disease in Patients
20-0015 – Palpation is a simple strategy for diagnosis that has remained a powerful tool in the modern age. In applications such as cardiac massaging, identification of cysts, or self-examination in the breast and testes, the viscoelastic nature of human tissue has long been exploited as a method to identify signs for formalized medical examinations. However, traditional palpation is limited to... Read More
Interconnection Layers for Perovskite-Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells
18-0158 – Fullerene / SnO2-x interconnection layers for perovskite-perovskite tandem solar cells are shown to improve power conversion efficiency while simplifying device fabrication. These interconnection layers obviate the need for sputtered ITO layers, and they form Ohmic contact with both the narrow band gap and wide band gap sub-cells of the tandem devices. This invention challenges previous... Read More
Ionic Fluorogels for Remediation of Per- and Polyfluorinated Alkyl Substances from Water
19-0149 – This invention describes ionic fluorogel resins that remove per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) from water with high affinity and selectivity. The resin design relies on a fluorophilic resin matrix material that is decorated with ionic functional groups. The fluorophilic backbone selectively partitions PFAS into the resin, and the ionic functional groups sequester charged PFAS... Read More
Enhanced Virtual Crossmatch
20-0038 – In the United States, there are approximately 110,000 people in need of a kidney transplant, 13 of which die every day before finding a donor match. Successful transplantation, particularly of kidneys, is contingent on the compatibility of donor antigens and the recipient’s antibodies. Current methods for determining compatibility via a crossmatch is quite cumbersome and dependent on the... Read More
Muscle Vibration Stimulator
19-0114 – This device provides vibration designed to stimulate skeletal muscle and sensory neurons during rehabilitation of orthopaedic injuries and disease (initially demonstrated in quadriceps and knees). The device is patient-portable, has a large contact area, provides localized effect, and is variably adjustable. UNC has also recently demonstrated that this device improves gait biomechanics... Read More
Advanced Disinfectant Formulations
18-0097 – The Water Institute at UNC has developed novel chemical disinfectant formulations to enhance inactivation of protozoan cysts and other chlorine-resistant pathogens with particular emphasis on improving water safety in emergencies and low and middle income settings. Based on the results of this work to date, UNC has developed at least three paths to rapidly achieving significant reduction in... Read More
Hogel-free Holography
18-0160 – UNC has developed a software simulation (novel algorithmic method) and benchmarking for production of holographic (3D) images in an augmented reality environment. Near-eye displays using holographic projection are emerging as an exciting display approach for virtual and augmented reality at high-resolution without complex optical setups — shifting optical complexity to computation. The UNC... Read More
Nanofibers for targeted treatment of aortic aneurysms
20-0042 – Background Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), occurs when there is an enlarged portion of the abdominal aorta, and accounts for approximately 10,000 deaths per year in the United States. Current treatments include surgical intervention or minimally invasive laparoscopic repair. However, the AAA can rupture, and the patient will not survive surgery or sometimes even reach the hospital. There are... Read More
Nanofibers for targeted treatment of pulmonary disease
20-0070 – Background Pulmonary hypertension is a progressive and severe condition with severe, and often fatal, consequences. Despite remarkable therapeutic advancements over the last thirty years, mortality rates remain as high as 40%. Current therapies largely target the major regulatory pathways involved in vascular tone. These therapies are associated with considerable limitations such as, a short... Read More
Assessment of Pulmonary Fibrosis Using Ultrasound Multiple Scattering
20-0036 – Pulmonary fibrosis affects is a progressive, inflammatory and fibro-proliferative lung disease and affects approximately 200,000 patients in the United States. The disease causes a change in the micro-architecture of the lung, such as thickening of the alveolar walls and the formation of patchy scars. Conventional uses of lung ultrasound in these patients is based on a standardized set of... Read More
Mouse: Human ACE2 Expression
20-0133 – Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the cellular entry receptor for many SARS-like coronaviruses. SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 bind and enter human cells via the ACE2 receptor. This mouse line expresses human ACE2 under the control of HFH4, a lung ciliated epithelial promoter. HFH4-hACE2-expressing mice are sensitized to infection by SARS-like coronaviruses when compared with wild-type... Read More
Improved Techniques for Quantitative MRI
19-0061 – Background Quantification of tissue properties, such as the T1 and T2 relaxation times, in the human body through quantitative magnetic resonance imaging, is desired for clinical applications and research areas. Compared to qualitative imaging techniques, quantitative imaging can provide more accurate and unbiased information of a patient and make it easier to objectively compare different... Read More
Smart Medical Imaging Protocols
17-0036 – Background Currently, a wide array of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols are pre-defined for different diseases. For example, in neurological diseases, there are protocols for epilepsy, stroke, multiple sclerosis, etc. Under each disease category, the protocols are further divided into pediatric or adult patients, and each protocol consists of a collection of MRI sequences aiming to... Read More
A red blood cell-mediated light-responsive platform for thrombolytics delivery
19-0138 – The red blood cell-mediated light-responsive platform is a novel drug delivery system that uses red blood cells to deliver thrombolytics with controlled release triggered by a specific wavelength of light. Thrombolytics, such as tPA and urokinase, have been used for the pharmacological removal of a thrombus for three decades. However, significant challenges have prevented the anticipated... Read More
A next generation FOLFOX for colorectal cancer and liver metastasis
20-0002 – FOLFOX is a combination of chemotherapy drugs, consisting of folinic acid (FnA), f-fluorouracil (5-Fu) and oxaplatin (OxP). The new generation of FOLFOX is comprised of targeted nano-formulation of Folox (FnA and OxP) and free 5-Fu, allowing for enhanced drug pharmacokinetics and therapeutic effect for the treatment of colorectal cancer and metastasis. FOLFOX has been used to treat... Read More
Synthetic adhesins for enhanced probiotic efficacy
20-0006 – Synthetic adhesin in probiotic delivery is a modular platform for the conjugation of targeting ligands to the surface of live therapeutic bacteria, allowing for more specific and enhanced attachment to live mammalian cells. It is known that the efficacy of therapeutic bacteria is dependent on the ability of the bacteria to interact with and adhere to specific host niches. However, current... Read More
Accelerated Acquisition of Diffusion MRI
20-0058 – Background Diffusion MRI (dMRI) is used to quantify brain tissue microenvironments and obtain accurate estimates of axonal orientations for tractography by utilizing the characteristics of the molecular diffusion of water. Precise acquisition of dMRI images requires probing water molecules in multiple diffusion scales and directions, which consequently increases acquisition time. Increased... Read More