Tammy Kielian, Ph.D., was named the "2015 Innovator of the Year" during UNeMed's annual Research Innovation Awards Ceremony and Reception on Thursday The awards ceremony is the culmination of Innovation and Research Week, a series of events to showcase and celebrate UNMC discoveries.
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| From left, Michael Wadman, M.D., and Thang Nguyen |
During the Innovation Awards, UNeMed, UNMC's technology transfer office, honored all UNMC personnel who submitted a new invention, received a U. S. patent or licensed a technology. UNeMed also named a portfolio of inventions by Michael Wadman, M.D., and Thang Nguyen as the "Most Promising New Invention of 2015." Dr. Kielian — honored in 2012 as the "Emerging Inventor" — is the first two-time winner of a major UNeMed award in the nine-year history of the program. Her work on a potential cure for juvenile Batten disease and treatments for S. aureus biofilms made her an easy choice for the top award in 2015, said UNeMed President and CEO Michael Dixon, Ph.D. "Dr. Kielian is exactly the kind of scientist we love to celebrate during Innovation Week," Dr. Dixon said. "Every day she and her team do what it takes to move the science forward and help us push her research into the real world where it has a chance to not just save lives, but save families." Dr. Kielian and her team are approaching clinical trials on two approaches to fighting the as-yet incurable juvenile Batten disease, a rare and always fatal childhood neurodegenerative disease. One approach treats the disease using an existing class of drugs, but the other approach, a gene therapy treatment, has potential as a cure. In addition to her work against juvenile Batten disease, Dr. Kielian — the Choudari Kommineni, D.V.M., Ph.D., Professor of Pathology in UNMC's Department of Pathology and Microbiology – developed a new strategy for targeting the immune system to help prevent and treat Staphylococcus aureus biofilm infections. Dr. Wadman and Nguyen, who both work in the UNMC Department of Emergency Medicine, were awarded the "Most Promising New Invention of 2015" for their innovative concepts for better wound irrigation and oral airway management. Together, the tandem developed an irrigation system that can adjust and maintain consistent pressure with enough solution to clean almost any wound. They also are working on a set of inventions that could help emergency care providers maintain and keep clear a patient's airway.