CAPTURE AND RELEASE OF ACID GASSES USING TUNABLE ORGANIC SOLVENTS WITH AMINOPYRIDINE
A class of water lean, organic solvents that can bind with various acid gasses to form acid gas bound molecules having a high degree of intramolecular hydrogen bonding which enables their use as regenerable solvents for acid gas capture. Unlike the other devices described in the prior art, the present invention takes advantage of shortened distances between the portions of the molecule that form hydrogen bonds within the structures when loaded with an acid gas so as to create a molecule with a higher internal bonding affinity and a reduced proclivity for agglomeration with other molecules.
CAPTURE AND RELEASE OF ACID GASSES USING TUNABLE ORGANIC SOLVENTS WITH AMINOPYRIDINE
A class of water lean, organic solvents that can bind with various acid gasses to form acid gas bound molecules having a high degree of intramolecular hydrogen bonding which enables their use as regenerable solvents for acid gas capture. Unlike the other devices described in the prior art, the present invention takes advantage of shortened distances between the portions of the molecule that form hydrogen bonds within the structures when loaded with an acid gas so as to create a molecule with a higher internal bonding affinity and a reduced proclivity for agglomeration with other molecules.
DIRECT DETERMINATION OF ANTIBODY CHAIN PAIRING
I have developed a tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) based approach for the direct determination of antibody heavy and light chain pairing. This approach eliminates the need for costly and invasive genomics approaches (e.g. B cell sequencing and hybridoma) for determining heavy and light chain pairing during therapeutic antibody discovery. IgG antibodies are composed of two copies of a light chain and two copies of a heavy chain covalently linked by intermolecular disulfide bonds. I have demonstrated that ultraviolet photodissociation (UVPD) and electron capture dissociation (ECD) can efficiently cleave the intermolecular disulfide bonds that bind the heavy and light chains together. This yields a MS/MS spectrum that contains the mass of the intact antibody or Fab fragment, intact mass of the light chain, intact mass of the heavy chain or Fd subunit, and product ions that provide confirmation of the (complementarity determining regions) CDR sequences. This information provides unambiguous confirmation of heavy and light chain pairing. These are completely unprecedented results and will have significant impact on therapeutic antibody discovery as well as quality control during production of antibody therapeutics.
PROSTATE CANCER-ASSOCIATED SECRETED PROTEINS (NIH iEdison No. 0685901-16-0007)
Methods are provided for treating a subject with prostate cancer and/or diagnosing a subject at risk for prostate cancer, which can include measuring increased expression of at least two prostate cancer-related molecules in a sample obtained from a subject, including the prostate cancer-related molecules AGR2, AGR3, CRISP3, CCL3, CEACAM5, CEACAM6, IL24, MMP9, CXCL14, CD90, POSTN, and SFRP4. The methods can include administering at therapy to a subject with prostate cancer. Methods are provided for treating a subject with intermediate- or high-risk prostate cancer, which can include measuring increased expression of MMP9 in a sample obtained from a subject compared to a control representing expression of MMP9 expected in a sample from a subject who has low-risk prostate cancer.
CAPTURE AND RELEASE OF ACID GASSES USING TUNABLE ORGANIC SOLVENTS WITH BINDING ORGANIC LIQUIDS
A class of water lean, organic solvents that can bind with various acid gasses to form acid gas bound molecules having a high degree of intramolecular hydrogen bonding which enables their use as regenerable solvents for acid gas capture. Unlike the other devices described in the prior art, the present invention takes advantage of shortened distances between the portions of the molecule that form hydrogen bonds within the structures when loaded with an acid gas so as to create a molecule with a higher internal bonding affinity and a reduced proclivity for agglomeration with other molecules.
SEPARATOR ASSEMBLIES AND METHODS (iEdison No. 0685901-18-0025)
Here we disclose a device that filters large particles out of a mixture of particles of multiple sizes without the addition of "clean" liquid streams. Using the device in a cascade pair produces a stream of particles with a narrow and well defined particle distribution of large particles. The distinguishing features include separation without any moving parts, without the addition of a mass separating agent, and without the addition of energy (other than the energy provided by an external pump to drive fluid flow). Further distinguishing features include but are not limited to operation at Reynolds numbers high enough to be turbulent in configurations commensurate with pipe flow with a unique express lane structure. No clean (particle free stream) is necessary because the device takes one mixed input stream and provides two separated outlet streams, one of which has the large particles of interest. Cascades and arrays of the device may be used to tune the output for desired applications.
ORGANISM MONITORING DEVICES AND ORGANISM MONITORING METHODS
This application is related to U.S. Patent No. 10,236,920, issued on March 19, 2019, entitled "Signal Transmitter and Methods for Transmitting Signals from Animals". Multiple versions of the new RF transmitter have been designed to address the research needs for the three main bat species (hoary, eastern red and silver-haired bats) that are most frequently killed by wind turbines. Option A will focus on minimizing the transmitter size and weight to study the endangered species of Myotis that could be too small to use the current RF transmitters commercially available. Option B will prioritize service life over the transmitter size, weight, and detection range. This option targets the tracking applications for studying the migratory behavior of hoary, eastern red and silver-haired bats, while still staying under the 5% tag-burden guideline. Option C will have the longest detection range of the three while keeping the transmitter size and weight reasonable. This long-range version of the transmitter will be suitable for studying the potential landscape scale attraction of bats to wind turbines, as well as their fine-scale movements across one or more wind farms. It is also useful for tracking for other wildlife such as birds and aquatic species such as fish.
(VELOCYS) Devices with Extended Area Structures for Mass Transfer Processing of Fluids (Incorp. 14328-E PROV 1, 2, 3 and IR 14180-E)
This invention represents a new class of microreactors. Microchannel reactors have been proven very effective in providing rapid heat transfer to support highly exothermic and endothermic reactions, such as steam reforming. Typically, these reactors use an interleaved architecture where they are for heat transfer between the reaction channels and heat exchange channels is comparable to the area for mass transfer from the reaction flow channel to the adjacent catalyst structure. This invention is useful for classes of reactions that are either mildly exothermic or endothermic, utilize a catalyst with low or moderate activity, or require carefully controlled heat transfer, such as when establishing a temperature profiles down the length of the reactor. In these cases, the normal interleaved approach can lead to an excessive area for heat transfer relative to the are for mass transfer, resulting in an oversized reactor, an unnecessary small temperature driving force, and/or quenching of the ration. This invention allows for much higher mass transfer area relative to heat transfer area to overcome these limitations. A prototype water-gas-shift reactor has been designed utilizing this concept, including detailed heat transfer calculations. A finite element simulation of this reactor is anticipated in the next several weeks. A prototype reactor will be built and tested over the next several months. The reactor will include a section that will be operated with a temperature profile down the length between 410 degrees C and 275 degrees C to implement the differential temperature concept. Implementing this invention for the WGS reactor of a steam reforming fuel processor for automotive fuel cell power system dramatically reduces the size and weight of this component enabling the system to approach power density and specific power targets for the Freedom Car. In addition, this invention provides improved catalyst productivity, reducing the catalyst cost
CONTROLLED SYNTHESIS OF HIERARCHICALLY-STRUCTURED HYBRID MATERIALS THROUGH PEPTOID ENGINEERING
In nature, specific biomolecules interacting with mineral precurors are responsible for the precise production of nanostructured inorganic materials that exhibit complex morphologies and superior performance. Despite advances in developing biomimetic approaches, the design rules for creating sequence-defined molecules that lead to the synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials with predictable complex morphologies are unknown. To address this challenge, this patent application highlights a new peptoid-based biomimetic approach for controlled synthesis of hierarchically-structured metallic nanomaterials. Though the detailed investigation of some peptoid-controlled gold nanomaterial formation processes by engineering peptoid sequences and investigating the resulting particle formation mechanisms, we develop a rule of thumb for designing peptoids that predictively enabled the morphological evolution from spherical to coral-shaped nanoparticles. These individual coral-shaped gold nanoparticles exhibit a plasmonic enhancement as high as 105 fold. This research presented in this patent application significantly advances our ultimate vision of predictive bio-inspired materials synthesis using sequence-defined synthetic molecules that mimic proteins and peptides.
SOLID, HYDROPHOBIC AGGREGATORS AND METHODS OF MAKING AND USING THE SAME
This invention involves the design, synthesis, and application of a novel product to be used in the treatment of oil spills in aquatic environments. The product entails chemical modification of sawdust or wood flour (a cheap product of sawmills) to render it with hydrophobic, oleophilic, and buoyant properties. The resulting product is herein referred to as an aggregator. Aggregators modified with oleic acid (OA) were further modified with fatty acids (C3-C18) to cover surface hydroxyl groups on sawdust. The final products showed super hydrophobic and 44.2% enhancement of crude oil sorption relative to OA-modified aggregators. They also showed excellent stability and recyclability. The Invention Synthesis and property: Our earlier work included sawdust modification with OA (called 1st generation aggregator). The 1st generation aggregator entailed an oleic acid (OA: C18) modified 20-40 mesh pine flour. They showed 100-165% weight percent gain (WPG), excellent buoyance, and 4.17g crude oil sorption/g aggregator. Though they showed excellent properties and test results, XRD and TGA analysis suggested that improvements can be made to the aggregator to boost performance. We added second fatty acids with different alkyl chain lengths to the 1st generation aggregators, which have uncovered surface hydroxyl groups. We first prepared three base 1st generation aggregators: pine/OA-106, pine/OA-124, and pine/OA-160, where numbers indicate WPG of OA in pine sawdust. To the base aggregators, we added fatty acids with different alkyl chain lengths (C3, C6, C8, C10, C12, C14, C16, C18). We have several significant observations listed below: Pyridine is the most costly reagent in the synthesis ( > 45% of the materials costs). The used pyridine solvent contains HCl and p-Tosylate (p-Ts). In fact, a tiny amount of water does not affect the reaction. We tried to recycle (vacuum distillation after treated with KOH and magnesium sulfate) pyridine and about 60% pyridine was recycled. When different fatty acids were added to the base aggregators, fatty acids with C10-C14 showed highest WPG and all mixed fatty acid-modified aggregators showed very hydrodrophobic (much more hydrophobic than the base aggregators). XRD analysis showed that (002) peak of cellulose on aggregators modified with C10-C14 fatty acids was expanded from 4.23 to 4.60Å (original pine sawdust: 3.98Å) due to more fatty acids penetrated and modified. In the FT-IR spectra of aggregators modified with C10-C14 it was hard to observe OH stretching vibration at 3500cm-1, which indicates that all aggregators are superhydrophobic. The aggregators start decomposition at 230oC though the original pine does 328oC, and they leave less than 0.1wt% ash after burned off at 700oC. Crude oil sorption test: we tested our aggregators for crude oil sorption. Three base materials showed about about 4.5g crude oil/ g aggregator, and our new aggregators sorbed 5.0 -6.4g crude oil/ g aggregator. Specifically, pine/OA-106-C14 sample (second C14 fatty acid was chemically modified on pine/OA-106 aggregator) showed 6.4g crude oil/g, which is about 44.2% enhancement relative to that of the pine/OA-106. Crude oil sorbed pine/OA-106-C14 sample was recycled (washed with CH2Cl2). It is easily washed and showed same property.