Biomedical engineering and chemistry are two hot spots for innovation at the University of Memphis and its FedEx Institute of Technology. The institute was launched in 2003, and the university’s OTT was established just last year. Since then, Shaye Mandle, an attorney who serves as the institute’s executive director, and Kevin Boggs, PhD, MBA, director of technology transfer and research development, have cast a wide net. Boggs’ office oversees biotech research on the campus, while the institute provides research grants and assistance with patent costs. One of its star researchers is Warren Haggard, PhD, professor and director of the university’s biomedical engineering department. He has been developing a pellet-type delivery system that allows antibiotics to be administered to traumatic wounds at the scene of the injury. Haggard also is developing an antibiotic delivery system using a biodegradable sponge that delivers local antibiotics within a wound and then dissolves. A surgeon can soak the sponge in an antibiotic solution, trim it to fit the wound, and sew up the incision without having to perform follow-up surgery to remove the sponge. Haggard and his team have even devised a method to manipulate the sponge’s degradation time, depending on the amount of antibiotics to be released. “We’ve heard that orthopedic surgeons are clamoring for this,” Boggs says. The OTT is approaching medical device companies about the technology.<\/p>\n