[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 69 (Tuesday, April 10, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 21573-21574]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-8577]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

National Institutes of Health


Government-Owned Inventions; Availability for Licensing

AGENCY: National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The inventions listed below are owned by an agency of the U.S. 
Government and are available for licensing in the U.S. in accordance 
with 35 U.S.C. 207 to achieve expeditious commercialization of results 
of federally-funded research and development. Foreign patent 
applications are filed on selected inventions to extend market coverage 
for companies and may also be available for licensing.

ADDRESSES: Licensing information and copies of the U.S. patent 
applications listed below may be obtained by writing to the indicated 
licensing contact at the Office of Technology Transfer, National 
Institutes of Health, 6011 Executive Boulevard, Suite 325, Rockville, 
Maryland 20852-3804; telephone: 301-496-7057; fax: 301-402-0220. A 
signed Confidential Disclosure Agreement will be required to receive 
copies of the patent applications.

Nonpathogenic Bacteria, Paenibacillus alvei, Useful as a Natural 
Biocontrol Agent for Elimination of Food-borne Pathogenic Bacteria

    Description of Technology: This newly isolated non-pathogenic 
bacterial strain (TS-15) has shown the ability kill or inhibit a wide 
variety of harmful bacteria including many of the most common food-
borne pathogens such as Salmonella, Escherichia, Listeria, Shigella, 
Enterobacter and Staphylococcus. The TS-15 strain may provide a natural 
low cost means to help protect the food supply. The strain may be used 
as a biocontrol agent in the form of a pesticide or pretreatment to 
soils in which fruits and vegetable are grown. Preventative use of the 
TS-15 strain in biocontrol measures may prevent many of the millions of 
illnesses in the U.S. that are caused by food-borne pathogens each 
year. Such prevention may also reduce the associated costs of treatment 
for such illnesses. Furthermore, isolation and development of the 
antibiotic compounds produced by the TS-15 strain may yield useful new 
compositions to help treat bacterial illness, including infections by 
some pathogens resistant to standard antibiotics.

Potential Commercial Applications

     Agriculture--pesticide.
     Medicine--antibiotic.
    Competitive Advantages: Low cost natural means of prevention of 
many food-borne bacterial illnesses.
    Development Stage: Early-stage.
    Inventors: Eric Brown (FDA), Jie Zheng (FDA), and Alex Enurah.
    Intellectual Property: HHS Reference No. E-042-2011/0--U.S. 
Provisional Application No. 61/488,271 filed 20 May 2011.
    Licensing Contact: Tedd Fenn; 301-435-5031; [email protected].
    Collaborative Research Opportunity: The FDA Center for Food Safety 
and Applied Nutrition is seeking statements of capability or interest 
from parties interested in collaborative research to further develop, 
evaluate or commercialize Paenibacillus alvei (TS-15). For 
collaboration opportunities, please contact Alice Welch at 
[email protected].

Glass Capillary Arrays for Calibration, Validation, and Quality 
Assurance of Quantitative Measurements from Diffusion MRI Applications

    Description of Technology: NIH scientists have developed a tool for 
calibration and quality assurance for diffusion MRI applications. These 
Glass Capillary Arrays (GCAs) allow reliable means for instrument 
calibration and data measurement validation of various MRI scanning 
parameters. A variety of GCA conformations is available, so they have 
broad utility in MRI applications ranging from material sciences to 
clinical and biological MRI.

Potential Commercial Applications

     Calibration, quality assurance, and quality control for 
diffusion MRI applications using physics and mathematics algorithms 
combined with known GCA properties.
     GCAs come in various diameters and thicknesses, so can be 
utilized in a wide range of sciences (material and biological).
     Provides known standards for adjustment of various 
parameters, including magnetic field gradient, magnetic field 
homogeneity, and radiofrequency pulse.

Competitive Advantages

     Allows sufficient quality assurance and instrument 
calibration not previously available for advanced diffusion MRI.
     GCAs are non-toxic and biologically and environmentally 
safe, so can be stored without special permits or requirements.
    Development Stage: Prototype.
    Inventors: Ferenc Horkey, et al. (NICHD).
    Intellectual Property: HHS Reference No. E-202-2010/0--U.S. 
Provisional Application No. 61/536,032 filed 18 Sep 2011.
    Licensing Contact: John Stansberry, Ph.D.; 301-435-5236; 
[email protected].

Diffusion MRI of Beating Hearts and Other Moving Tissues in Live 
Patients

    Description of Technology: Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) is an 
improved form of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) that provides 
microscopic details about tissue structure based on water diffusion. 
DTI is commonly used to visualize the brain when examining patients 
with neurological disorders or strokes. Currently, DTI faces technical 
limitations preventing imaging of moving tissues, such as the beating 
heart, spinal cord, and base of the brain. The NIH inventors have 
established an improved method allowing application of DTI to moving 
tissues. Using DTI to examine patients' hearts will allow for better 
detection of location and severity of ischemia and for probing general 
muscle structure and integrity. This method can be applied to various 
diffusion models including Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI).

Potential Commercial Applications

     Heart disease diagnosis.
     Evaluating new drugs for effects on heart.
     Planning surgical procedures.
     Imaging spinal cord, base of brain, and periventricular 
zones.
     Enhanced imaging of other tissues.

[[Page 21574]]

Competitive Advantages

     Application of state-of-the-art DTI to a wider range of 
tissues.
     Works with multiple diffusion models including DWI.
    Development Stage: Early-stage.
    Inventor: Peter J. Basser (NICHD).
    Publication: Rohde G, et al. Comprehensive approach for correction 
of motion and distortion in diffusion-weighted MRI. Magn Reson Med. 
2004 Jan;51(1):103-114. [PMID 14705050]
    Intellectual Property: HHS Reference No. E-168-2009/0--U.S. 
Provisional Application No. 61/523,108 filed 12 Aug 2011.

Related Technologies

     HHS Reference No. E-203-1993/0--U.S. Patent No. 5,539,310 
issued 23 Jul 1996; PCT Application No. PCT/US94/08842 filed 05 Aug 
1994.
     HHS Reference No. E-079-2003/1 --U.S. Application No. 12/
114,713 filed 02 May 2008.
     HHS Reference No. E-079-2003/0 --U.S. Patent No. 7,643,863 
issued 05 Jan 2010; PCT Application No. PCT/US2004/22027 filed 08 Jul 
2004.
    Licensing Contact: John Stansberry, Ph.D.; 301-435-5236; 
[email protected].

    Dated: April 4, 2012.
Richard U. Rodriguez,
Director, Division of Technology Development and Transfer, Office of 
Technology Transfer, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. 2012-8577 Filed 4-9-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P