Successes Borne of SBIRNASA'S SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION Research (SBIR) program focuses on small business research and commercialization. It increases opportunities for small businesses to participate in federal research and development, to foster and encourage socially and economically disadvantaged persons to participate in technological innovation, to increase employment, to improve overall U.S. competitiveness and to stimulate U.S. technological innovation. Beating Back BacteriaSBIR-supported technology from a company that makes the only space-certified and approved-for-flight water purification system flown on all Shuttle missions since 1990 has been applied to develop a commercially available bacteria-beating dental unit. MRLB International Incorporated of River Falls, Wisconsin, has designed DentaPure®, a dental waterline purification cartridge developed using NASA water purification technology. MRLB's unit can clean and decontaminate water as a link between filter and dental instruments. The purification cartridge can be installed in seconds and changed, not daily, but once a week. For use on high-speed dental tools and other instruments, the cartridge is easily installed on all modern dental unit water lines. This cartridge for dental use incorporates a resin technology developed by Umpqua Research of Myrtle Creek, Oregon. Umpqua has been awarded a number of SBIR contracts by NASA's Johnson Space Center. As an answer to contaminated dental unit water, the product furnishes disinfected water, maintaining water purity even with suckback. Complete with a tiny membrane, the cartridge is crafted to remove or destroy bacteria to levels that meet or exceed American Dental Association recommendations for dental unit water quality. A Stirling IdeaLow-temperature refrigerators, medical diagnostic equipment and sophisticated electronics—all these are benefiting from cryocooling technology. Stirling Technology Company (STC) of Kennewick, Washington, designed a line of cryocoolers under SBIR contracts with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Marshall Space Flight Center. STC has advanced Stirling engine technology from the 1800s into the space age. Unparalleled in energy efficiency and versatile in performance, Stirling engines can be converted to make refrigerators and to chill to cryogenic temperatures. Commercialization of the product was initially marketed to laboratories that require cryogenic refrigeration and for medical applications. A new linear motor, invented by Dr. Syed Nasar from the University of Kentucky, accommodated low-cost mass production assembly and fabrication tech niques. STC's tests and refinement resulted in a line of low-temperature refrigeration equipment that sports long life, low maintenance and high reliability and attains high safety characteristics. STC believes that niche markets are likely to evolve for power generators that are highly efficient, reliable, maintenance-free and multi-fuel compatible and produce ultra-low emissions. Supported by company research funds, 10-watt and 350-watt power generators have been built. Multiple units have been sold to government and commercial customers for evaluation purposes. STC's forecast is a demand for turn-of-the-century generators that offer a capacity in the three-kilowatt range. Since its incorporation in 1985, STC has received more than $22 million in research and development contracts from both government and commercial clients. Space Age Probes Shine a Light on Tumors to Save LivesSurgeons have used a special lighting technology, developed by a Wisconsin company to conduct plant research in space, in two successful operations to treat brain cancer on Earth. Before the surgeries, Dr. Harry Whelan, a pediatric neurologist and professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and his colleagues performed experiments whose results indicate that when special tumor-fighting drugs are illuminated with Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), the tumors are more effectively destroyed than with conventional surgery. "A young woman operated on in May has fully recovered with no complications and no evidence of the tumor coming back," Whelan said. The woman turned to NASA technology after exhausting all other options. "A young man who underwent surgery in August is still recovering, but everything looks great, and thus far there is no evidence of the tumor reoccurring." The treatment technique called Photodynamic Therapy uses tiny pinhead-size LEDs developed through SBIR contracts to activate light-sensitive, tumor-treating drugs. The program is managed by the Technology Transfer Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. To ensure that other promising LED medical applications are investigated, NASA recently selected a Phase II SBIR proposal for negotiation with Quantum Devices Inc. of Barneveld, Wisconsin, the company that initially developed LEDs for commercial plant-growth investigations on the Space Shuttle. The light source, consisting of 144 tiny diodes, is compact—the size of a small human finger about a half inch in diameter—and mechanically more reliable than lasers and other light sources used to treat cancer. The entire light source and cooling system is only the size of a medium suitcase. The LED probe can be used for hours at a time and remains cool to the touch. The entire LED unit can be purchased for a fraction of the cost of a laser. Whelan has used the probe on a trial basis with Food and Drug Administration approval for the removal of children's brain tumors and anticipates this operating technique to be the tool of the future. His technique involves injecting a drug called Photofrin II into the patient's bloodstream. The drug attaches to unwanted tissues and permeates them, without affecting the surrounding tissues. The solid-state LED probe is placed near this permeated tissue, illuminating the tumor and activating the drug to destroy the tumor cells and leaving tender brain stem tissues virtually untouched. Visit Dr. Whelan's web site at http://www.mcw.edu/whelan "This technology has been successfully used to further commercial research in crop growth," said Mark Nall, manager of NASA's Space Product Development Program, part of the Microgravity Research Program Office at Marshall. "Now, a small business has taken the technology and adapted it for an entirely different role to help people here on Earth. With the help of NASA's Small Business Innovative Research program, Quantum Devices and the Medical College of Wisconsin have turned commercial space technology into a new medical device." LEDs, as a low-energy light source, were used on NASA's second United States Microgravity Laboratory Spacelab mission in October 1995, as part of the Astroculture Plant Growth Facility. The experiment was led by Dr. Raymond J. Bula of the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics in Madison, a NASA Commercial Space Center. Commercial Space Centers, supported by NASA, pursue opportunities for continued growth of U.S. industry through the use of space. Medical Practice Makes PerfectHealth care providers strive to provide more efficient service in a competitive and cost-conscious world. The pressures of managed care can put a tremendous strain on physicians, staff and certainly the patients themselves. Paperwork can overwhelm all concerned, just in monitoring treatment effectiveness and reimbursement. Cedaron Medical, Inc., of Davis, California, manufactures a range of products to increase clinical productivity, thereby enhancing patient care. Its Dexter Outcomes workstation provides a friendly data collection system for the occupational therapy, physical therapy, orthopedic surgery and plastic surgery fields. The system, based on an SBIR contract, is crafted to minimize paperwork shuffle and to establish a more cost-effective and efficient medical care facility. Outcomes analysis measures a hospital's performance in several ways:
As a result of earlier work with NASA, today Cedaron has computer systems installed in Asia, Europe, South America and across the United States. For more information, contact Carl Ray of NASA's SBIR program at
NASA Headquarters. Call: 202/358-4652, Fax: 202/358-3878, E-mail:
cray@hq.nasa.gov |
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