$1.25 Million Grant Awarded to Industry/University Center for Biosurfaces
For release: September 20, 2004
For press information, contact Marcy Sanford, 901/678-5581

The University of Memphis' Industry/University Center for Biosurfaces (IUCB) in partnership with SUNY Buffalo has received a $1.25 million grant over the next 5-years from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) making it one of only 50 industry/university centers approved across the U.S. by NSF. Each center has a different and specific technical challenge to be met cooperatively for regional and national economic benefit. The Memphis site brings together a diverse group of faculty and resources from biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemistry, physics and UT-Campbell Clinic to investigate biomaterials and the interactions of biological elements and surfaces. The University of Memphis earned the additional 5-year term based on support from the orthopedic and biomedical industries in the Mid-South and from Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The IUCB at the University of Memphis provides a platform for a biotech consortium that addresses concerns of mutual interest to participating companies. It also offers significant opportunities for sponsors, students and faculty and complements the work of the associated IUCB research site at SUNY Buffalo, industrial research groups and government laboratories.

This is the 4th consecutive 5-year, competitively peer-reviewed "National Center" designation for the IUCB from the Federal government's Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers program, managed by NSF. IUCB also receives support from the NSF International Division for continuing cooperative research with a similar program in Sweden, headquartered at Malmo University.

The SUNY Buffalo center earned the additional 5-year term based on support from indoor air-cleaning industries in New York State, and based on the center's service as the Western New York leader for the multi-million-dollar STAR Center for Environmental Quality Systems.

Director of the University of Memphis site is Professor M. Shah Jahan, Chair of the Physics Department. Director of the Buffalo site is Dr. Anne E. Meyer, current President of the U.S. Society for Biomaterials, and the Executive Director of the Center is Dr. Robert E. Baier, Director Biomaterials Graduate Program at SUNY Buffalo. Drs. Meyer and Jahan have engaged several IUCB Members in organization of the 32nd National meeting of the Society for Biomaterials, to be held in Memphis in April 2005.

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