This technology includes two safe harbor gene targeting donors, specifically designed for applications in the study of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). These include the pAAVS1D-CMV.RFP-EF1a.copGFPpuro and pAAVS1-iCLHN donors. A key feature of these donors is their ability to integrate various transgenes into specific loci through homologous recombination, facilitated by sequences homologous to safe harbor loci. When paired with TALENs targeting these loci, these plasmids enable precise and efficient genome engineering in human cells.

This technology includes AAVS1 and C13 “safe harbor” transcription activator-life effector nucleases (TALENs) for drug screening or gene therapy applications. TALENs are engineered sequence-specific DNA endonucleases that can significantly enhance genome-editing efficiency by >100-1000 folds. “Safe harbor” such as AAVS1 safe harbor and C13 safe harbor is genome locus that allows robust and persistent transgene expression with no or minimal interference of endogenous gene expression and cell properties.

This technology includes a microscopy method that reduces the speed penalty at least 1000-fold, while retaining resolution improvement. A Digital mirror device (DMD) or sweptfield confocal unit is used to create hundreds to thousands of excitation foci that are imaged to a sample mounted in a conventional microscope and record the resulting emissions on an array detector. Detection of each confocal spot is done in our proprietary software, as is the processing and deconvolution that is used for a 2x resolution enhancement.

This technology includes a method which enables high-speed, super-resolution microscopy at a very high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), for biological applications within ~200 nm (the evanescent wave decay length) of a coverslip surface. Instant TIRF/SIM may be implemented simply by modifying and adding to the excitation optics that are already present within a conventional instant SIM design. We enforce TIRF excitation by removing all wave vectors that propagate into the objective lens at sub-critical angles.

This technology includes a microscopy technique that combines the strengths of multiview imaging (better resolution isotropy, better depth penetration) with resolution-improving structured illumination microscopy (SIM). The proposed microscope uses a sharp line-focused illumination structure to excite and confocally detect sample fluorescence from 3 complementary views.

This technology includes an illuminator and reflector that enables flexible standing wave illumination on an inverted microscope stand, and procedures for using such illumination to improve axial resolution in confocal or instant SIM imaging systems. The axial resolution in conventional fluorescence microscopy is typically limited by diffraction to ~700 nm. This method that improves axial resolution ~7-fold over the diffraction limit, and that can be applied to any fluorescence microscope.

This technology includes a newly designed, truncated Evans Blue (EB) form which allows labeling with metal isotopes for nuclear imaging and radiotherapy. Unlike previous designs, this new form of truncated EB confers site specific mono-labeling of desired molecules. The newly designed truncated EB form can be conjugated to various molecules including small molecules, peptides, proteins and aptamers to improve blood half-life and tumor uptake, and confer better imaging, therapy and radiotherapy.

This technology includes algorithms and software that improve the speed of iterative deconvolution, a common method for improving spatial resolution and contrast in fluorescence microscopy images. These algorithms also improve the registration of multiview datasets, and apply deep learning to accelerate spatially varying deconvolution.

This technology includes a number of dimeric RGD peptides which been developed and labeled with various PET isotopes (1BF, 68Ga, and 64Cu) for imaging integrin expression in cancer, inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis, myocardial infarct, stroke and traumatic injury. A number of these peptides have been translated into clinic for diagnosis and therapy response monitoring.

This technology includes the use of atorvastatin, a medication to manage hypercholesterolemia, as a method to protect patients receiving cisplatin from hearing loss. Cisplatin chemotherapy is indicated in various cancer types in adults and children and is known to cause hearing loss. A patient on atorvastatin during chemotherapy is 46% less likely to acquire a significant cisplatin-induced hearing loss relative to a non-statin user. Atorvastatin is an FDA-approved medication routinely prescribed and well-tolerated clinically.