Innovation art with DNA, plants, nuclear symbol

Art by Evan Johnson

April 1, 2025

University of Missouri inventors and researchers generate new knowledge and original ideas that educate students and serve the public good. Their work often is the basis for new products and startup businesses that fuel economic growth and prosperity.

Often inventors and researchers say that what motivates them most is having a positive impact on the quality of life, and that’s where professionals in Mizzou’s Technology Advancement office come in.

“The role of Technology Advancement is to partner with researchers, industry, entrepreneurs and investors to turn university innovations into commercial products and services,” said Michele Kennett, associate vice chancellor for research compliance and integrity. “By facilitating the transfer of innovations to benefit society, they help increase the impact of academic research.”

The process starts when researchers who think they have an innovation with commercial potential submit a confidential Invention Disclosure Form to Technology Advancement. In calendar year 2024, investigators disclosed more than 100 inventions, which the team evaluated for novelty, utility and market potential.

 

Examples of arms invented at Mizzou for health care students to use to practice IVs, etc.

German company Erler-Zimmer licensed the rights to produce IV training arms for students in medical professions using Mizzou's know-how and production methods developed by inventor Damon Coyle.


Technical expertise from Mizzou inventors and an analysis of scientific and patent literature, possible competitors and other factors guide the Technology Advancement team’s marketing and intellectual property strategies.

In most cases, an invention with a patent, copyright, trademark or other protection is an incentive for a company to invest in commercializing it. This intellectual property also can lead to successful grant proposals, new funding opportunities and partnerships that increase the odds that the research will result in a product or service. 

Two Mizzou commercial products recently had first sales: an adult training arm used by students in medical professions to practice IV administration and UMCA® PQK chestnut seedlings from a hybrid chestnut tree.
 

Chestnut trees

Mizzou's Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center developed the UMCA® PQK chestnut trees.


The Erler-Zimmer company licensed and is selling the realistic training arm, designed by Damon Coyle, simulation innovation specialist at the Russell D. and Mary B. Shelden Clinical Simulation Center.

"There are many adult IV arms on the market, but most are male; ours is female," said Dena Higbee, Shelden Center director. "It also stands out because of the quality of skin performance and feel, self-healing qualities for a greater number of IV attempts, easy maintenance and realistic flashback. Tech transfer has been a great partner in helping move items outside of the walls of the university and our own training purposes."

Last year, the University of Missouri was granted 23 U.S. patents for a variety of faculty and staff inventions, including plant and animal biotechnology, devices, tools, therapeutics, diagnostics, software and engineering solutions. Industry partners interested in further developing a Mizzou invention sign licensing agreements.

Sam Bish, senior technology transfer manager, said the Technology Advancement office executed the university's first-ever nut tree license agreement for UMCA® PQK Chestnuts. 

"The chestnut industry is growing quickly in the eastern and midwestern U.S., doubling in acreage from 2017-22," said Ron Revord, assistant research professor in the School of Natural Resources and interim director of the MU Center for Agroforestry. "We've had a great experience working with Sam to add tree nut releases to his office's scope."

Learn more by contacting the Technology Advancement office at 573-882-6013 or techadvancement@missouri.edu.

2024 Research milestones

105

New inventions disclosed

23

U.S. patents issued

$1,776,159

Licensing income generated

U.S. PATENTS ISSUED

Animal and plant biotechnology

CRISPR therapy (Patent No. 12,152,242)
Improved CRISPR methods to systemically affect gene editing via non-homologous end joining

  • Mizzou inventors: Dongsheng Duan, Chady Hakim*, Nalinda B. Wasala* and Yongping Yue

Homologous recombination via transcriptional activation (Patent No. 11,932,858)
A gene-editing system that allows researchers to identify desired target edits to a gene in organisms, such as plants, with low homologous recombination frequency

  • Mizzou inventor: Blake C. Meyers*

Improved ultra-fast cooling system (Patent No. 11,937,596)
Uniformly cryopreserves biological materials, including human and plant tissues, using little or no cryoprotectants

  • Mizzou inventor: Xu Han

Increasing plant oil content by altering a negative regulator of acetyl-coa carboxylase (Patent No. 11,959,087)
A trait that increases the overall seed oil content in crops

  • Mizzou inventors: Jay J. Thelen and Matthew Salie*

Small auxin upregulated gene for the improvement of root system architecture, waterlogging tolerance, drought resistance and yield in plants (Patent No. 11,905,518)
A trait that creates a more extensive root system in soybean to increase resistance to waterlogging and drought stress

  • Mizzou inventors: Henry Thien Nguyen, Heng Ye and Babu Valliyodan*
Computer software

Systems and methods to improve management and monitoring of cardiovascular disease (Patent No. 12,102,415 and Patent No. 12,156,718)
Software that measures aortic capacitance or compliance (ability to expand and contract in response to changes in blood volume and pressure) as indicators of cardiovascular disease

  • Mizzou inventors: Noah D. Manring and Patrice Delafontaine
Diagnostics and detection

Microfluidic device for capture of micrometer scale objects (Patent No. 11,890,616)
A less invasive device to capture and measure the presence of circulating tumor cells in the bloodstream to improve cancer diagnostics

  • Mizzou inventors: Jae W. Kwon* and Jussuf Kaifi
Therapeutics and treatments

Amphiphilic peptide chaperones (Patent No. 11,911,436)
Therapeutic peptides to reduce misfolded proteins associated with diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

  • Mizzou inventors: Santhoshkumar Puttur, Krishna Sharma and Sundararajan Mahalingam*

Immunomodulation for the long-term prevention and treatment of autoimmune diseases and foreign tissue rejection (Patent No. 12,023,367)
FasL + IL-2 to induce immune tolerance for the treatment and/or prevention of autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes

  • Mizzou inventor: Haval Shirwan

Liquid collagen bioinks and methods to make and use collagen structures (Patent No. 12,167,965)
Methods to fabricate stable injectable collagen microspheres without using cross-linking agents for therapeutics, orthopedics and other tissue engineering applications

  • Mizzou inventors: Sheila A. Grant, Colten Snider* and David Alan Grant

Neuromuscular blocking agents (Patent No. 12,168,652)
Novel fast-acting and quickly reversible boron-based neuromuscular blockers to paralyze muscles for procedures like tracheal intubation, mechanical ventilation, electroconvulsive therapy and others

  • Mizzou inventors: George R. Kracke, Lalit N. Goswami*, Marion F. Hawthorne* and Satish Jalisatgi*

Triblock peptide amphiphiles and micelles (Patent No. 12,006,350)
Programmable peptide micelles for the delivery of therapeutics

  • Mizzou inventors: Caitlin Leeper*, Rui Zhang*, Bret Ulery, Josiah Smith* and Logan Morton*
Engineering solutions

Area selective nanoscale-thin layer deposition via precise functional group lithography (Patent No. 12,000,037)
An improved  method for high-resolution patterning of semiconductor substrates

  • Mizzou inventors: Matthew R. Maschmann and Matthias J. Young

Forming conformable nanoscale coating on substrates (Patent No. 12,060,272)
A new method for adding nanoscale coatings to increase durability, hydrophobicity or reactivity of materials

  • Mizzou inventors: Yangchuan Xing and Ahmed M Jasim

Programmable metasurface for real-time control of broadband elastic rays (Patent No. 11,978,430)
A method for creating programmable metasurfaces for use in active noise and vibration cancellation in communication systems

  • Mizzou inventors: Guoliang Huang*, Yangyang Chen* and Xiaopeng Li

Three-phase oscillating heat pipe (Patent No. 12,104,854)
Thermal management system for efficient cooling of electronic devices

  • Mizzou inventors: Bill Ma and Tingting Hao
Devices and tools

Heat exchanging liquid container (Patent No. 11,857,112)
Thermally insulated containers that hold optimal temperature of hot or cold liquids for extended periods of time

  • Mizzou inventor: Bill Ma

Drawn fused filament fabrication printing (Patent No. 12,103,222)
Novel 3D printing technique and device to convert type A, B or AB blood to  universal type O blood without residual foreign proteins

  • Mizzou inventors: Hsin-Yeh Hsieh, Mason W. Schellenberg*, Chung-Ho Lin, George C. Stewart and Shibu Jose

Knee flexion device (Patent No. 12,005,018)
A quantitative patient-controlled physical therapy device for treatment of pre- or post-surgery knee stiffness

  • Mizzou inventors: Trent Guess, Cory Crecelius, James L. Cook, Kylee Rucinski and Jonathan Williams

Nursing multiskill training pad (Design Patent No. D1,025,206 )
A hyperrealistic model for medical professionals to practice critical skills such as wound packing, intravenous catheterization and medication injections

  • Mizzou inventor: Damon Coyle

Thermal liquid container system (Patent No. 11,952,197)
Thermal liquid containers that can rapidly change the temperature of a liquid to a desired range

  • Mizzou inventor: Bill Ma

Tissue preservation system (Patent No. 11,864,554)
A system that more than doubles the storage time and increases the viability of donor bone and cartilage grafts used in orthopaedic transplants

  • Mizzou inventors: Aaron M. Stoker and James L. Cook


*No longer at Mizzou