Kyle Allison of Boston University took top honors in the Graduate Category of the Collegiate Inventors Competition for his new therapy to eliminate bacterial persisters, and a team from Yale University--Elizabeth Asai, Nickolas Demas and Elliot Swart--was honored in the Undergraduate Category for a handheld imaging system that helps to detect potentially cancerous skin lesions. 

Allison received the $15,000 graduate first prize for his Metabolite-Mediated Elimination of Bacterial Persisters, a combination therapy utilizing specific metabolites and the aminoglycoside class of antibiotics to effectively kill persistent bacteria. The Yale University team received the $12,500 undergraduate first prize for the 3Derm System, a handheld imaging device that takes 3-D, high-definition images of skin lesions or other abnormalities in the clinic or at home. Through a proprietary Web interface, 3Derm System lets doctors remotely access the images more efficiently, allowing them to potentially detect skin cancer in earlier, easier-to-treat stages.

Graduate students Julio D’Arcy and Albert Mach, both of University of California, Los Angeles, received second and third prizes respectively for their work. D’Arcy created a universal coating solution to thin-film deposition, and Mach invented a process for isolation of rare cancer cells from liquid blood biopsies – which he calls the “centrifuge chip”. 

In the Undergraduate category, Patrick Cassidy, Sean Heyrman, Alex Johnson and Anthony Sprangers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison won second place for creating BarrierASAP, a special, thermoreversible barrier used to protect healthy tissue while nearby cancer tissue is being removed. Third place undergraduate winners James Lee, Colin Mitchell, Lauren Riesenberg and Meghan Moore of the University of Cincinnati developed BLINX, a device that applies topical electrical stimulation to the muscle around the eyes to induce normal blinking in comatose patients in intensive care.

“The Collegiate Inventors Competition gives the STEM leaders of tomorrow support from the top governmental agencies, non-profit organizations and industry professionals of today,” said Thom Ruhe, Director of Entrepreneurship for the Kauffman Foundation. “These students have the academic support and technical skills to propel their inventions to the next level. We are rewarding them for achievements and entrepreneurial potential in their respective fields by recognizing them on a national scale. We are proud to have this competition as a featured event of Global Entrepreneurship Week.” 

Showing their support for scientific and technological innovation and entrepreneurship, the 2011 Collegiate Inventors Competition is sponsored by the Abbott Fund, the non-profit foundation of the global health care company Abbott, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), who announced the winners with Invent Now during an event at the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C.

Other college and university students chosen as finalists for the Competition come from the biomedical engineering, cancer research and information technology fields.

tags: Boston University, Collegiate Inventors Competition, Invent Now, Yale University