$2.4M earmarked for research projects

Friday, Feb. 3, 2006

The Maryland Industrial Partnerships program at the University of Maryland, College Park, has earmarked $2.4 million for research on commercial projects including a new test for oral cancer, a treatment for esophageal cancer, a drug to stop rheumatoid arthritis and new tools for digital forensics.

The program, an initiative of the A. James Clark School of Engineering, supports research that helps Maryland companies develop products.

Of the total, $1.5 million is from participating companies; all the money goes to faculty for university research.

This is the 37th round of the program’s funding. The program has supported research projects with 335 Maryland companies since 1987.

The 14 companies and projects approved in this round:

*20⁄20 GeneSystems Inc. of Rockville: optimizing a process for a new autoimmune disease and cancer diagnostic.

*Advanced Digital Forensic Solutions Inc. of Silver Spring: improve the company’s image and video recognition and analysis technology, for use by law enforcement and intelligence agents.

*A&G Pharmaceutical Inc. of Columbia: pre-clinical study of small-molecule drug candidates to inhibit rheumatoid arthritis progression.

*Alba Therapeutics Corp. of Baltimore: cloning and characterizing the human receptor for zonulin, a protein regulating the permeability of the intestine; findings may be used to develop drug candidates for celiac disease and new onset Type 1 diabetes.

*Automated Precision Inc. of Rockville: developing algorithms and prototype software to perform three-dimensional inspection of automobile and aerospace parts.

*BioFactura Inc. of Rockville: evaluating systems to commercially produce a potential therapeutic peptide for fungal diseases ranging from oral thrush to systemic infections.

*CryMed Technologies Inc. of Baltimore: clinical trial of a cryo-ablation device and method for freezing and killing cancerous and pre-cancerous cells in the esophagus.

*Imagilin Technology LLC of Frederick: developing a novel microencapsulation system to preserve the bioactivity of probiotics for animal feed and pet foods.

*Mobitrum Corp. of Silver Spring: designing high-speed, ultra-wideband wireless communications systems.

*NeoDiagnostix Inc. of Rockville: retrospective study to validate a highly sensitive gene-based test for oral cancer.

*Next Breath LLC of Baltimore: pre-clinical study of a new inhaler technology.

*Praxair Services Inc. of Laurel: building robotic systems prototype to inspect tanks and pipelines.

*Prasidiux LLC of Bethesda: refining and fabricating temperature indicators for biopharmaceutical and food products employing smart polymer gels.

*Revelytix Inc. of Hunt Valley: developing an editor for creating ontologies.