Wake Forest Scientists Develop Alternative to Fluorescent Bulbs

Wake Forest University scientists have developed a flicker-free, shatterproof alternative for large-scale lighting.

The lighting, based on field-induced polymer electroluminescent (FIPEL) technology, also gives off soft, white light – not the yellowish glint from fluorescents or bluish tinge from LEDs.

“People often complain that fluorescent lights bother their eyes, and the hum from the fluorescent tubes irritates anyone sitting at a desk underneath them,” said David Carroll, professor of physics and director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials. “The new lights we have created can cure both of those problems and more.” 

The team uses a nano-engineered polymer matrix to convert the charge into light. The technology allows the researchers to create an entirely new light bulb – overcoming one of the major barriers in using plastic lights in commercial buildings and homes.  See more.

Wake Forest University, Ameritox Team Up

Wake Forest University and Ameritox Ltd. said Tuesday they have formed a partnership aimed at furthering university chemistry research in developing technologies for medication monitoring and toxicology testing.

Ameritox provides laboratory services and management tools under the RxGuardian brand. The service helps assess whether patients are taking their pain medication consistent with the dosage prescribed by their doctors. It provides individual results by using the patient's height, weight, gender, age and prescribed dosage.

The main focus of the partnership is on the science behind the mapping of the human genome to create a new standard in toxicology testing.

Christa Colyer, chairwoman of the university’s chemistry department, said having access to the Ameritox laboratory “will make it that much easier to collaborate and exchange ideas to realize testing breakthroughs.”  Read more.

WFU Cancer Research Sparks Cover Story

The work of a team of Wake Forest University researchers developing a novel drug for prostate cancer treatment is featured on the cover of the Nov. 26 issue of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

George Kulik, an associate professor of cancer biology, Mark Welker, the William L. Poteat Professor of Chemistry, and Freddie Salsbury, an associate professor of physics, led an interdisciplinary team with expertise in computational physics, synthetic chemistry and cancer biology.

All cells, both normal and diseased, rely on the PI3K cell signaling pathway for growth, so inhibiting the pathway selectively for cancer cells has long been a challenge for scientists in the fight against cancer. While turning PI3K inhibitors loose in the body would prevent the spread of cancer, doing so would also inhibit growth in lots of cells.

To effectively use this strategy in the treatment of cancer, the Wake Forest team had to target these inhibitors to specific kinds of cells. Using prostate cells as the target, they selected a protein that is specifically recognized by prostate cells and attach that protein to a PI3K inhibitor. Read more.

Nanotech conference coming to Winston-Salem

For the first time, the Nanotech Commercialization Conference will be held in Winston-Salem.

The conference, which is in its fifth year, is aimed at spurring more research and business collaboration. It will be held April 9-10 at Wake Forest BioTech Place.

It is expected to attract more than 250 attendees and more than 50 speakers, of which there will be a significant Triad representation.

Nanobiotechnology is the science of developing materials at the atomic and molecular level and then using them to develop products and devices.

Hosting the conference “gives us the opportunity to again spotlight the opportunities in advanced manufacturing, coupled with advanced materials development that our community offers,” said David Carroll, director of the Center for Nanotechnology Molecular Materials at the university.  Read more. 

A Google Search for Drug Discovery

It’s what scholars dream about: getting to work with the latest technology and leading researchers in the industry to develop a scientific breakthrough.

For Jason Gagliano, a biology graduate student at Wake Forest University, it’s a reality.

Gagliano is part of the physics department team at Wake Forest developing a technology called Next-Gen Lab-on-Bead. The tool uses next-generation genetic sequencing to make the drug development process thousands of times faster, much like a Google search.
  
“I usually just tell people I am trying to find new drugs for cancer,” he said.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the team a $700,000 grant to bring Next-Gen Lab-on-Bead to market. The NIH awarded the funding through its Small Business Innovation Research program, and Wake Forest will share the funds with partner NanoMedica, a Winston-Salem company that has licensed the patent for Next-Gen Lab-on-Bead. Read More.

Don't Miss Winston-Salem's 11th Annual Tech Briefing Sept. 20

During the Olympics this summer, you might have read news stories about athletes drinking beet juice to increase their performance, and maybe even describing it as tasting like “sweet dirt.”  Well before the Olympics, Wake Forest University had commissioned the development of a good-tasting beet juice. Daniel Kim-Shapiro, physicist and director of Wake Forest’s Translational Science Center, will offer beet juice samples for tasting after his talk at the 11^th annual Tech Briefing on September 20.

Kim-Shapiro, will share how Wake Forest researchers have shown that drinking beet juice can increase blood flow to the brain in older adults. Such a finding could hold potential for combating the progress of dementia in patients. Plus he has other news about how the main ingredient in beet juice – nitrate – has other good benefits for humans.

“The goal of the Tech Briefing is to inform and excite our community about local companies and institutions that are creating innovative technologies, designs and products here in Winston-Salem,” said Bret Marchant of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce. “The presenters are the entrepreneurs, designers and researchers who are helping to transform our local economy.”

An estimated 300 to 400 people are expected to attend this year’s briefing organized by the Tech Council of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce. Held 8:00 - 9:30 a.m. in the Benton Convention Center, it will open the Chamber’s Business and Innovation Expo. The Briefing is free and open to the public. Read more. 

WFU professors, students show how to add computer science to middle school classes

Students headed back to school at Hanes Magnet School in Winston-Salem will find a whole new subject in some of their English, Spanish, social studies and math classes: computer science.

“Fortune Magazine ranks many computer science careers in their top or fastest-growing lists,” Samuel Cho, assistant professor of physics and computer science at Wake Forest University said. “Even though we are in a rough economy, computer science graduates are in high demand.”

Cho and fellow computer science professor Paúl Pauca created a two-day workshop for Hanes Magnet School teachers, along with graduate and undergraduate students. The goal: to demonstrate how computer science could be worked into lesson plans across their curriculum. The workshop was made possible with a $5,000 grant from Google, matched by Wake Forest and recently highlighted as one of the reasons tech website Mashable listed Wake Forest as one of the “top ten campuses for tech.”

“We need to expose young students at the middle school level to computer science,” Cho said. “It’s fundamentally as important as math, English or science.” Read more.

Wake Forest University educators launch firm to sell Verbal Victor app

The Wake Forest University professor who spearheaded the development of a smartphone and iPad app to help his speech-disabled son and others like him has started a company to commercialize the program.

Paúl Pauca, an associate professor of computer science, co-founded Apps for the Greater Good to commercialize the Verbal Victor app and develop new products. Pauca is working with graduate student Scott Graber, who is president of the new firm.

Pauca came up with the idea for Verbal Victor through frustration at the cost and complexity of other tools available to help children like his own son Victor, who suffers from the genetic disease Pitt Hopkins Syndrome, which delayed his ability to communicate through speech.

Verbal Victor allows parents or teachers to associate recordings of their own voices to pictures of common items, which the child can select by pushing an on-screen button. Read more.

INVESTOR-READY ENTREPRENEUR SEMINAR TO BE OFFERED AT WFU

Raising equity capital is challenging at best. Becoming an Investor-Ready EntrepreneurTM is designed to educate and prepare growth-oriented entrepreneurs to successfully engage private equity investors.

Learn from experienced investors and entrepreneurs. Panelists and moderators include:
- Chris Gyves, WCSR – transactional attorney and investor
- Patrick Kammer, C Change Surgical – serial entrepreneur
- Tim Janke, SBTDC / IMAF – investor and early stage fund executive
- Bill Parrish, SBTDC – consultant, entrepreneur and investor

KEYNOTE: Kim Westmoreland, Managing Director, KeraNetics
Kim is a serial entrepreneur and founder of six start-ups, including KeraNetics, a biomaterials company focused on creating innovative keratin-based products.

TO REGISTER: The Becoming an Investor-Ready Entrepreneur registration fee is $295; however, you are eligible for a special scholarship rate of $95 courtesy of our statewide and local sponsors.

DATE/TIME: August 7, 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM

PLACE: Worrell Center, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.sbtdc.org/investorready

SPONSORED BY: Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice. PRESENTED BY: the SBTDC.

Wake Forest's FiberCell has 100% increase in organic solar cell performance

A new 'light pipes' breakthrough by Wake Forest University spin-off company FiberCell, Inc. promises an increase in organic solar cell efficiency of more than one hundred percent.

The 'light pipes' are perpendicular optical fibers to the cells which pipe in the sunlight. They are evenly spaced and densely populated and stamped onto the cells' polymer substrate foundation so the sun's rays can enter the tip of the fiber at any angle, bounce around there and finally get absorbed by the organic solar cell. They protrude from the surface like stubble and with a dip-coating process are surrounded by thin organic solar cells. A light-absorbing dye or polymer is sprayed on the cells. The nanomaterials provide a larger surface area for dye absorption and scatter more light in the red part of the solar spectrum.

Wake Forest University professor: "Can a video game cure cancer?"

Samuel Cho, an assistant professor in physics and computer science, and his students use graphics processing units found in video games to explore the biomolecular processes in the cell and take on challenges, including a cure for cancer.

For his most recent published study, Cho simulated the folding and unfolding of a critical RNA molecule component of the human telomerase enzyme. This enzyme lengthens DNA strands during cell division and only exists in cancerous cells. It’s what makes tumors continue to grow. Knowing how human telomerase works could lead to cancer therapies that essentially obliterate tumors, Cho said. Read more.

WFU Schools of Business Wins Connected Campus Award

Wake Forest University Schools of Business won the Connected Campus Award at the AMX® Innovation Awards ceremony on June 11 in Las Vegas. The AMX® Innovation Awards, sponsored by the University Business Institute, recognize innovative higher education institutions, their accomplishments and best practices of the use of technology.

Award winners at the 2012 UB Tech conference included: Wake Forest (Connected Campus), Stanford University (Automation and Control) and George Washington University (Collaboration Initiatives). 

The successful implementation of technology to connect and integrate the Wake Forest University Schools of Business campuses in Charlotte and Winston-Salem garnered the attention of AMX®, a leading provider of hardware and software solutions. See more.

Wake Forest Graduate Student Receives NASA Fellowship

NASA scientists will help Aaron Willey become a better teacher. Willey, who plans to teach in the Winston-Salem area, earned her master’s of arts in education degree from Wake Forest University in May.  She  was one of 51 teachers awarded an Endeavor Fellowship with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The highly competitive program provides special training for teachers focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education.

Online and in-person, the teachers selected for the fellowship engage with education experts, NASA scientists and each other to carry back to the classroom a greater understanding of NASA discoveries to inspire a next generation of explorers, scientists, engineers and astronauts.  Read more.

Scientists Gather at Wake Forest to Unlock Mysteries of Materials

The secrets to making better cell phones, microchips, and batteries lie in the electronic structure of their materials.

More than 150 physicists and chemists from around the world will gather at Wake Forest University June 5 to 8 to talk about modeling, understanding, and predicting properties of materials and to explore the science behind developing better materials for a variety of uses.

The 24^th annual Workshop on Recent Developments in Electronic Structure Theory is an international forum for sharing ideas about computing previously inaccessible properties of materials. Electronic structure theory describes the behavior of electrons in atoms, molecules, and solids.

“This research is the basis for the design of new and improved materials with direct applications to all areas of science and technology,” said Timo Thonhauser, professor of physics who organized the conference with Natalie Holzwarth, professor of physics, and Akbar Salam, professor of chemistry.

“We’re focusing on basic fundamental research that will lead to the development of novel materials, impacting all kinds of devices,” Holzwarth adds. “This conference sets the tone for the next several years of research in this field.” Read more.

Nanotechnology research gets attention in statewide news story

North Carolina's nanotechnology research activities, including those in Winston-Salem, were the subject of a McClatchey-Tribune news story that appeared recently in the online Winston-Salem Journal.

The story reports,"With its rich mix of life-science leadership, intellectual fire power flowing from our universities, a history of major public investment in the sciences, and an ever-growing reputation in nanotechnology, the state is a serious international player in all things small."

According to the story, 35 research centers and departments across the state are focused on nanobiotechnology, including Wake Forest's Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials.

See more.

Wake Forest researchers empower those without a voice

Victor Pauca is well known among the Wake Forest University community. Now, thanks to the work of a young journalist, others around the country will soon learn of his inspiring story about finding his voice.

Victor, a happy, social six-year-old has Pitt Hopkins Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that has delayed his development, but not his spirit. His father, Paúl Pauca, an associate professor of Computer Science at Wake Forest, and a team of students created “Verbal Victor,” an iPhone/iPad app to provide an affordable alternative to expensive communication devices.

What started out as Pauca’s desire to help his son has turned into an international mission to help people all over the world embrace and empower their loved ones with disabilities. Developed with support from the University's Center for Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship, Verbal Victor has been downloaded nearly 3,000 times and featured by the Associated Press, USA Today and CNN. It has enabled children from Korea to Switzerland communicate in a way that was not affordable before. Read more.

Power Felt offers promise as new thermoelectric device

Wake Forest University research on Power Felt, a promising new thermoelectric device, appears in the current issue of Nano Letters, a leading journal in nanotechnology.

Potential uses for Power Felt include lining automobile seats to boost battery power and service electrical needs, insulating pipes or collecting heat under roof tiles to lower gas or electric bills, lining clothing or sports equipment to monitor performance, or wrapping IV or wound sites to better track patients’ medical needs.

Comprised of tiny carbon nanotubes locked up in flexible plastic fibers and made to feel like fabric, Power Felt uses temperature differences – room temperature versus body temperature, for instance – to create a charge.

Power Felt has been developed by researchers in Wake Forest's Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials.

See more.

Video game technology at play in biomolecular research

Wake Forest University senior Anqi Zou never thought she would thank video gamers for showing her the way to exciting discoveries in molecular biology.

But here she is, acknowledging that the technology she uses to show the inner workings of cells was originally perfected to create realistic images on gaming screens worldwide.

No matter. Wake Forest students are using graphics processing units – also called GPUs or graphics cards – to explore the biomolecular processes in the cell and take on challenges, including a cure for cancer.

See more.

Genetics inspire cyber-security research at Wake Forest

The fight against computer viruses and other threats is taking a new direction at Wake Forest University.

Erinn Fulp and Michael Crouse are fighting the continual evolution of viruses, worms and malware with evolution. Together, they are developing the first-ever automated computer configurations that adjust as quickly as the threats.

Fulp is associate professor of computer science and Crouse is a computer science graduate student who was recently named one of the "nation's top new inventors" by Inventor's Digest magazine.

In refining a genetically inspired algorithm that proactively discovers more secure computer configurations, they are leveraging the concept of “survival of the fittest.”

See more.

WFU Faculty's BioBook Gaining National Attention

Sitting at the front of the class and attentively listening to a professor’s lecture won’t be enough for college students aiming to impress their professors once the new BioBook rolls out.

With BioBook, an interactive educational tool for tablets, professors can monitor student progress — from how they’re keeping up to the rest of the class to what page they’re at in the text book.

Now the makers of the BioBook are waiting with bated breath to find out what Apple is planning to announce this Thursday — and whether the two companies are about to become competitors.

BioBook is the creation of two Wake Forest University professors: Jed Macosko, an assistant professor of physics and Dan Johnson, a senior lecturer in biology. They hope the interactive learning tool will spark the interest of non-biology majors early in their college careers. Macosko says this precarious time is when students drop out or lose interest in learning. Perhaps, this program can help.

Read more