(Jan. 21, 2009)  The University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office hosted its annual awards ceremony Jan. 12 to honor 10 faculty-researchers, two companies founded on university research and a Boulder business that has helped usher CU innovations to market.

UC Denver honorees include:

John F. Carpenter, professor of pharmaceutical biotechnology at UC Denver, co-direct the Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, who earned the Distinguished Interdepartmental Inventors Award along with Theodore W. Randolph, professor of chemical and biological engineering at CU-Boulder. Their research has generated improved methods for stabilizing vaccines during freeze drying and storage, techniques of significance in developing nations lacking proper medical storage facilities.

UC Denver’s John D. Carroll, professor of medicine in cardiology, and Shiuh-Yung (James) Chen, left, associate professor of medicine in cardiology, received the Inventors of the Year honor as they seek to improve diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in cardiac catheterization labs through advanced vascular imaging techniques.

Drs. Heide Ford, left, and Rui Zhao, right, are the UC Denver New Inventors of the Year for their work on Six1. Dr. Ford has developed methods to detect and treat carcinomas and screen for compounds effective against them, and Dr. Zhao is targeting bacterial signal transferring systems critical in breast tumor production with structure-based drug design.

Dr. V. Michael Holers was honored twice. Taligen Therapeutics Inc., of which he is a founder, was chosen Bioscience Company of the Year for their monoclonal antibodies and recombinant fusion proteins that modulate the alternative pathway of the complement system to treat a wide range of inflammatory conditions and diseases. He was also the Lifetime Inductee into the Pinnacles of Inventorship, a testament to his world expertise in complement biology.