Article
Move Over Einstein...
Utah’s Universities Have Come Up With Some Pretty Cool Stuff
Linda T. Kennedy
August 1, 2008
Some people might think a university is a place where future geniuses only begin cutting their teeth. But some of the stuff that’s originated from Utah’s university tech transfer offices could help Q restock James Bond’s arsenal, motivate Lance Armstrong to consider new wheels and put Utah on the Internet security map.
GUARDION-7™
Torion Technologies
Portable, fast and easy to operate, the Guardion-7 is the world’s smallest capillary gas chromatograph-toroidal ion trap mass spectrometer (GC-TMS) system designed for rapid (less than five minute) detection of a wide variety of compounds. Breaking it down, this briefcase can find chemical warfare agents, explosives, environmental pollutants and hazardous substances. Q: “Be careful 007!”
BYU Technology Transfer office
Captmail
Xapio, Inc.
The patent pending Captmail email server filter solves the problem of tracking confidential and large documents from email clients with no plug-ins. Users can securely send any size file to anyone with their email client (i.e. Outlook). While recipients retrieve the files from anywhere with any browser and the sender has tracking ability.
University of Utah Technology Commercialization Office
Fizzix™
General Mills
A classic “What will happen if we mix this with that?” tale, Fizzix™ isn’t your grandma’s yogurt. General Mills’ new carbonated yogurt product found its humble beginnings in the lab of BYU professor Lynn Ogden, when he threw a block of dry ice into a bucket of yogurt. Before it was in your grocery story, it outsold traditional yogurt at the Creamery, BYU’s on-campus dairy store.
BYU Technology Transfer Office
Arantix
Delta 7 Sports
Arantix is the only mountain bike in the world featuring patented IsoTruss carbon fiber and Kevlar spider web-like open lattice tube designs. For those non-bikers, this means the Arantix has an extremely strong and light bike frame. The bike is also the first commercial product to utilize IsoTruss technology, a see-through design with a “hard-tail” (no shock absorbers) frame weighing less than 2.7 pounds. Now that’s really tricked out.
BYU Technology Transfer office
Levacor™ Ventricular Assist Device (VAD)
WorldHeart Inc.
Designed to save, extend and enhance the quality of life for people who suffer from advanced heart failure, the Levacor™ VAD is the only bearingless, fully magnetically levitated implantable centrifugal rotary pump to have seen clinical use. Implanted in the patient, it’s expected to provide improved blood compatibility and reduced need for anticoagulation therapy, thus potentially reducing bleeding and thromboembolic complications. That’s improved quality of life in a heartbeat.
University of Utah Technology Commercialization Office
LouseBuster™
Larada Sciences Inc.
There are more than 10 million cases of head lice in the United States annually and during the last five years, the problem has increased because lice have developed widespread resistance to the pesticides used in both prescription and over-the-counter medications. Who you gonna call? LouseBusters™, a patent-pending, chemical-free, hairdryer-like device that exterminates lice and eggs in a single treatment with heated air.
University of Utah Technology Commercialization Office
