Inventor:
Edgar O'Rear III
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Description
Using nanotechnology, a research team led by Edgar O’Rear III, Francis W. Winn professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, has developed a cotton fabric that is water repellent while still retaining its most desirable features – softness, comfort and breathability.

Individual fibers of white cotton fabric are covered with an ultra-thin, virtually imperceptible coating that makes the fabric hydrophobic yet still comfortable. A water droplet placed on top of a flat swatch will sit over the fabric for hours without being absorbed.

Potential applications for the hydrophobic cotton include clothing – particularly outerwear – as well as tents, cardboard boxes and other packing material, bed and table linens and disposable diapers.

Inventor:
Doris Benbrook
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Description
The much lesser known but life-threatening Polycystic Kidney Disease – manifested by multiple cysts on the kidneys that grow and multiply over time, ultimately causing renal shut-down – strikes more than 600,000 Americans and an estimated 12.5 million people worldwide. Currently, dialysis and transplantation currently are the only forms of treatment.

Doris Benbrook, professor and director of research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the OU Health Sciences Center, leads a team of scientists that has developed a synthetic Vitamin A retinoid compound that induces potent apoptosis, a natural form of cell suicide in cancer cells, but that, unlike current cancer therapies, is not toxic to healthy cells.

Inventor:
James McGinnis
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Description
The technology proposes the use of cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoparticles for neuronal protection of retinal cells from damage due to reactive oxygen species. The technology is initially proposed as a preventative treatment for age-related macular degeneration and light-induced retinal degeneration. It is further proposed as a potential treatment for a variety of diseases and conditions attributable, in whole or in part, to apoptosis induced by reactive oxygen species.

These conditions include other eye diseases, such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy as well as other diseases and conditions, such as strokes, cardiac infarction, pulmonary fibrosis, neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s), and diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system.