The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation announced the winners of its annual Innovation Awards Tuesday, according to a university release.
This year’s winning inventions, a colon cancer screening blood test and a solar-powered way to possibly develop plant-based plastics, were selected from more than 380 inventions disclosed to WARF over the past 12 months.
“The Innovation Awards showcase the people and ideas that make the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the leading edge of scientific research in the nation and world,” Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of WARF, said in the release.
UW-Madison biochemistry professor Michael Sussman and his research team won one of the awards for their work in developing a blood test that could someday screen for colon cancer, providing earlier, easier and more detailed detection of the disease that affects almost 100,000 new people in the U.S. each year.
Current screening processes are largely limited to colonoscopy, which can seem invasive and expensive.
The new test would require a small blood sample and would screen for certain “red flag” proteins, according to the release. Testing in the early stages suggests the invention could detect cancer at earlier stages, which is vital for treatment.
Another winning team comprised of UW-Madison chemistry professor Kyoung-Shin Choi and postdoctoral fellow Hyun Gil Cha received the award for their use of solar energy to convert organic matter into industrial molecules.
The resulting molecules are used in industry to make polymer materials, pharmaceuticals, antifungal agents, organic conductors and much more. They could also eventually be used to make plant-based, sustainable plastics.
“It’s still early but there are people in industry already interested in our work,” Choi said in the release. “We’re putting two different fields together—biomass conversion and solar energy.”
Each winning team of inventors receives a $5,000 prize from WARF to continue their research.
