November is the National Health Food Month in Canada. In support of this annual initiative, the Industry Liaison Office in partnership with the Drug Design and Discovery Research Group (DDDRG) from the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition hosted the Functional Foods, Nutraceuticals & Natural Health Products workshop on Nov. 7, 2011.

The objectives of this workshop are to foster and accelerate academia and industry relationships and to address the growing need for scientific research on the benefits of health foods. With the support from our industry partner, Northern Nutraceuticals, the funding agency, NSERC, and BioAccess Commercialization Centre, this workshop was successful and we have assembled 10 Saskatchewan based companies with a variety of natural products in their pipelines. During the workshop, the DDDRG experts showcased their research interests and expertise, University, ILO and Tri-council funding representatives identified funding partnerships and opportunities, and  academic and industry representatives exchanged ideas and identified several opportunities for collaboration in new natural product development.

( Dec. 6, 2011)

A team of researchers from the U of S have been awarded the 2011 Innovation Place-U of S Industry Liaison Office (ILO) Award of Innovation for creating technology to help transform greenhouse gases into gasoline and other fuels.

Hui Wang, Ajay Dalai, and Jianguo (Jack) Zhang from the College of Engineering, have developed a catalyst used to transform carbon dioxide and methane - both potent greenhouse gases - into synthesis gas, or syngas, a basic feedstock for producing gasoline and other fuels.

“This technology is a real game changer in that it allows us to simultaneously address the problem of greenhouse gas as well as the need for energy,” said Glen Schuler, managing director of the U of S ILO.

Co-sponsored by Innovation Place and the U of S ILO, the Award of Innovation honours U of S researchers who are commercializing their technologies. The winners were announced at the Celebrate Success Business Awards Gala in Saskatoon May 18th.

Last December, the ILO brokered a deal to licence the catalyst technology to California-based Carbon Sciences Inc. The catalyst eliminates a major development hurdle for the company, which was stymied by problems such as carbon deposits that fouled their own catalysts.

Meanwhile, after a decade of effort, the U of S team had developed a solution: a catalyst that offers high conversion rates with no significant carbon build-up. This allows it to remain active over long periods of time – more than 2,000 hours in bench top tests. The team’s research is funded through the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

( May 19, 2011)

University of Saskatchewan researchers behind groundbreaking fuel technology, a poultry vaccine and advanced crop development were announced as finalists for the Award of Innovation at the SABEX “Celebrate Success!” reception yesterday evening.

“The technologies developed by these researchers are enriching our lives through improvements in poultry health, the creation of new and better food crops and the reduction in greenhouse gases,” said Glen Schuler, managing director of the U of S Industry Liaison Office (ILO). “Our city and our province has and will continue to, benefit for many years to come due to investment this research brings.” Co-sponsored by Innovation Place and the University’s Industry Liaison Office, the Award of Innovation honours U of S researchers who are commercializing their technologies.

“We’re excited by this year’s group of finalists,” said Austin Beggs, vice-president for corporate relations at Innovation Place. “Many of the enterprises at Innovation Place are built on ideas that began at the U of S and many of the highly qualified people that work here are U of S graduates. We’re proud to celebrate the successes that help bring novel products and processes to the marketplace.”

The award finalists are:

• Hui Wang, Ajay Dalai and Jianguo (Jack) Zhang from the U of S College of Engineering have created advanced catalysts used to transform carbon dioxide and methane - both potent greenhouse gases - into synthesis gas, or syngas, a basic feedstock for producing gasoline and other fuels. California-based Carbon Sciences, the company that has licensed the technology, calls it a “game changer” for the oil and gas industry, allowing fuels to be produced near greenhouse and natural gas sites and aiding the drive to global energy independence.
• Susantha Gomis from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine and Suresh Tikoo from the School of Public Health and Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) have developed a hepatitis vaccine for broiler chickens. The vaccine was co-invented with Davor Ojkic from the University of Guelph. Inclusion body hepatitis is a serious problem for the poultry industry, killing between 10 and 30 per cent of infected flocks. The new vaccine is administered to the parent birds, who then transfer their immunity to the disease to their chicks. The ILO is working to license this technology to several companies for use in Canada and the United States.
• Brian Rossnagel is one of Canada’s best known crop scientists and a world expert in oat and barley genetics. Based at the U of S Crop Development Centre (CDC), he is responsible for more than 90 new cultivars, several of which are the preferred varieties for western Canadian farmers. Sown on millions of acres every year, these varieties have generated more than $3 million in royalties for the CDC to date. Unique varieties include the first hull-less barley, the world’s first high oil, low lignin hull feed oat, and a low-phytate barley which can help reduce environmental impact of high intensity hog operations.

For more information, click here.

(April 11, 2011)

A catalyst that helps turn greenhouse gases into gasoline and other fuels has been licensed to California-based Carbon Sciences through the University of Saskatchewan Industry Liaison Office (ILO).

The exclusive world-wide agreement, announced December 27, 2010, eliminates a major development hurdle for Carbon Sciences' dry reforming of methane technology. This technology transforms carbon dioxide and methane - both potent greenhouse gases - into synthesis gas (syngas), a basic feedstock for producing gasoline and other fuels.

While the company had made some progress in developing a catalyst, it was stymied by problems such as carbon deposits that fouled the catalyst. Meanwhile, U of S engineering professor Hui Wang and his team had developed a catalyst - the product of a decade of development - that fit the bill. It offers high conversion rates with no significant carbon buildup, which means the catalyst remains active over long periods of time. Wang's team has successfully tested the catalyst for 2,000 hours of continuous operation in a bench top reactor.

More information on the agreement and Carbon Sciences's breakthrough greenhouse gas transformation technology is available online here.

(Jan. 6, 2011)

An agreement between the University of Saskatchewan Industry Liaison Office (ILO) and CollegeMobile , creator of the popular iUsask application, will allow the company to further develop and market the highly sought-after technology to national and international markets.

iUsask allows students to access information such as grades, campus and class information on their iPhones or other mobile devices. The agreement with the ILO transfers ownership of the technology used to develop the application to CollegeMobile. In return, a share of the profits from commercializing the technology will come back to the university.

"Ultimately our goal is to start successful companies and we think CollegeMobile is a great success story," says Glen Schuler, ILO Managing Director. "The iUsask technology was created by talented U of S researchers and computer programmers. Our office worked with them to establish CollegeMobile. It is an excellent example of our vision to commercialize creativity at our university."

The original motivation for developing iUsask was to demonstrate the practical value of the new technology while developing materials for workshops, and eventually, a class on mobile devices. The ingredients necessary to take iUsask to the next level - vision, a great range of technical skills, and organization - combined with a will and drive to make the app the first of its kind in Canada. The final product was so robust it was released as an official service to the university population garnering over 3,000 downloads in its first three months of operation.

"It turned out to be so functional that it regularly received national and international recognition," says Lorna Shaw-Lennox, ILO Start-Up Company Specialist. "After receiving a lot of enquiries from other universities on how they could have an application built for their students, we realized there was a niche. We also had an entrepreneurial inventor who wanted to start up a company and take the technology to market. He has already expanded beyond this niche."

For more information, click here.

(Nov. 5, 2010)