Kent State Professor Christopher Woolverton, a biosensor expert, and the university’s Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development (OTTED) have been invited to showcase their innovative  anti-terrorism technologies and public health preparedness materials for members of Congress at a homeland security fair Wednesday, April 2. The fair is being held at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C.

The invitation-only event will showcase the work of the OTTED in bringing technological advances to market. The office has worked extensively with faculty members and with two biosensor startup companies, Tallmadge’s Oringen LLC and Pathogen Systems Incorporated, which operates a lab in Rootstown. Both companies are licensing technologies from Kent State and incubating ideas to help in the fight against bioterrorism on U.S. soil. The advances in the emerging liquid crystal biosensor technology are the result of collaboration between faculty at Kent State and the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy.

Kent State’s OTTED also has been recognized as an economic development catalyst for not only facilitating licensing agreements, but for fostering Oringen and PSI’s success and commitment to Northeast Ohio.

The homeland security event is an opportunity for members of Congress to inspect the latest technologies available to protect the United States from terrorist activity here.

Woolverton, a professor of biological sciences at Kent State, has been prominent in the development of biosensor technologies utilizing liquid crystals. The sensors can detect the presence of biological agents including those used as terrorist tools.

Woolverton also is director of the Kent State University Center for Public Health Preparedness which is dedicated to finding solutions to the threat of bioterrorism. The center operates as part of a partnership between Kent State and numerous other academic, industrial and government agencies. Initial funding for the projects came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of Education. Numerous public health workers have been trained on the university’s Kent Campus at the state-of-the-art Biosafety Training Laboratory. The center also has received contracts to train hospital lab workers this summer.

The OTTED is responsible for translating Kent State’s cutting-edge research into patented, real-world products, prototypes and services. It serves as a comprehensive resource for entrepreneurial ventures, providing leads to venture capital, management talent, and office and lab space, and is widely recognized for facilitating numerous start-up companies.

For additional information about the OTTED, contact Gregory Wilson at 330-672-0704 or greg.wilson@kent.edu.

Woolverton may be reached at 330-672-4648 or cwoolver@kent.edu.

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