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Office Of intellectual PrOPerty

Volume V 2010

Driving Innovation to Market



Letter from the Vice ProvostUCLA technologies highlighted in this issue hold

enormous promise for many areas of medicine,as well as for wireless communication and early

childhood education.

Monitor on the MoveA typical mobile phone equipped with a camera

and GPS can be a remarkably robust tool for

scientic research.

On-Time DeliveryTechnologies that could revolutionize the

detection and treatment of cancer.

Ending Electronic GridlockGiven our insatiable appetite for ever-smaller

and more functional mobile devices, is it time to

eliminate physical connections?

Seeing for ThemselvesCool Tools help teachers turn students’ incidents of

misbehavior into teachable moments.

A Leg UpThe new on-campus incubator offers faculty

researchers state-of-the-art labs where they can

start companies to market their discoveries.

Unmistaken IdentityThanks to UCLA’s research in bioengineering,

doctors can now make exact diagnoses quickly in

order to prescribe the precise antibiotics needed.

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Straight to the HeartUCLA researchers have developed a breakthrough

technology that can prevent dangerous air bubbles

from entering a patient’s bloodstream during

cardiac procedures.

Synthetic SolutionsBridging the gap between biological and man-made

polymers could lead to a solution to antibiotic

resistance.

A Better WayDevelopment of a groundbreaking test to measure

the blood level of a hormone that regulates iron

uptake leads to a startup venture.

A Longer ReachThrough a long-standing interest in microscopy

invasive technologies, a bioengineering professor is

reducing the need for open surgeries.

Not-So-Strange BedfellowsDentistry relies heavily on engineering for

development of advanced materials for

reconstructive surgery and other uses.

An Improved ImageUCLA is at the cutting edge of efforts to develop

technologies enabling physicians to observe

physiological processes without disturbing a

patient’s body.

A Big PayoffBusinesses join with UCLA’s Schools of Engineering

and Theater, Film and Television to solicit students’

best ideas for Internet-based ventures.

OIP at a GlanceSuccess stories from UCLA’s Intellectual Property

portfolio.

C o v e r a r t b y R o g e r L e

e

ContentsC

17



As a public land-grant institution, UCLA

has a three-part mission: education, research

and service. The three parts are integrated

and complement one another.

UCLA strives to address its servicemission in ways that return benefts to

Caliornia.

Our technology incubator program,

launched last year in the Caliornia

NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), exemplifes

the novel approaches that UCLA uses to

address these expectations. The incubator

nurtures translational and applied researchand speeds the transer o technology rom

lab to market, where it can make a real

dierence in people’s lives. As a result, new

businesses arise, creating new jobs. Already,

UCLA’s teaching incubator program has

accepted 11 startup companies, seven o

which have already moved in.This issue o UCLAInvents highlights

several o the incubated companies,

along with other UCLA technologies.

The products they seek to develop hold

astounding promise in such areas as optical

biopsy, antibiotic resistance, reconstructive

dentistry, heart surgery, imaging,

noninvasive medicine, and detectionand treatment o cancer. Others could

revolutionize wireless communication and

early childhood education.

Students play a critical role in the

technology transer process. For example,

through the Price Center or Entrepreneurial

Studies in the UCLA Anderson School

o Management, MBA students help thestartups prepare to meet with potential

investors, providing market analysis and

developing business plans. In the process,

the students hone their own entrepreneurial

skills, preparing to become the business

leaders o the uture.

Through all o these eorts, the

entrepreneurial spirit continues to spreadacross our campus, enabling UCLA to be an

even stronger economic engine or Caliornia

and an even greater contributor to the well-

being o people everywhere.

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Kathryn Atchison, D.D.S., M.P.H.

LLetter from the ViCe ProVost

Ofce o Intellectual Property | 2010



Monitor on the Move When most of us look at a cell phone, we see ahandy tool or keeping in touch with amily andriends. But when Deborah Estrin looks at a cellphone, she sees something more. She sees a devicethat can radically enhance the way scientists gatherand analyze data about our world.

Estrin, a proessor o computer science witha joint appointment in electrical engineering, isounding director o the NSF-unded Center orEmbedded Networked Sensing (CENS). “When we began the center over eight years ago,” she explains,“it was about placing sensors in an environment,up close to the action. And analyzing this data withcomputers, we could then measure the results.”

This approach only made sense, however,

when attempting to measure something with fxed boundaries. You could embed sensors in a bridge ora building or an airplane, or example, to monitorits structural integrity. But Estrin and her colleaguesound that in order to observe and measure changesin a larger swath o the environment — a orest, a

neighborhood or a village — mobility is essential.Fortunately, this realization coincided with arevolution in communication technology.

“My research now,” she says, “is almost entirely based on leveraging the worldwide network o mobile phones and engaging the people who chooseto carry these devices around with them.”

A typical mobile phone equipped with a cameraand GPS has proven to be a remarkably robusttool or both scientifc research and consumer

applications. Current projects range rom helpingthe National Park Service monitor invasive weedspecies that threaten local ecosystems, to usingsmart phone applications to collect data relatingto health and saety in the Boyle Heights sectiono Los Angeles. In addition, a recently undedNIH activity will support new mothers at risk o cardiovascular disease, allowing them to monitordiet, exercise and stress actors.

“Whether you’re interested in chronic diseasemanagement or prevention, or conditions ranging

rom diabetes to depression, you’re using the samemobile phones,” explains Estrin. “It’s just dierentsotware that you download and dierent data that you’re looking or.”

That, says Estrin, is what makes her work sorewarding. The sotware she develops is copyrighted by UCLA and is available to other researchersthrough ree open-source licensing. Theseresearchers are then ree to adapt it as they see ft tomeet a variety o individual needs.

“We see our role as trying to help createinnovations that have impact,” Estrin says. “Theseare systems that people can go out and adapt ortheir own use. So the best measure o success is when people are, in some sense, taking the ideasand running with them.”

debOrah

estrin

is a professor

of computer

science and

electrical

engineering

at UCLA andfounding director of the NSF-funded

Center for Embedded Networked

Sensing. Her current work focuses

on participatory sensing systems,

leveraging location, image and

user-contributed data streams

available globally from mobile

smart phones. Projects include

participatory sensing campaigns

for civic engagement and privacy-

aware self-monitoring applications

for health and wellness. Her

recognitions include the Anita Borg

Institute’s Women of Vision Award

for Innovation and election to the

American Academy of Arts and

Sciences and the National Academy

of Engineering.

2

CoPyrightC




On-Time Delivery When Hsian-Rong Tseng talks about his work,he oten turns to analogies. His conversation airly bristles with allusions to things like Velcro andcocktails and even cruise missiles. This is, perhaps,an occupational hazard when you work day in andday out with arcane concepts like microuidics and

supramolecular nanoparticles. An associate proessor in molecular and medical

pharmacology, Tseng began his career as a chemist,and did postdoctoral work in molecular electronics beore entering medical school in 2003. It is notsurprising then that his lab on the UCLA campus isknown or its wide-ranging research interests. Thecommon theme, however, is innovation with an eyetoward using new technologies to advance the causeo patient care.

“We want to make our technologies useul,”says Tseng. “The ultimate purpose is to translatethis knowledge to the clinical side. I my researchcannot be used in a clinical setting, we will reuse todo it.”

Tseng is currently ocused on two technologiesthat could revolutionize the detection andtreatment o cancer. The frst, licensed toNanoPacifc Holdings, uses a supramolecularsynthetic approach to produce large mixes o nanoparticles. These nanoparticles can be used

to destroy cancer cells with targeted therapeuticpayloads, thereby avoiding damage to surroundingtissues. The selectivity o these nanoparticles alsogives clinicians an unprecedented ability to time thedelivery o therapeutics.

“With conventional ‘cocktail therapy,’ ” explainsTseng, “the two treatments you give the patientmay have dierent unctions or dierent kinetics.One may arrive frst, and when the second arrivesthe frst has already been cleared. With our

approach, we now have a ‘cruise missile’ that carriestherapeutics with synergistic eects to the cells,delivering and releasing them at the same time.”

Tseng’s second area o interest is a diagnostictool designed to detect circulating tumor cells in the blood o cancer patients. He likens the technology to a Velcro pad covered with nanostructures.These structures attach themselves to the hairlike

structures typically ound on the suraces o cancercells, making it possible to detect the presence o atumor through a simple blood test.

“When cancer cells start the process o metastasizing, they break away rom the primary tumor and enter the bloodstream,” he notes. “So

the presence o tumor cells in the blood is a very important marker or monitoring cancer progression.This is a powerul diagnostic technology. We justneed to draw 1 to 5 mL o patients’ blood to see i itcontains circulating tumor cells.”

Tseng’s team has produced a prototype device based on the concept. Its eectiveness will beevaluated at two primary testing sites in the Los Angeles area: City o Hope and Cedars-SinaiMedical Center. UCLA is seeking to license

this technology through a startup, CytoScaleDiagnostics.

hsian-rOng

tseng’s

research

interests

are in the

development of

nanostructured

materials andmicrouidic platforms as enabling

technologies for facilitating

the advancement of molecular

diagnostics (imaging) and

therapeutics, as well as in vitro

diagnostic devices for cancer. He

envisions that a systems-oriented

integration of new-generation

in vivo molecular diagnostics/

therapeutics and in vitro diagnostic

devices might lead to a paradigm

shift in cancer diagnosis and

treatment. Tseng was trained as a

synthetic organic chemist and is

currently on the faculty of the David

Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

3

LLiCensing




LLiCensing

Seeing or Themselves

Once the toothpaste has been squeezed out o the tube, it is virtually impossible to put it back in. “Once you say something and your words come out, it’s really hard to take them back,” says JanCohn, a teacher at UCLA Lab School, the laboratory elementary school o the Graduate School o Education and InormationStudies. “So maybe it’s a good idea to think beorehand about the words you’re going to say.”

Adults understand this warning intuitively. But or the average5-year-old, it isn’t always easy to wrap one’s mind around suchabstract notions. So when Cohn and her colleagues need to

illustrate the point to children, they reach instinctively or their box o Cool Tools. This set o lesson plans, teaching guidelinesand physical props was developed by Ava de la Sota and severalcolleagues at the Lab School. Ater a brie session o trying to putreal toothpaste back in the tube with toothpicks, the studentsusually get the point.

Taking advantage o these “teachable moments,” as Cohndescribes them, is the driving idea behind Cool Tools. Althoughde la Sota has let the lab school, her colleagues there haveimplemented the Cool Tools approach, and Cohn believes thisapproach has made a big dierence in her students’ behavior.

“I have seen that the tenor o the whole school is very dierent,”she says. “It used to be that kids would get very physical or putother kids down. That has changed. They know that that’s not

acceptable. We’re very clear that there are ways to deal with it. Inmost elementary schools, i kids do something wrong they get introuble. But getting in trouble doesn’t teach you anything. So wetreat these as learning opportunities, and that’s a big shit.”

It is such a change, in act, that Pam Harper, a physicaltherapist rom Woodinville, Washington, is licensing Cool Tools.She hopes to demonstrate their eectiveness in the Seattle area’sNorthshore School District. I successul, she hopes to distributethem nationwide through her company, Children’s IntegratedMovement Therapy. From her perspective as a counselor and

physical therapist, Harper views Cool Tools as an approach thatcould signifcantly reduce student behavior problems, especially when implemented schoolwide.

“When you use these tools and props, rather than justdiscussing complex ideas with young kids, they can see it literally frst,” she explains. “And then through time they can start to graspconcepts at a more complex level. I like that. And I like the ideao the toolbox with all o the examples and amiliar objects, sokids can have pictures in their heads and start to orm those ideasgradually.”

With growing concerns about the eects o anti-social

behavior and bullying in the nation’s schools, Cohn and Harper believe that Cool Tools represents an important alternative totraditional approaches to enorcing discipline.

5Ofce o Intellectual Property | 2010



6

A Leg UpEvery day, researchers at UCLA make discoveries andperect technologies that even a decade ago wouldhave been considered the stu o science fction. Butsometimes, doing the impossible is the easy part.Turning these discoveries into viable products andservices can be an even greater challenge. In an eort

to ease the transition rom laboratory to marketplace,the Caliornia NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) andthe Oce o Intellectual Property created UCLA’sfrst on-campus incubator. Launched in 2009, theincubator oers aculty researchers part o a modern2,000-square-oot laboratory where they can developtheir ideas and orm startups that can become sel-sustaining, stand-alone companies in just a ew years.

“Serving as an engine or the Los Angeleseconomy is one o UCLA’s most critical obligations

as a great public research university,” says UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. “Creating sustainable private businesses is one o the important ways we ulfll thatresponsibility. The incubator at CNSI will go a long way toward ensuring that promising new frms stay here, in Los Angeles, instead o leaving the regionand state.”

At the time o this writing, 11 promising startupshad received approval to share space in thetechnology incubator. Two o these — WaveConnexInc. and Holocope LLC — are eatured elsewhere in

this year’s edition o UCLA Invents. Three more — Aneeve Nanotechnologies, Matrix Sensors Inc. andLibrede Inc. — are profled below.

Aneeve NanotechnologiesExploiting the unique properties o carbonnanotubes, Kang Wang and his team at theUCLA Department o Electrical Engineeringhave developed a new generation o ultrasensitive biosensors based on semiconductor technology.

Wang hopes to commercialize this revolutionary carbon nanotube technology in the orm o a low-

cost, consumer-based meter that can be used toinstantly measure levels o the hormones estrogenand progesterone.

“When a woman is going through menopause,say, she could track her hormone levels and use thisinormation to mitigate the symptoms,” explains

Wang. “And another potential application is assistingcouples who are having a hard time getting pregnant.Using this meter to measure the woman’s hormonelevels, they could accurately track their peaks andthereby increase the chances o ertilization.”

Working with Kosmas Galatsis, Wang oundedthe company Aneeve Nanotechnologies, which isnow headquartered in the technology incubator.

“From the company point o view, the importantaspect o being in the incubator is that we do not

have to spend huge amounts o money purchasingequipment and setting up labs,” says Galatsis. “That’salready done.”

Wang adds that the incubator’s support or business development is just as valuable as thelaboratory acilities. “The companies in the incubatorare linked to the Anderson School o Management,”he notes, “and they have a program — theTechnology Innovation Program — that links us to agroup o very talented students who are interested inmarketing and other specialties. This is an integral

part o the incubator, and it has been very helpul.”

LibredeJacob Schmidt, an associate proessor in theDepartment o Bioengineering and co-ounder o Librede, believes that one o the incubator’s biggestdraws is the act that it is on campus.

“It is really great,” he says, “because it’s about 300eet away rom my lab. It’s so easy to walk back andorth that we can communicate and meet on the spur

o the moment.”Schmidt also likes the act that the incubator

on-CamPus inCubatoro

Illustration by Marc Rosenthal




provides a place to meet regularly with entrepreneurs who don’t necessarily share his research interests, butace common challenges in getting their businesseso the ground.

“We have chatted,” he says, “with some people inthe incubator who are in dierent stages o corporate

development. So it’s been good to get their eedbackon the kinds o things we’re going through now thatthey have already gone through. That’s pretty useul.”

Librede is currently developing disposable biochips that can be used to measure ion channelactivity. Because ion channels regulate the owo ions through cellular membranes and thereby regulate electrical activity within the cell, they areo vital interest to researchers who study everythingrom cardiac unction to electrical behavior within

the brain. Traditional methods or studying ionchannels, however, are cumbersome and requireequipment that is both expensive and dicult to use.

The biochips that Schmidt and his colleagues havedeveloped overcome this diculty by dispensing with cells altogether. Employing inexpensiveartifcial membranes, they measure ion channelactivity at a raction o the cost associated with oldertechnologies. The implications or basic research areenormous, but Schmidt believes the simplicity o thistechnology also will attract a lot o attention in the

pharmaceutical industry.“The biggest impact o our artifcial membrane

platorm may be in drug discovery and drug saety screening,” he explains. “There is a really big,unmet need or higher throughput and lower-cost ion channel screening technologies in thepharmaceutical industry. There are a number o diseases attributed to ion channel deects thatmay be improved by drugs. Conversely, i a drugunintentionally interacts with ion channels in yourheart or your brain, that’s going to be a big problemnecessitating withdrawal o the drug.”

With Librede, Schmidt believes he and his

team could address these areas to speed developmento new drugs at lower costs.

Matrix Sensors

Matrix Sensors is another incubator-based company that is attempting to leverage UCLA’s expertise

in chemistry and nanosystems into a successulproduct line. Using technology developed jointly by researchers at Stanord University and atUCLA by Distinguished Proessor o Chemistry Jim Gimzewski, Matrix is currently developingmicrochips that carry an array o small, extremely sensitive mass detectors. These detectors aremade chemically or biologically sensitive by theapplication o a special nanoscale chemical layerto the detector areas. When molecules bind to that

material, the increase in mass can be measured,making it possible to detect molecules o specifc bacteria as well as proteins and DNA, and thusdiagnose early stages o illness.

“Given that the sensor chip can hold a lot o dierent sensors, it can be used or multiple paneltype assays,” explains Matrix CEO Mike Cable.“You can put dierent materials on each one anddo airly sophisticated assays in a relatively simple,inexpensive ormat.”

Like Wang, Galatsis and Schmidt, Cable

believes the existence o the incubator at CNSI hassignifcantly reduced the challenge o bringing thistechnology to market.

“Access to their acilities has been absolutely key to the progress that we’re making,” he says.“This incubator program has not only allowed usthe use o the CNSI equipment, it’s designed to makeus part o the UCLA community. That has been really helpul or a startup. A startup is just what the namesays. You don’t have anything. Having all that stu

immediately available has been great.”

7

oon-CamPus inCubator




One of the most persistent ears in modernmedicine is the prospect that a drug-resistantorganism — the so-called superbug — will makeits way into the general population, renderingpenicillin and other common antibiotics ineectiveand, ultimately, useless.

Physicians agree that the best way to prevent thisis to become ever more discriminating in our useo antibiotics. Instead o reaching immediately or the most powerul drug in the pharmacy,doctors should select the antibiotic that besttargets the inection they are attempting to treat.Unortunately, traditional tests or bacterialinections take two to three days to produce results.So when a patient is suering, the physician’snatural impulse is to reach or the most powerulantibiotic available.

David Haake, proessor o medicine at UCLA’sDavid Geen School o Medicine, likens thisapproach to a gambling habit. “It’s like going toLas Vegas,” he says, “and needing to win every time you place a bet. The consequences o using

the wrong antibiotic are so great that doctors endup covering their bases by treating patients or allpossible inections. So why not fnd out in advance what’s really causing the inection and use a simplerantibiotic like penicillin whenever possible? Savethe more advanced antibiotics or the patients who

really need them.”Haake believes the answer lies in cutting

down the time required to make a diagnosis. Andusing technology that he and his colleagues at theUCLA Bioengineering Research Partnership havedeveloped, it is now possible to make these diagnosesin minutes instead o hours or days. The research,sponsored by the National Institute o Allergy andInectious Diseases, currently ocuses on urinary tract inections and employs a system o DNA probes

that bind to species-specifc regions o ribosomalRNA. The probes work like supermarket barcodescanners to quickly identiy bacteria in clinicalspecimens. These probes, in turn, are linked tosignal-generating enzymes that can be read by eitherelectrochemical or optical sensors. This approach isnot only aster, it is more sensitive as well.

“Currently, even the very best laboratories only report bacteria down to ten to the ourth, or 10,000 bacteria per milliliter o urine,” says Haake. “Ourdetection system is now sensitive to something like

500 bacteria per milliliter. And we’re trying to getit down to the 100-per-mil level. I we can get thisinormation to a doctor and his or her patient in arapid way, they can use antibiotics more judiciously.Rather than treating everybody the same, thepatient gets the best antibiotic or their inectionright rom the start.”

UCLA has licensed the team’s DNA probetechnology to Qvella, a Toronto-based startup. According to Qvella CEO Tino Alavie, the company will use the probes in combination with an opticalsensor system. And while Haake and his associateshave thus ar ocused their attention on inectionso the urinary tract, Alavie hopes to adapt thetechnology or use in the diagnosis o a variety o inectious diseases.

Unmistaken Identity david haaKe

is a professor

of medicine

in the division

of infectious

diseases at the

David Geffen

School ofMedicine at UCLA and a leader

in the elds of polypeptide

synthesis, self-assembly of block

copolypeptides, and biological

activity of polypeptides. He has

been recognized by the National

Science Foundation, the Ofce

of Naval Research, the Arnold

and Mabel Beckman Foundation,

the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,

the Camille and Henry Dreyfus

Foundation, the Materials

Research Society and the IUPAC

Macromolecular Division. In

addition, he was recently named a

fellow of the American Institute of

Medical and Biological Engineering.

8

startuPss

Illustration by Richard Mia




Straight to the Heart Performing modern heart surgery is a lot likethreading a needle. Cardiologists enter the heartthrough the body’s circulatory system and, usingprecisely engineered catheters, can perorm a variety o delicate, liesaving procedures. They canreplace leaky valves. They can correct abnormal

rhythms. And they can do it all using minimal andmicroinvasive approaches, without the trauma andexpense o major surgery.

However, the very procedures that can savea patient’s lie carry their own risks. Perhaps themost signifcant is the possibility o accidentally introducing air bubbles into the patient’s bloodstream.

“These minimally invasive surgical proceduresare now very common,” says Kalyanam Shivkumar,director o the UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Centerat the David Geen School o Medicine. “But when you go inside the heart, there is always therisk that air can get sucked into it, and that is very dangerous. I a lot o air gets in, the heart just stops. And i bubbles o air get into the blood, they can goto the brain and cause a stroke. This is particularly a serious risk in children undergoing heartprocedures. It’s a well-recognized problem, but todate there has been no active solution to prevent it.”

Shivkumar and his UCLA colleagues believe they

have ound that solution. Their technology, whichShivkumar describes as a breakthrough, eectively prevents air bubbles rom entering the bloodstreamduring cardiac procedures.

“When you watch science fction movies andpeople get into a space capsule,” he explains, “they

don’t just open a door and go out into outer space.They go into an intermediate chamber and theninto outer space. In other words, it’s sequential.Essentially, we have created sequential valvesso that anything that enters the heart has to gothrough a sequence like an air lock. Or in this case,

an ‘air bloc.’ This has wide implications or any procedure involving the cardiovascular system.”

Shivkumar and his team intend to bring thistechnology to market through the startup company EP Dynamics, which he and several associatesounded in 2009. The company has attractedfnancial backing rom a number o privateinvestors and has negotiated a licensing agreementthat will allow it to commercialize the intellectualproperty patented by UCLA. The FDA has already approved the sale o the company’s Air Bloc™transseptal sheath system in the United States.

“This is an area o major importance,”Shivkumar explains, “because more and morecardiovascular procedures are going to be done by catheters and not by surgery.”

He believes that once this technology is widely adopted it could have a signifcant impact on theoverall saety o these procedures, improving thequality o care available to all cardiac patients.

Image shows the LinebackerTM system developed by

EP Dynamics Inc., housing an innovative patented valve

mechanism that protects the vascular system from air

entry. This system dramatically improves safety of cardiac

procedures.

Kalyanam

shivKumar

specializes in

interventional

cardiac

electrophysiology.

He heads a

UCLA researchgroup that is developing

innovative techniques for the

nonpharmacological management

of cardiac arrhythmias. He also

serves as director of the UCLA

Cardiac Arrhythmia Center at the

David Geffen School of Medicine

at UCLA and as academic director

of cardiac electrophysiology at the

VA West Los Angeles Healthcare

Center. He received his medical

degree from the University of

Madras, India, and is certied by

the American Board of Internal

Medicine in the subspecialties of

cardiovascular disease and clinical

cardiac electrophysiology. He is a

fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society

and the American College of

Cardiology.

9

sstartuPs




timOthy

deming

chairs the

bioengineering

department at

UCLA, where he

is a professor

of bioengineering, chemistry andbiochemistry. He is a leader in the

elds of polypeptide synthesis, self-

assembly of block copolypeptides and

biological activity of polypeptides. He

has been recognized by the National

Science Foundation, the Ofce of

Naval Research, the Arnold and Mabel

Beckman Foundation, the Alfred

P. Sloan Foundation, the Camille

and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, the

Materials Research Society and the

IUPAC Macromolecular Division. He

was recently named a fellow of theAmerican Institute of Medical and

Biological Engineering.

10

Synthetic SolutionsIt is altogether too easy or most o us to takethings or granted. I we see a spider web in a cornero the basement, or example, we see somethingthat needs to be swept away. But when Tim Deminglooks at that same spider web, Deming — a chemist who currently chairs the UCLA bioengineering

department — sees something more.“There are a lot o biological polymers out there,”

he explains. “Things like proteins, carbohydrates,DNA. And many o these have interestingproperties that we don’t usually fnd in mostsynthetic polymers or conventional plastics. A goodexample is something like spider silk. It’s one o thestrongest fbers known. It’s better than anythingman can make.”

Which doesn’t mean a man can’t try, however.Hence, Deming and his colleagues are working to bridge the gap between biological and man-madepolymers, hoping to synthesize in their lab materialsthat actually mimic the properties o naturally occurring substances.

Deming’s interests are wide ranging. But henotes that his current research has a number o potential commercial applications and NanoPacifcHoldings, a high-tech startup, is actively exploring ways to license these technologies and bring themto market.

Perhaps the most promising technology is anantimicrobial based on chemical substances known

as peptides. These compounds, which bind to thecell membranes o microbes and punch holes inthem, could represent an important response tothe growing problem o antibiotic resistance. “Theadvantage here,” explains Deming, “is that thesesubstances don’t ollow very specifc pathways into

the cell. The old antibiotics get into the micro-organisms and interrupt them through very specifc biochemical pathways that are crucial to theorganisms’ survival. Normally, the microbes fgureout a way around this, or they synthesize a moleculethat inhibits the antibiotic, thereby creating a drug-resistant strain o bacteria.”

Deming hopes to create libraries o syntheticpeptide molecules that can destroy an array o microbes. These could then be incorporatedinto antimicrobial lotions or sprays, providinga potentially low-tech solution to a high-profleproblem.

Deming says that he is motivated in large part by the thrill o discovery. But the potential ortranslating his research into commercially viableproducts is always on his mind.

“I’ve been working in the polypeptide materialsarea or about 15 years now, and the idea all alonghas been trying to make something useul,” he says.“We try to do things that have some potential or

commercialization rather than being so expensive orcomplicated they could never be used or anything.”

startuPss

Photo by Joe Gough




A Better Way It has long been recognized that iron is essential tomaintaining human health and vitality. But iron is benefcial only as long as the body maintains properlevels o this mineral. Too little iron can result in a variety o debilitating anemic conditions. Too muchcan lead to potentially atal oxidative damage in the

heart and liver.In 2001, UCLA researcher Tomas Ganz reported

the discovery o hepcidin, a hormone that regulatesiron uptake and distribution in the body in muchthe same way that insulin regulates glucose. Heand ellow researcher Elizabeta Nemeth went onto develop the frst test or measuring levels o hepcidin in humans. The test, however, was basedon an analysis o urine samples, and this, says Ganz, was a less-than-optimal approach to the problem.

“We were assuming that the amount o hepcidinin urine reects the amount in blood,” he explains.“The amount in blood, however, is the essentialquantity, because the blood hepcidin initiates the biological activity, and hepcidin in urine is only anestimate o the blood hepcidin. We assumed thatthe two track together. But in act there may besituations where the two do not track together, andthe blood value is the correct one and the urinary value is in some ways alse.”

“So,” says Nemeth, “it is more accurate to

measure hepcidin levels in the blood itsel.”The solution to this problem came rom an

unlikely source — Mark Westerman’s private-sectorresearch on the striped bass. Westerman and hiscolleagues had discovered a fsh “homologue” o thehuman hepcidin molecule and developed a sensitiveassay to measure hepcidin in the fsh’s bodily uids.

Ater Westerman explained his discovery toGanz and Nemeth, the three agreed that combining Westerman’s proprietary technology with theUCLA antibody used or the urine assay wouldenable them to produce a more sensitive methodor measuring hepcidin in humans. Taking thisapproach, they developed a test that measureshepcidin levels directly in samples o human blood.The blood test is not only more accurate, it alsoeliminates the diculties associated with collectingand handling urine samples. And in situations

where a rapid, noninvasive test is needed — inpediatric oces, or example, or resource-poordeveloping countries — it also enables aster andeasier measurement o urinary hepcidin.

The three researchers decided to bring thisgroundbreaking diagnostic test to market through

the creation o a startup venture, IntrinsicLieSciences. A transer agreement negotiated withUCLA gives Intrinsic access to antibodies that Ganzand Nemeth have produced in their lab. Theseantibodies are currently being used in tests thatmeasure hepcidin levels in clinical samples romdrug trials.

Ganz and Nemeth continue their research atUCLA while serving as advisors or Intrinsic. “Wehave our own research agenda,” Ganz explains. “We would like to move on and discover other things.”

While applied research is vital, the tworesearchers agree that without private-sectorinvolvement, it could be something o a utileexercise. “The only way that we can makesomething happen,” says Ganz, “is i we convinceprivate enterprise entities to take advantage o what we have learned. Otherwise, no practical results willow rom what we do.”

tOmas ganz

is a co-founder

of Intrinsic

LifeSciences, a

UCLA professor

of medicine and

pathology, as

well as a UCLAfaculty member in pulmonary

and critical care, hematology,

and oncology. Since 1983, he has

studied the biology of host defense

peptides. He has also contributed

to the revolution in iron biology

and the understanding of iron-

related disease. He helped found

Intrabiotics and has consulted

for major biotechnology and

pharmaceutical companies. He holds

a Ph.D. in applied physics from the

California Institute of Technology

and an M.D. from UCLA. He trained

in internal medicine and pulmonary

critical care at UCLA and has served

on the UCLA faculty since 1983.

11

Hepcidin (shown in green) is produced in the liver. By causing

degradation of the iron exporter Fpn, hepcidin blocks the

ow of iron into plasma from the duodenum, spleen and liver

(blue). Hepcidin production is regulated by erythropoiesis, iron

loading and inammation (purple).

ttransfer agreements


Plasma

Fe-Tf

LiverSpleen

Duodenum

RBC

hepcidin

Bone Marrow

Erythropoietic signal

Iron signal

Inammation

hepcidin

hepcidin

FPN

FPN

FPN



At frst, it might be easy to mistake WarrenGrundest or an ambitious entrepreneur or businessman. The companies he has helped oundinclude Advanced Interventional Systems, IntramedLaboratories and Cogent Light Technologies. Hehas also served as a limited partner at SequoiaCapital Technology Partners and has worked as aconsultant to General Electric, Pfzer and UnitedStates Surgical Corporation.

Grundest, however, is a medical man by trade.He began his career as a general surgeon andcurrently serves as a proessor o bioengineeringand electrical engineering at UCLA, while alsositting on the board o directors at CASIT, UCLA’sCenter or Advanced Surgical and InterventionalTechnology. He believes that it is only natural thathis work has led him so oten to the point wherescience and commerce intersect.

It’s fne to make discoveries in the laboratory,”he explains, “but i you really want to helppeople, you have to translate this technology intoproductive capacity.”

Grundest parlayed an early interest in lasersand optics into the successul development o tools or exploring the body through angioscopy and microendoscopy. This, in turn, led to thedevelopment o tools not only or cardiac and vascular procedures, but also or laproscopy,arthroscopy, gynecology and neurosurgery.

Today, Grundest ocuses on two primary felds o interest: optical biopsy techniques and

prosthetics. Both, he notes, are natural extensionso his long-standing interest in minimally invasivetechnologies that extend the reach o physicians,surgeons and researchers alike.

The ability to perorm an optical biopsy, heexplains, eliminates a big step in the treatment o many diseases. “I you can make the diagnosis atthe time you do the biopsy, you can then decide totreat it. This urthers the goal o converting opensurgeries to minimally invasive procedures.”

Grundest’s growing interest in creating betterprosthetic devices can be traced back to this research.

“When you use robots or surgery,” he explains,“one o the problems is that you have no idea howhard you’re pressing on the tissue or pulling onthe suture. So in an attempt to restore eeling, weput sensors on the tips o surgical instrumentsand relay that inormation back to the thumb and

the orefnger using tiny balloons that inate anddeate, depending on the pressure that you’reapplying. So we said, ‘Well, i we can do it or asurgical tool we can do it or a prosthetic limb.’ ”

Such an undertaking requires expertise thatinevitably crosses traditional academic boundaries,and Grundest believes this is part o what makesCASIT unique.

“It is very important to understand that thecurrent state o medicine requires interdisciplinary solutions,” he says. “You can’t just be a biologist ora physicist anymore. The junction o these two is where progress is made.”

A Longer ReachWarren

grundfest,

a leader in

image-guided

therapies and

medical device

design and

development,holds 15 patents, with ve more

pending. His research interests

include minimally invasive surgery,

optical diagnostics, medical

robotics and advanced medical

imaging technologies, and he

has participated in a number of

corporate and venture technology

development programs.

At UCLA, Grundfest holds faculty

appointments in bioengineering,

electrical engineering and surgery,

and he serves on the executiveboard of the Center for Advanced

Surgical and Interventional

Technologies, where he is also

principal investigator. A fellow of

the American College of Surgeons,

he has published more than 225

papers and 46 book chapters.

12

ProfiLesP

Photo by Tomasz Kaczmarczyk




Not-So-Strange BedfellowsDentistry might well be considered the Rodney Dangerfeld o medical specialties. It is an essentialpractice, yes. And most o us visit our dentistsdutiully twice a year. But compared to brainsurgeons, say, or cardiologists, dentists don’t alwaysget the respect they deserve.

Unless, o course, the dentist happens to beBen Wu.

Wu, who currently serves as vice chair o UCLA’sDepartment o Bioengineering and holds academicappointments in dentistry, materials science andorthopaedic surgery, began his career as a generaldentist in the San Francisco Bay area. He shared anoce with a prosthodontist — a specialist who treatssevere conditions that require the reconstructiono the mouth and jaw. “Prosthodontists areconsidered the super dentists,” Wu recalls. “They arereerred the most dicult cases, in both technicalcomplexity and case management. It made what Idid seem pretty ordinary. I knew I wanted to be aprosthodontist.”

As Wu amiliarized himsel with the programsavailable around the country, he sought aterthose that oered strong research opportunitiesas well as specialty training. This led him to enrollin a Harvard/MIT program that combined aprosthodontics residency with Ph.D. training in

materials engineering.Engineering and dentistry seem at frst glance

to be odd bedellows. But Wu notes that moderndentistry relies heavily on the development o advanced materials and predicts that reconstructivesurgeries will also be transormed by new materials.

At UCLA Bioengineering, Wu ocuses on a“biomimetic” strategy to regenerate a wide variety o tissues by building the proper environment orthe cell.

“We want to know, o all the millions o actorsthat could normally induce tissue to develop in

the frst place in embryos — and later as a persondevelops — what are the two or three key actorsthat we could control and engineer to induce thedamaged tissues to repair properly and reliably.”

Wu explains that control is a crucial variable inthis work. A growth actor that is not suciently specifc — one that could cause bone or cancer togrow in nerve tissue, or instance — would do moreharm than good. His team is creating materialsand growth actors that stimulate tissue growthunder only specifc conditions. “It will only orm bone where we put it, but not i it leaks away somewhere else. We just need to engineer the rightenvironment or each application.”

Several o these technologies have been licensedor commercialization rom UCLA. Pending FDA approval, the company Bone Biologics, Inc. — which Wu co-ounded and where he currently serves asa board member — will conduct clinical trials andcommercialize the technology or human use.

His work in the lab and the boardroom

notwithstanding, Wu has not given up on hisdream o joining the ranks o so-called “superdentists.” In addition to his academic andadministrative duties, Wu is a prosthodontist inthe UCLA Faculty Group Dental Practice, wherehe specializes in ull-mouth reconstruction.

Good Fusion (growth factor) :

1. MicroCT showing new bone

formation in between spine

vertebral bones (see new bone

inside the circled region) by

the growth factor.

2. MicroCT from another slice,

showing good bone formation

with growth factor.

No Fusion (control) :

No bone formation without growth factor.

ben Wu is

vice chair of

the UCLA

Department of

Bioengineering,

with a joint

appointment in

the School ofDentistry and the

Departments of Materials Science

and Engineering and Orthopaedic

Surgery. A fellow of the Academy

of Prosthodontics, he practices in

the Faculty Group Dental Practice

at the UCLA Medical Plaza. He also

directs an active research group and

collaborates with clinical specialists

to develop novel approaches for

restoring lost function and replacing

damaged tissues. His lab studies

how nature heals wounds andtissue defects; seeks to emulate

nature and engineer biomimetic

microenvironments to promote

repair; and investigates the

molecular mechanisms by which

progenitor cells interact with the

engineered microenvironments.

13

Good Fusion (growth factor) No Fusion (control)

PProfiLes




Until the latter part of the 20th century, there were essentially two ways or physicians to fnd out what was going on inside thehuman body. One was to take an X-ray. The other was to cut the body open and look. Considering the technical limitations o thefrst technique and the risks associated with the second, neither was an ideal option. But in the last quarter o the century, an

array o new imaging technologies emerged — positron emissiontomography (PET), computerized axial tomography (CAT) andmagnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to name just a ew. Usingthem, physicians could observe physiological processes — oten,as they happened — without disturbing the body. A new era inmedicine and medical research had dawned.

At UCLA, researchers are at the cutting edge o eorts todevelop new and novel approaches to imaging technology. And asthese discoveries make their way into the marketplace, medicalproessionals around the world gain access to ever more eectivetools or combating disease and improving public health.

Positron ProbesJorge Barrio, UCLA proessor o molecular and medicalpharmacology, believes that the key to understanding, andeventually treating, Alzheimer’s disease is to identiy Alzheimer’spatients beore they present symptoms o the disease. “There arean estimated 100 billion neurons in the human brain,” he explains.“But when Alzheimer’s disease is going ull steam, we haveprobably lost 30 billion neurons already. There is little chance torecover the number o neurons lost. So the basis o any successul

therapy has to be to stop the deterioration at the earliest possiblestage, when most brain unctions are maintained.”

This belie has led Barrio and his colleagues to develop biochemical markers that can be used to detect a predispositionor Alzheimer’s long beore the disease maniests itsel in memory

loss and dementia. These so-called probes, having been tagged with positron-emitting molecules, migrate to specifc parts o the brain where researchers can measure the biochemical activity

using positron emission tomography (PET). “It’s like a spy that weare sending in,” says Barrio. “And it is giving us inormation in theorm o an image o what is going on in that tissue.”

One particular marker, FDDNP, has in act been used tosuccessully detect brain lesions associated with Alzheimer’sin a living patient. Barrio believes the importance o this

achievement — the frst o its kind — cannot be underestimated,especially i successul treatments or the disease are ever goingto be discovered.

“We need to understand the disease process i we are to achievea cure,” he says. “That’s one o the values o research based onimaging technology. You can have several levels o use. First, there’searly detection. Secondly, it aids in the selection o patients orclinical trials. And third, it enables you to monitor the specifcintervention you are making. Does it, or example, reduce oreliminate brain pathology?”

Developing molecules that can be used as probes is complexand painstaking work. But, Barrio notes, it is well worth theeort. “We are all patients,” he says. “I never orget that. It doesn’tmatter what our age is, we all know people who have or have had Alzheimer’s disease. It aects all o us.”

X-ray SpecsDespite the rise o many new and novel imaging techniques, X-ray imaging remains an essential tool or evaluating injuriesand other medical conditions. As anyone who visits the dentistregularly can tell you, X-ray technology has improved steadily

over the years. Despite these improvements, however, theequipment used to produce X-ray images is still large, expensiveand power-hungry.

Mark Evans and Gil Travish are hoping to change that. Theircompany, Radius Health, is currently developing a revolutionary at-screen technology that they believe will change the nature o X-ray imaging. Evans, who serves as Radius Health’s CEO, likensthis change to the transition rom CRT technology to the at-screen technology that now dominates our computer and homeentertainment systems.

“We think it’s going to be quite revolutionary,” he says. “Inthe same way that you’d laugh i someone came in with a laptop with a cathode ray tube, we’re hoping the same thing is going tohappen in a ew years with X-rays.”

This revolution is powered by Travish’s work in the feld o advanced particle accelerators and high-brightness electron beams. Travish, a research scientist in UCLA’s Department o Physics and Astronomy, explains that he and his team weresearching or a way to create a particle accelerator that would fton a microchip. In the course o their work, they ound that the beams they were producing could also generate X-rays.

“Then,” he recalls, “the question was, what can you do withthat? I started hunting around or applications. Just throughserendipity I was introduced to Mark, who had been looking or

An Improved Image

14

In vivo imaging of neurodegeneration.

imagingi




a technology that could do this mobile X-ray generation. We very quickly realized the potential o my work and started exploringhow one goes about making these larger at-panel arrays. That’s what put us on the path to what we’re doing now.”

Now headquartered in UCLA’s Caliornia NanoSystemsInstitute technology incubator, the Radius team is working to

commercialize Travish’s discoveries in a line o X-ray applicationsthat are aordable and more mobile than current tube-baseddevices.

“It’s really hard to give birth to a technology,” says Travish.“It is a daunting challenge on the one hand. On the other, it hassurely been rereshing to have a great team o people to work withand have access to the wider skill set that a great university likeUCLA oers.”

Hooked on Photonics

In a modern, well-equipped medical laboratory, it is relatively simple to test blood or other specimens or bacteria and othercontaminants that could pose a health hazard. But in remoteparts o the world, it is quite another matter.

“Out in the feld, it’s pretty dicult to fnd an advancedmicroscope or a blood analyzer that you’d normally fnd in ahospital,” says Aydogan Ozcan, assistant proessor o electricalengineering at UCLA. “It’s especially dicult when dealing withglobal health-related problems like malaria, HIV, TB and waterscreening. You cannot rely on having access to an adequatemedical inrastructure.”

Ozcan proposes to use the increasingly ubiquitous cellularnetworks to compensate or the absence o this inrastructure.Drawing on his expertise in photonics, Ozcan and his research

group have developed a sotware-based technology that simulatesthe lenses ound in microscopes and other sophisticateddiagnostic devices. Cells suspended in a specimen o blood or water, or example, cast shadows. These shadows, in turn, can bedetected by sensors embedded on a cell-phone-like device.

“Quite importantly, we can process these shadows to do blood

analysis and to do microscopic imaging entirely in the digitaldomain,” says Ozcan. “The hardware, which fts into the pocketo the user, is very lightweight and cost-eective. Everything elseis done in the computational domain using a computer to createmicroscopic images based on the cell shadows.”

Ozcan licensed the technology rom UCLA and, working with business partner Neven Karlovac, ormed a company calledHolocope to develop a commercial version o the device.

15

Prototype for Ozcan’s lensless microscope.

i

Illustration by Roger Lee

imaging




“There are two types of people,” says Arya Ahmadi-Ardakani.“One type has the greatest ideas, and they don’t do anything aboutit. The second type has the good idea, but they do somethingabout it.”

Until 2009, Ahmadi-Ardakani would have put himsel and his longtime riend Omid Sabeti in the frst category.But that year he received an email rom his advisor in theUCLA Electrical Engineering Department, alerting him to anopportunity to participate in a competition sponsored by theMail Room Fund. The und — a joint venture sponsored by the William Morris Agency, venture capital frms Accel Partners and Venrock, and AT&T — was created in 2008 as an investment vehicle to help launch Internet-based businesses. The ollowing year, the und partnered with UCLA’s Schools o Engineeringand Theater, Film and Television to stage a competition. First

prize was a $10,000 reward to the students with the best idea oran Internet-based business.

With $10,000 at stake, Ahmadi-Ardakani and Sabeti decidedit was fnally time to act. “We had a great idea all along,” he says,“and this actually motivated us to do something about the idea.This is the spark we needed.”

Their idea, an eBay-like service in which products can beexchanged or online gaming points, is called Trap Zoo, and inOctober 2009, a panel o judges declared it the best o the six ideasevaluated in the fnal round o the competition. And the victory is

paying o in more ways than the award money. Ahmadi-Ardakani, who is in the second year o his doctoral studies, and Sabeti, whois an undergraduate majoring in business and marketing, arenegotiating with several venture capitalists to turn their winningidea into a viable business.

That Ahmadi-Ardakani and Sabeti represent two dierentdisciplines is signifcant, says Je Burke, director o Technology Research Initiatives at the UCLA School o Theater, Film andTelevision (TFT). “Collaboration across disciplines is a long-

standing interest o ours.”Burke credits the Mail Room Fund’s manager Richard Wolpert with the idea o taking the educational experience to thenext level by adding entrepreneurship to the mix.

“The connection to entrepreneurship and venture capital,” hesays, “is something that we hadn’t explored in this particular way beore. Our research has been supported by venture capitalistsin the past, but creating an opportunity or students to connectdirectly with potential sources o unding or their innovativeideas was a new and exciting thing.”

Burke also applauds TFT and the Mail Room Fund’s joint

decision to pair student teams with mentors rom industry. He believes that this aspect o the competition created an important bridge between the classroom and the private sector.

Teri Schwartz, dean o the School o Theater, Film andTelevision, agrees. “Putting students together with successulmentors who can both teach and serve as role models is a wonderul idea,” says Schwartz. “One o our goals at TFT isencouraging students to believe that they can not only achievesuccess in their respective felds o study, but that they can usetheir personal vision to create works that enlighten, engage and

inspire change or a better world. The entrepreneurial spirit o these industry leaders can energize young talent to ground their work in these ideals, which is increasingly necessary in a highly competitive proessional environment.”

A Big Payoff

16

studentss

Photo by John Yip




Headline

IP Protection, Technology Transfer and

Research Activities for FY2009

Success StoriesFrom UCLA’s Intellectual Property Portfolio

TOTAL INVENTION PORTFOLIO

TOTAL ACTIVE U.S. PATENTS

TOTAL ACTIVE FOREIGN PATENTS

TOTAL ACTIVE LICENSE AGREEMENTS

1700

5 81

584

277

UCLA’s three-part mission is research, teaching and

service. OIP strives to support UCLA professors and

researchers by helping them connect with industry

and investors. In FY2009, UCLA investors earned

$10,440,000 from their successful technologies.

Overall IP revenues for UCLA during that year

totaled $28,866,000.

Invention disclosures

New U.S. patent lings

Secondary lings

Issued U.S. patents

First foreign lings

License and option agreements

Amendments with new IP matter

Condentiality agreements

Letter agreements

Interinstitutional agreements

Material transfer agreements (case related)

Material transfer agreements (non-case-related)

Number of inventions optioned or licensed

333

179136

60

76

37

19

317

45

25

52

964

430

liensed Produs

PomElla PomElla is a blend o pomegranate polyphenols or

use in capsules or liquids, so that the heart-healthy benefts o

pomegranate can be incorporated into more ood and beerage

products. Licensed by Blaze.

GDC and Matrix Coils Both coils are used in the treatment o

brain aneurysms: GDC is a bare-platinum coil while Matrix2 coils are

coered with a biopolymer. Licensed by Boston Scientifc.

Introduction to Algebra Introduction to Algebra is a ull-year

course aimed at preparing Caliornia’s low-achieing 8th grade

students or algebra. Licensed by CMAT, the Center or Mathematics

and Teaching.

MERCI Embolism Retriever Device MERCI stands or

Mechanical Embolus Remoal in Cerebral Ischemia. In lay terms, it’s

a deice used to remoe blockages rom the arteries that supply the

brain. Licensed by Concentric Medical.

Metamaterial Antennas (for handsets, wireless routers and

laptop computers) Metamaterials are engineered structuresmade o common materials — such as copper or siler — that are

designed in such a way that tiny antennas can still do a good job o

gathering up radio signals. Licensed by Rayspan.

Nicotine Patch Because a nicotine patch releases nicotine into

the body through the skin, smokers can use it to gradually reduce

the amount o nicotine they receie instead o trying to quit “cold

turkey.” Licensed by Noartis.

copyrigh tehnoogies

Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) Peer reiew plays a prominent

role in the progress o science: proposals, research and manuscripts

are all peer reiewed. The web-based CPR program teaches students

how to reiew discipline-based writing.

Cool Tools Lesson plans and physical props in Cool Tools are

designed or teachers to help young children understand complex

ideas about behaior.

Digital Models of Rome 400 A.D. Digital models allow scholars

and isitors to isualize ancient Rome as seen at a particular

moment in time.

ooiP at a gLanCe

© 2010 B TE REGENTS O TE UNIvERSIT O CALIORNIA. PRODUCED B UCLA OICE O INTELLECTUAL PROPERT AND UCLA COMMUNICATIONS & PUBLIC OUTREAC.

WRITER, DATON ANDRA. COPEDITING, KEASA DUMAS.



104 Companies in Californiawith licensed technologies

developed at UCLA

UCLA Ofce o Intellectual Property & Industry Sponsored Research

www.oip.ucla.edu

ucla invents 2010

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