$4.1M in Technology Projects Approved by Mtech Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Feb. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) Program, a high-impact economic development initiative fostering innovation and new jobs in the State of Maryland, has approved 16 new technology product development projects worth $4.1 million.

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Teaming companies and faculty throughout the State of Maryland, the projects include: floating islands to clean the Chesapeake Bay, a hyper-local and responsive climate control system for residential and commercial applications, a system to remove CO2 and other harmful nutrients from industrial flue gas, a mobile facility for processing fresh heirloom tomatoes from Maryland farmers, an electronic baseball home plate, pest-resistant soybeans, monitoring devices for freeze-sensitive biopharmaceutical and food products, a vertical-axis wind turbine, low-inertia running shoes, and a synthetic filtration system for stormwater runoff. Therapeutics or treatments are being developed for anthrax, esophageal cancer, stress and autoimmune disease.

An initiative of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) at the University of Maryland, MIPS provides grants for projects that team Maryland companies with researchers in Maryland public universities.

Projects are co-funded by MIPS and participating companies. All of the funding goes to support the work of faculty and graduate students for each project.

For this round of projects, companies contributed $2.9 million and MIPS $1.2 million. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency provided additional funding.

Companies and faculty for each project include:

• Beacon Research Inc. (Columbia) and Allen Davis, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($109,683): developing a geosynthetic filtration system to mitigate urban stormwater runoff.
• Bluewing Environmental Solutions & Technologies LLC (Ellicott City) and Joshua McGrath, assistant professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($134,560): developing floating treatment wetlands to remove harmful nutrients and improve water quality in areas such as the Chesapeake Bay.
• Captain's Choice Food Products (Princess Anne) and Thomas Rippen, seafood technology specialist, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore ($486,586): developing a food processing line for high quality, safe seafood soups with extended shelf-life properties and strong retail market appeal.
• Corridor Pharma (Towson) and Gerald Rosen, professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore ($134,999): developing a new class of antibiotic drugs by testing the mechanism of action and efficacy of the company's arginase inhibitors against anthrax.
• CSA Medical Inc. (Baltimore) and Bruce D. Greenwald, professor of medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore: evaluating the long-term efficacy and safety of endoscopic spray cryotherapy for esophageal cancer in a phase II clinical study.
• Earth Networks Corporation (Germantown) and Jungho Kim, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($1,411,963): continuing the development of residential and commercial advanced climate control systems that enable automated energy efficiency and demand response based on real-time, hyper-local weather.
• HY-TEK Bio LLC (Dayton) and Feng Chen, associate professor, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, ($223,112): optimizing a technology to sequester CO2 and additional harmful nutrients from flue gas produced from burning fossil fuels using enhanced micro algal growth, simultaneously creating clean energy from fossil fuels.
• Imagilin Technology LLC (Frederick) and Martin Furr, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($85,456): developing probiotics as therapeutic agents to fight against stress and autoimmune diseases in humans and animals.
• Instant Access Networks LLC (Cumberland) and Hilkat Soysal, lecturer, Frostburg State University ($224,949): developing an economically viable electric backup system combining battery and hydrogen storage with intermittent renewable energy sources to power mission-critical infrastructures during disasters.
• Luke's Premier Foods LLC (Princess Anne) and Jurgen Schwarz, associate professor, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore ($329,315): developing and testing a fixed, then mobile processing facility prototype for processing fresh heirloom tomatoes from Maryland farmers.
• Omic Biosystems Inc. (Rockville) and Mark Marten, professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore County ($182,880): validating a method for the detection of low abundance proteins in a more effective and more economical way, making it useful for basic antifungal agent research, as well as broader applications in discovery efforts in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
• Plant Sensory Systems LLC  (Baltimore) and Nadim Alkharouf, associate professor, Towson University ($139,110): developing pest-resistant soybeans.
• Prasidiux LLC (Bowie) and Srinivasa Raghavan, associate professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($226,000): validating the operation of the company's Time-Temperature Indicators, which employ "smart polymer gel" materials to indicate exposure of freeze-sensitive products for ultimate use in the biopharmaceutical and food industries.
• Spessard Manufacturing LLC (Hagerstown) and Christopher Davis, professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($134,999): developing a simple, low-cost baseball electronic home plate that will detect and indicate the presence of a baseball passing over.
• Sustainable Systems Inc. (Frostburg) and Mohammed Eltayeb, assistant professor, Frostburg State University ($160,995): developing a prototype vertical-axis wind turbine with an innovative, active, aesthetically pleasing turbine design that is lower cost, lower noise, performs well in low and high winds, and is safer to people, birds and bats living around it, for deployment on residential and commercial buildings and cell phone communications towers, as well as utility-scale wind farms.
• Under Armour Inc. (Baltimore) and Jae Kun Shim, associate professor, University of Maryland, College Park ($206,400): conducting a biomechanical and physiological assessment of shod running and comparing the differences between traditional running shoes and newly designed low-inertia running shoes.

This is the 49^th round of MIPS funding. Companies participating are from the following regions:

• Three are in Baltimore;
• Three are in Howard County;
• Three are in western Maryland;
• Two are in Montgomery County;
• Two are on the Eastern Shore; and
• One each is in Towson, Bowie, and Frederick.

Seven of the projects will take place at the University of Maryland, College Park, while two each will launch at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, and Frostburg State University. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Towson University, and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science are hosting one project each.

Blockbuster products developed by Maryland companies have benefitted from MIPS, including Martek Biosciences' nutritional oils, Hughes Communications' HughesNet™, MedImmune's Synagis®, Black & Decker's Bullet® Speed Tip Masonry Drill Bit, WellDoc's mobile diabetes management platform, and CSA Medical's diseased-tissue ablation device. Products with MIPS projects have generated more than $23.6 billion in revenue and added thousands of jobs to the region.

MIPS has supported research projects with more than 500 different Maryland companies since 1987.

Projects are subject to final contract negotiations.

About the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) Program (www.mips.umd.edu)
MIPS, an initiative of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech), supports university-based research projects to help Maryland companies develop technology-based products. Commercial products benefiting from MIPS projects have generated more than $23.6 billion in revenue, added thousands of jobs to the region, and contributed to successful products such as Martek Biosciences' nutritional oils, Hughes Communications' HughesNet™, MedImmune's Synagis®, and Black & Decker's Bullet® Speed Tip Masonry Drill Bit.

SOURCE University of Maryland