Winners Announced in 2008 Collegiate Inventors Comp...(s Hall of Fame andrepresentatives from t...),Health

The prominent group of judges for this year's competition includes seven National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees: Robert Bower (self-aligned gate MOSFET), Edith Flanigen (molecular sieves), Thomas Fogarty (embolectomy catheter), Donald Keck (optical fiber), William Murphy, Jr. (disposable medical trays and sealed blood bags), Rangaswamy Srinivasan (excimer laser surgery), and James West (electret microphone). In addition, the judging panel includes Jeff Pan, Senior Project Leader, Scientific Informatics & Automation from Abbott, and Jasemine Chambers, Group Director from the USPTO.

"At Abbott our entire business is focused on advancing science, and we know first-hand the importance of inspiring the next generation of innovators," said Abbott's Jeff Pan. "We are excited to see the inventions from the winning students and all the finalists and hope their work will make a lasting impact on improving people's lives."

"The winners of this year's competition are truly impressive," Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office Jon Dudas commented. "The ingenuity of their work will help sustain America's role as the world's leader in technology and innovation."

Grand prize winner, Timothy Lu, 27, is a California native in the M.D./Ph.D. program at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. While working at a hospital, Lu was bothered by the infectious outbreaks he witnessed in many patients. Lu knew that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are usually treated with stronger and stronger antibiotics, leading to subsequent decreases in the antibiotics available for the treatment of future infections as resistance continues to evolve. Lu used synthetic biology to create a sustainable source of antimicrobial therapies for the future. The tools Lu developed may see broad use such as attacking superbugs, tr
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