Three University of Western Ontario research projects are a few steps closer towards commercialization thanks to a financial boost from the Western Innovation Fund.
The awards, launched in 2004 and distributed annually by the Office of the Vice-President (Research & International Relations), provide incentive for researchers to explore commercial opportunities outside the lab.
With funding totaling $140,000 for the successful June 2009 competition applicants, the following projects are on their road to commercialization:
Name: Blaine Chronik
Co-Applicant: Frank Prato, Nuclear Medicine, Lawson Health Research Institute
Award: $50,000
Title: Development of a prototype combined MRI and PET scanner for the preclinical imaging market
Blaine Chronik of Western is the holder of the Canada Research Chair in Medical Physics. He and his team are applying physics and engineering expertise to develop a new system combining the anatomical resolution of an MRI with the sensitivity of a PET scanner for detecting changes in cellular and molecular physiology.
Chronik and his team of researchers are using their unique design of field-cycled MRI to create a hybrid PET/MRI scanner. The goal is to produce a product to address the rapidly expanding world market for preclinical imaging systems.
Name: Leo Lau
Award: $50,000
Title: Development of a prototype production reactor to commercialize Western’s new invention of a new technology for producing organic electronics and new functional polymers
The project team led by Leo Lau, Director of Surface Science Western and Professors of the Chemistry and Physics & Astronomy Departments, has invented a novel technology to cross-link organic precursor molecules for the production of organic electronics and other novel functional polymers. The global market of these products is expected to grow exponentially to over $300 billion per year by 2025.
A prototype reactor was built to generate a high flux of hydrogen with tunable kinetic energy to drive the cross-linking reaction with no undesirable side reactions and no heating requirement. The process uses such hyperthermal hydrogen as a catalyst so there is virtually no chemical consumption.
The Western Innovation Fund award will be used by the project team to further develop the reactor such that the invented technology can be exploited as practical industrial processes with high throughput, low cost, and low environmental load. WORLDiscoveries at Western is currently assisting the project team in managing the intellectual-properties and technology commercialization.
Name: Eugene Wong
Co-Applicant: Jeff Chen, London Regional Cancer Program
Award: $40,000
Title: Software Quality Assurance Tool for 3D Verification of Radiation Treatment Plans
Patients diagnosed with cancer usually undergo a series of treatments, of which approximately half will be treated by radiotherapy. The technology of radiotherapy has advanced substantially in recent years, and each patient will have a computerized custom treatment plan.
Routine hardware checks are performed on the treatment units, as well as labour intensive quality assurance for each patient plan.
The objective is to develop software quality assurance tool for verification of patient-specific treatment plans, employing a radiation dose computation algorithm that we have tested extensively. Together with the necessary hardware quality assurance, this will improve patients’ access to the most advanced radiotherapy techniques and eliminate potential errors in treatment delivery.