Cutting-edge research that the University of Nebraska Medical Center
will conduct at a business incubator in Omaha has the potential to lead
to promising product developments. Under an agreement approved Friday by
the NU Board of Regents on Friday, UNMC will lease 8,309 square feet of
space at the Scott Technology Transfer and Incubator Center.
Being at the Scott center will allow for our scientists to work closely
with established and start-up businesses, as well as faculty from Peter
Kiewit Institute of Information Science, Technology and Engineering and
other campuses, said Don Leuenberger, UNMC vice chancellor for business
and finance. We expect that the synergy resulting from this collocation
will spawn many new ideas and, eventually, new products.
UNMC will use the Scott center in two basic areas: bioinformatics and
orthopaedic joint replacement implants. Two laboratories from the department
of orthopaedic surgery will be housed at the center: the Biomechanics and
the Nano-biotechnology Research laboratories. UNMC faculty are involved
in the designing of the next generation of knee simulators and developing
new implant test methods for the International Standards Organization and
the American Society of Testing and Materials, said Hani Haider, Ph.D.,
associate professor of orthopaedic surgery and director of the Biomechanics
Laboratory.
Dr. Haider will work closely with Fereydoon Namavar, Sc.D., professor
and director of the Nano-biotechnology Research Laboratory. Dr. Namavar
is an expert in nanotechnology research, which is an emerging field with
novel applications in medicine and the engineering industry. Here, the
scientists will manipulate extremely small particles to fabricate materials
or coat surfaces of implants with super-hard protective layers using crystals
or grains less than one-millionth of an inch in size.
Dr. Namavars work advances technologies to enhance the durability and
to increase the lifetime of orthopedic implants.
Together with the advanced implant simulation and testing facilities,
the combination offers the industry a strong haven for developing and testing
innovative joint replacement implants, Dr. Haider said.
Also housed at the Scott center will be the intercampus research and
training laboratory of the Nebraska Informatics Center for the Life Sciences
(NICLS). NICLS was established last year to facilitate the integration
of information, computer and life sciences to understand the organization
and function of complex biological systems.
Simon Sherman, Ph.D., director of the center, said the site will provide
expertise, service and computing resources for inter-campus research projects.
It will be also the place where graduate and undergraduate students from
all of the University of Nebraska campuses, as well as high-school students
and students from other colleges who are involved in summer research programs,
will be trained in the use of bioinformatics methods and tools.
Location at the Scott Technology Center will help the NICLS faculty
members to build close relationships with industrial partners said Dr.
Sherman, who also is a professor in the UNMC Eppley Research Institute.