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CRADA Paves Way for Advancing Medical Imaging and Disease Management
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| Fitz Walker of Bartron Medical Imaging LLC (left), Dr. Jennifer Diederich and Dr. Alan Lurie of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine view dental X-ray images with the Med-Seg™ viewer. |
Officials from NASA have announced the signing of the CRADA with the New Haven, Conn.-based business. The agreement will enable the joint development of a three-dimensional version of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s recursive hierarchical segmentation (RHSEG) software. This software can be used to analyze image, and potentially nonimage, data and benefit medical imaging and disease management.
In the past, space act agreements have been primarily used for partnerships, under which NASA has no authority to agree in advance to issue a partner an exclusive license to the resulting technology patents. The collaborator may be granted an exclusive license only after NASA publishes notice in the Federal Register that the collaborator has applied for such a license. If no other applications or objections are received within a certain time frame, then the license can be granted.
Because other government agencies routinely use CRADAs, industry is more familiar with those partnership agreements. “It is our hope that this CRADA with Bartron will stimulate more partnerships between NASA and industry,” says Keith Dixon, patent attorney in Goddard’s Office of Patent Counsel. “These partnerships can benefit not only American industries but also the American people.”
According to Dixon, this CRADA grants in advance a partially exclusive license for the resulting technology patents within Bartron’s fields of use, including the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, cervical cancer, brain cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and periodontal diseases.
The CRADA is particularly beneficial for Bartron because investors require a guarantee of exclusivity before they provide the necessary investment capital to proceed with a development effort. This investment would not have been possible with a space act agreement.
Major Breakthrough Technology for Early Diagnosis and Treatment
Currently, Bartron sells the Med-Seg™ imaging device, which uses the two-dimensional version of the RHSEG software. The device is designed to analyze digital X-rays, soft tissue scans, mammograms, ultrasounds, MRI images and CT scans for the diagnosis and management of diseases. Because the RHSEG software produces segmentations of an image, the Med-Seg device can reveal image details that the naked eye could not previously see. As a result, physicians can more quickly and accurately diagnose diseases and prescribe appropriate treatment — a benefit that can not only relieve pain and suffering, but also save lives.
By enhancing the software’s capabilities to three dimensions, Bartron’s device might be able to produce a much finer detailed view — down to the pixel level — of all sides of a tumor or lesion. Bartron President and CEO Fitz Walker says, “We believe this will drastically improve very early diagnosis and treatment of disease.”
Although current technology produces 3-D imagery, the RHSEG software will be able to segment that image data in ways that very clearly define problem areas. For example, Bartron anticipates that the 3-D version of Med-Seg might be able to identify very early buildup of soft plaque within the arteries of the heart, enabling early treatment and potentially reducing the need for bypass surgeries.
In mammography, Med-Seg has the potential to identify density levels of microcalcifications, thereby discovering a malignant breast tumor well before it would have been seen in a traditional mammogram.
In addition to diagnostics applications, Walker anticipates that the new version of Med-Seg will be capable of real-time 3-D analysis in interventional medical procedures.
Another important aspect of Med-Seg is its ability to provide physicians with truer images than are available with other image-analysis devices. Med-Seg does not manipulate an image, so what the physician sees is truly what is there. To assist in the further development of Med-Seg, Bartron is seeking physicians’ input on ease of use, what they need to see, how they want to see it, and how they want to save and retrieve data.
It is anticipated that future NASA projects will be able to take advantage of the 3-D extension of the software. Patent attorney Dixon says, “While we don’t have a crystal ball to see what lies in the future, there is always a benefit to further developing a technology. It is very likely this 3-D implementation will benefit NASA as well as our quality of life.”
“Since a primary application of this technology is for medical imaging, it is reasonable to expect that NASA may also be able to use this technology aboard the international space station or in support of the NASA Exploration Initiative for Moon/Mars exploration and/or colonies,” says Nona Cheeks, chief of Goddard’s Office of Technology Transfer.
Partner Roles
Under the agreement, each party will work independently. Dr. James Tilton, lead researcher in the RHSEG project who spent more than 20 years developing the suite of RHSEG technologies for use in remote sensing, will develop the 3-D implementation for the basic hierarchical segmentation software as well as the recursive formulation, including artifact elimination and parallel extensions. He will perform all testing, produce documentation, and assist with installation and integration with Bartron’s hardware at the company’s facility at Prince George’s County Technology Assistance Center in Maryland.
Bartron is responsible for developing the clinical and regulatory protocol, the interface for the software and hardware, a data compression and encryption tool, and a region labeling tool.
Bartron Medical Imaging and NASA have an established relationship that dates to 2002, when NASA issued a nonexclusive license to Bartron for its RHSEG software.
For more information, contact NASA Goddard’s Office of Technology Transfer, (301) 286-5810, techtransfer@gsfc.nasa.gov.
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NASA and Lehigh University Announce Joint Research Agreement
A new joint research agreement will give NASA officials access to Lehigh University’s nanotechnology and electron microscopy facilities. The collaboration will help NASA develop technologies for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is scheduled to replace the renowned Hubble Space Telescope in 2011, as well as for Mars rovers and other spacecraft.
The unique facilities at Lehigh’s Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology in Pennsylvania provide an excellent opportunity for NASA to expand its capabilities without incurring the expense of building or acquiring the facilities.
“It takes time and money to build labs like Lehigh’s,” says researcher Dr. Brian Jamieson of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “We often work with universities, and agreements like this one let NASA benefit from their investment while giving something back to the school.”
The partnership also gives Lehigh students and faculty the chance to conduct real-world research with NASA.
Professor Richard Vinci, director of Lehigh’s Nano- and Micro-Mechanical Behavior Laboratory (NMBL), says the collaboration will help advance understanding of the behavior of aluminum thin films, measuring only nanometers in thickness, when they are exposed to harsh temperatures in space (30 K or minus 406 F). A nanometer (nm) is one billionth of a meter.
“The benefits of this collaboration to the Lehigh NMBL are threefold,” says Vinci. “We will have the opportunity to work on devices that are technologically important, we will gain the ability to test thin films in torsion through collaborative use of NASA’s facilities, and we will have a strong justification for further developing cryogenic thin-film testing capability in our own laboratory. Torsional, temperature-dependent fatigue behavior in metal thin films is currently an unstudied area, and little is known about any thin film mechanical behavior at the extremely low temperatures relevant to NASA, so there should be many opportunities to make fundamental discoveries.”
Professor Chris Kiely, director of Lehigh’s Nanocharacterization Laboratory, says the collaboration with NASA will help Lehigh learn how to make its world-class electron microscopes more easily available to users at remote sites. Of specific interest to NASA is Lehigh’s new JEOL 2200FS aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope (TEM), which enables scientists to simultaneously image and chemically analyze individual columns of atoms in crystalline materials.
About NASA’s Research
One of the many instruments that will fly aboard the JWST is the near infrared spectrograph (NIRSpec), which is used to study galaxy and star formation, chemical abundances, active galactic nuclei, and more. NIRSpec’s aperture contains tiny shutters that can be programmed to open and close individually as required for space observations. The microshutters are made up of thin films, whose performance at cryogenic temperatures and under torsional (or twisting) stress is not fully understood.
Under the agreement, NASA will have access to Lehigh’s NMBL, which has unique tools for studying the properties and mechanics of thin films. These include a tool for sputter deposition of metal alloy films of arbitrary composition, and several instruments that can characterize the mechanical behavior of nanometer-thick metal films over a wide range of temperatures with unparalleled resolution.
“The behavior of thin films under these conditions is a virtually untapped area of research,” according to Goddard’s Michael Beamesderfer. “This research collaboration will not only provide us with a very useful understanding of the thin film materials used in the microshutters, but also begin to build a foundation for materials selection for future missions.”
NASA researchers also will use Lehigh’s NMBL to test miniaturized low-leakage valves for use in mass spectrometers and other science instruments. “Mass spectrometers could be used on a rover to understand the chemistry of Mars, such as whether the methane that’s been observed is biogenic,” says Jamieson.
The problem is that current spaceflight mass spectrometers are too large to be used in all the ways that space scientists prefer. Miniaturizing an instrument’s valves is one way to reduce the size of the overall system, thereby improving its effectiveness in searching for signs of life on the Red Planet. However, those valves also must provide high-quality, long-term performance without leaking. “Working with Lehigh will help us to improve the valve interface to ensure the seals are effective after repeatedly opening and closing,” says Jamieson.
Remote Use of Lehigh’s Electron Microscopes
Lehigh has the most extensive collection of electron microscopes of any U.S. university. The aberration-corrected JEOL 2200FS TEM has an image resolution of 0.1 nm, which is equivalent to about half the width of an atom. Internet 2 and special software developed by JEOL enable scientists at remote sites to operate the microscope— and view specimens — at their computers.
“Up until recently, remote microscopy has been cumbersome and not really practical,” says Kiely. “But Internet 2 and better software are making it more viable for someone at NASA to do experiments in our labs. The only thing you cannot do remotely is to load a specimen. Everything else — setting the apertures, controlling the alignment and acquiring data — can be done remotely.
“If you’re working at a remote lab, after a few minutes, you don’t realize that you’re not sitting right in front of the microscope.”
Goddard’s lead nanotechnology researcher, Dan Powell, plans to establish an operation interface to enable access to Lehigh’s instrument from Goddard’s facilities. The ability for off-site study of micro- and nano-scale structures should demonstrate the potential for space-based remote microscopy. Under the agreement, Lehigh can provide a Goddard researcher with up to 100 hours of JEOL TEM instrument time and equipment for remote demonstrations.
“This kind of real-time remote access to cutting-edge equipment is great for NASA,” says Powell. “Not only does it minimize our infrastructure costs, which is a benefit to the taxpayer, but it also allows us to establish an ongoing relationship that will continue to benefit NASA well into the future.”
For more information, contact Ted Mecum, Goddard Space Flight Center, (301) 286-2198, Ted.Mecum@nasa.gov.
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SBIR Partnership Leads to Industrial Opportunities
Cincinnati-based A&P Technology, with the support of NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, has developed an approach to manufacturing affordable composite fan cases with damage-tolerant braided fiber architecture to address the issue of containing failed fan blades in aircraft engines. A&P Technology has developed this technology for future product lines through partnerships with Williams International and Honeywell International and sponsorship with General Electric Aircraft Engines.
The braided fan case has a toughness superior to aluminum and enables significant reductions in weight and fuel consumption. This new, low-cost manufacturing process has helped to reduce the weight of the largest structure in a high-bypass aircraft engine by more than 30 percent. This approach is recognized as one of the most promising emerging technologies in the nation. It also contributed to the Jet Engine Containment Concepts and Blade-Out Simulation Team’s receiving the Turning Goals into Reality (TGIR) award.
Unique collaborations and in-kind contributions between large and small businesses, the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, Ohio State University and the University of Akron enabled rapid development and fabrication of prototype composite fan cases for direct comparison to the metal fan cases currently used in aircraft engines. This technology is supported by a $260,000 SBIR Phase III award from the Aviation Safety and Security Program and will explore improvement in the design of composite sandwich structures.
For more information, contact Dr. Gary D. Roberts, NASA Glenn Research Center, (216) 433-3244, Gary.D.Roberts@nasa.gov or Pam M. Schneider, A&P Technology, (513) 688-3286.
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GeoSyntec Consultants Receives STTR Contract and License Agreement for KSC’s Environmental Cleanup Technology
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has signed a nonexclusive license agreement with GeoSyntec Consultants for the use and sale of Emulsified Zero-Valent Iron (EZVI). The innovation, developed by environmental researchers working under the directions of KSC’s Dr. Jacqueline Quinn, and professors from the University of Central Florida, employs the use of zero-valent iron in an emulsion formula to reductively dechlorinate DNAPL sources in polluted groundwater.
GeoSyntec intends to market this technology to clients across North America, Europe and Australia. Additionally, GeoSyntec has been awarded funding from the DOD Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) to enhance the application of this technology through further laboratory and field demonstrations. During the early history of the space program, the ground around Launch Complex 34 (LC-34) at Kennedy Space Center was polluted with chlorinated solvents used to clean Apollo rocket parts. Dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) were left untreated in the ground and contaminated the fresh water sources in the area. DNAPLs are a common cause of environmental contamination at thousands of DOE, DOD, NASA and private industry facilities. Industrial operations including dye and paint manufacturers, dry cleaners, chemical manufacturers, metal cleaning and degreasing facilities, leather tanning facilities, pharmaceutical manufacturers and adhesive and aerosol manufacturers can have problems with DNAPLs.
GeoSyntec Consultants Inc., a small, environmental consulting and groundwater remediation services company with commercialized specialty products for groundwater remediation, played a key role in supporting Kennedy Space Center’s efforts in testing this cost-effective method of treating the contaminated sites. GeoSyntec completed demonstration testing of the EZVI technology under the NASA STTR program for the Cape Canaveral Air Station Launch Complex 34 (LC-34) in 2002 and 2003.
For more information, contact Max Green, Kennedy Space Center, (312) 867-4322, gary.green-1@ ksc.nasa.gov.
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