Proof of Concept Program: 2012 Awards

The request for proposals garnered 96 eligible applications, and many more excellent proposals than could be awarded. Proposed projects were required to be within 12 months of commercialization, and have the intellectual property owned by UC, unencumbered, and available for licensing. The proposals underwent a rigorous two-tiered evaluation by scientific peers and private investors, resulting in the selection of 22 outstanding projects (23%), representing six UC campuses and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Selected projects were identified as highly innovative, commercially exciting, and likely to benefit California and Californians. The projects span a variety of fields including medicine and medical devices, biotechnology, agriculture and the environment, communications, and electronics. The total UC investment in these projects is $2.6 million.

2012 Selected Projects by Principal Investigator and Title

Lead InvestigatorCampusProposed Title
Abate, Adam UCSF Robust detection and genotyping of CTCs in blood
Brosnan, Robert UCD Pre-Clinical Evaluation of a Novel Inhaled Anesthetic
Chong, Woon-Seng LBNL Back-Side Readout Silicon Photomultiplier
Craik, Charles UCSF In Vivo Diagnostics for Cardiovascular Disease
Demetriou, Michael UCI Glucosamine analogs for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis
Desai, Tejal UCSF Nanoengineered Thin Film Devices for Ocular Drug Delivery
Ferenc, Daniel UCD Novel Photosensor Technology
Giacomini, Kathleen UCSF Development of Targeted Anti-Cancer Platinum Analogs
Guan, Zhibin UCI Self-healing Multiphase Polymers for Coating Applications
Hua, Yingbo UCR Broadband Full-Duplex Radio
Islam, M. Saif UCD Micro/Nanofabricated Ceramic Blade Arrays for Shaving and Surgery
Jin, Sungho UCSD Solar Absorbers with Ultra-high Performance Selective Coating
Lam, Kit UCD Novel hydrogel for stem cell and cardiomyocyte research
Leach, Kent UCD Injectable cell delivery vehicle for bone repair
Nishimura, Stephen UCSF Antibodies for Fibroinflammatory Lung Disease Detection
Pouliot, Jean UCSF 2D device to test deformable image registration in medicine
Revzin, Alexander UCD Point of Care Blood Analysis Device for TB Diagnosis
Shum, Anthony UCSF An autoantigen biomarker for autoimmune-mediated lung disease
Tseng, Elaine UCSF Proof of Concept of a Novel Transcatheter Aortic Valve
Woo, Youn-Hi LBNL Development Of New DNA Isolation Method
Zhang, Yuegang LBNL Graphene Oxide and Sulfur Nanocomposite Cathode
Zhang, Xiang UCB Plasmonic Nanolaser for Data Comm. & Biomedical Applications