03/10/95

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OTL fund awards grants to 31 research teams

STANFORD -- With funds gained from the royalties on Stanford licenses and patents, seed grants totaling $599,296 have been awarded to 31 Stanford research teams, Dean of Research Charles Kruger has announced.

Projects winning awards from the Office of Technology Licensing's Research Incentive Fund were chosen, from a field of 85 proposals, by a committee of faculty nominated by the deans of the schools. Most of the grants went to promising projects in the startup phase, allowing researchers to test ideas that later may qualify for major grants from government or industry.

The OTL Research Incentive Fund is replenished yearly with earnings from licenses and patents on inventions by Stanford faculty members. Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing draws 15 percent of university royalties each year to cover operating expenses. The earnings fluctuate from year to year as new licenses are added and old ones expire, so each year part of the excess after operating expenses is deposited to a contingency fund for lean years.

The remainder is given to the Office of the Dean of Research to be distributed as Research Incentive Funds.

The following projects were selected for the seed grants:

• Dennis Bird, Geological and Environmental Sciences. The Fate of Arsenic in Mine and Mill Tailings Annually Flooded by Don Pedro Reservoir Mother Lode Mining District, California, $21,657.
• Francis Blankenberg, Radiology. Assessment of Cytoreduction Therapy in Childhood Leukemia (ALL) with IH NMR Spectroscopy (MRS), $22,395.
• Craig T. Bowman, Mechanical Engineering. Microelectrochemical Sensors for Combustion-Generated Pollutants, $10,000.
• Michele P. Calos, Genetics. Novel Vectors for Gene Therapy, $25,000.
• Chris Chafe, CCRMA-Music, and Mark Cutkosky, Mechanical Engineering. A Haptic User Interface Computer Access for the Blind, $13,250.
• Christos Constantinou, Urology. Compliance Biosensor, $18,875.
• Martha Cyert, Biological Sciences. Examination of Intracellular pH of Yeast Calcineurin Mutants, $22,243.
• Reinhold H. Dauskardt, Materials Science and Engineering. Interfacial Fracture Energy and Structural Reliability of Multi- Layer Thin Film Devices, $24,794.
• Mark Denny, Hopkins Marine Station. Fog Capture in Terrestrial Plants: How Trees Drink the Air, $2,814.
• Sebastian Doniach, Applied Physics. Stanford-Kyoto Initiative in Protein Modeling, $8,000.
• Larry Friedlander, English. Interactive Environments for Character-Based Narrative Experiences, $24,996.
• Margaret T. Fuller, Developmental Biology. Genetic Control of Stem Cell Behavior in the Drosophila Germ Line, $25,000.
• Kenneth Goodson, Mechanical Engineering. Photothermal Interface Microscopy of Composite Substrates for Electronic Systems, $24,844.
• James J. Gross, Psychology. Two Forms of Emotion Regulation, $17,792.
• Sharon Holland, English. Revising Lesbian Studies: New Theoretical Positions, $2,800.
• Jonathan How, Aeronautics and Astronautics. Combined Control Architectures for Suppressing Vibration and Acoustic Disturbances, $31,779.
• Kennell Jackson, History. Public African-American History: Museums, Theme Parks and Historic Sites, $6,579.
• Patricia P. Jones, Biological Sciences. A New MHC Gene Controlling Immune Responsiveness and Disease Susceptibility, $25,000.
• Anne S. Kiremidjian, Civil Engineering, and Teresa Meng, Electrical Engineering. Assessing Steel Structures, $10,000.
• Laura Lazzeroni, Statistics. Exact Estimation of Genetic Disequilibrium, $10,651.
• Richard Lewis, Molecular/Cell Physiology. Feedback Control of Depletion Activated Calcium Channels: A Membrane Fusion Hypothesis, $24,195.
• Robert H.K. Mak, Pediatrics. Molecular Mechanisms of Growth Failure in Uremia, $25,000.
• Louie Naumovski, Pediatrics. Identification of New Genes Which Inhibit Programmed Cell Death (Apoptosis), $19,700.
• Garry P. Nolan, Molecular Pharmacology. Rapid Stable Production of High Titre Retrovirus for Gene Therapy, $15,000.
• John W. Rick, Anthropology. Mapping the Ceremonial Center of Chavin de Huantar, $19,395.
• Robert Sapolsky, Biological Sciences. Construction of Inducible Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) Vectors for the Transfer of Neuroprotective Genes in the Central Nervous System, $25,000.
• Kristine Samuelson, Communication. Sea of Tranquillity: Video Essay, $19,022.
• Tim Stearns, Biological Sciences. Cell Cycle Control of Centrosome Duplication, $24,700.
• Douglas Vollrath, Genetics. Identification of Genes by Cross- Species cDNA Selection, $25,000.
• Shen X. Wang, Electrical Engineering. Application of Optical Emission Spectroscopy to Novel Deposition and Etching Process, $28,815.
• William I. Weis, Structural Biology. Crystallographic Analysis of the Human Beta 2 Adrenergic Receptor, $25,000.

The awards committee consisted of faculty nominated by their deans and was chaired by H. Craig Heller, associate dean of research. Members were Barbara Barres, assistant professor of neurobiology; Garry Nolan, assistant professor of molecular pharmacology; Christopher Zarins, professor of surgery; Steve Boyd, associate professor of electrical engineering; Huajian Gao, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Leonid Kazovsky, professor of electrical engineering; Kincho Law, associate professor of civil engineering; Eric Shaqfeh, associate professor of chemical engineering; Jonathan Stebbins, associate professor of geological and environmental sciences; John Griffin, assistant professor of chemistry; Roger Romani, assistant professor of physics; John Bender, professor of English; Akhil Gupta, assistant professor of anthropology; Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, associate professor of psychology; Mark Tunick, assistant professor of political science; Daria Mochly-Rosen, associate professor of molecular pharmacology; Sharon Long, professor of biological sciences; and Raymond Hintz, professor of pediatrics.

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