The nominations were announced today at the "Celebrate Success" finalists' reception at TCU Place in Saskatoon. The winner of the $5,000 award will be named May 15th at TCU Place at the "Celebrate Success!" gala, an event sponsored by the Saskatoon and District Chamber of Commerce and Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan Inc.

"The technologies developed by this year's nominees have great potential to improve our lives through improvements in human health, food production, and environmentally friendly energy," said Doug Gill, managing director of the U of S Industry Liaison Office (ILO). "We will benefit as well with the promise of increased investment and more high-quality jobs in our province,"

The Award of Innovation honours U of S researchers who have brought new and commercially viable technology to the ILO for development into marketable products.

"We're excited by this year's crop of inventions," says Innovation Place director of marketing Jackie Presnell. "Many of the enterprises at Innovation Place are built on ideas that began at the university, and many of the highly qualified people that work here are U of S grads. We're proud to celebrate these successes that help bring novel products and processes to the marketplace."

The finalists are:

- Immunologists John Gordon and Fang Li from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine have developed a treatment with the potential to treat a wide range of inflammatory conditions. These include arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and cystic fibrosis, as well as inflammatory damage caused by heart attacks and strokes. The key to the treatment technology is a protein, G31P, which targets inflammation associated with neutrophils, a type of white blood cell. IL Therapeutics licensed the rights to G31P in 2004 and was subsequently purchased by Pacgen Biopharmaceuticals Inc. The Vancouver-based company plans to begin clinical trials with human volunteers soon.

- Plant sciences professor Lawrence Gusta, together with colleagues Albert Robertson and Guohai Wu, discovered Rob-5, a novel gene that confers tolerance to environmental stress, increases plant vigor and seed yield, and shortens the time needed for plants to mature. It's a valuable innovation for regions with a short growing season such as that found in Saskatchewan. The U of S has filed an international patent application for Rob-5 and granted exclusive license for commercial use to BASF, one of the world's leading agricultural products companies. This licensing agreement is expected to bring immediate financial benefits to the university, as well as substantial ongoing royalty income.

- Martin Reaney and colleague Dushmanthi Jayasinghe in the department of applied microbiology and food science have developed a novel chemical process that could improve profitability in the biodiesel industry. The process produces alkyl esters (biodiesel), de-salted glycerol, and lithium grease from oilseeds such as frost-damaged canola that are not suitable for edible oil production. The technology promises increased profitability by allowing producers to make biodiesel while at the same time diversifying their operations with two other high-value products. The patent-pending technology has attracted interest from a number of organizations within the biodiesel industry.

- Biology professor Vipen Sawhney has developed a photoperiod-sensitive male-sterile tomato line. Under a certain photoperiod, the plants of this line become fertile, which makes it attractive for use in hybrid seed production. The line significantly reduces the cost of tomato hybrid seed production by eliminating the labour-intensive process of hand removal of the male part (stamen) of tomato flowers. The U of S has recently licensed the use of this tomato line non-exclusively to a commercial seed producer in Italy. Sawhney's current research interests are in the genetic, physiological, and biochemical control of male sterility and pollen development.

The annual Award of Innovation is open to U of S employees and students. Selection criteria include the novelty of the innovation and its potential commercial impact. The selection committee includes representatives from Innovation Place and the U of S.

In addition to the cash prize, the winner will be recognized with a photo on the "Award of Innovation" wall at the Industry Liaison Office and a personal trophy.

Innovation Place (www.innovationplace.com) is one of North America's most successful university-related research parks. The Industry Liaison Office (http://www.usask.ca/research/ilo) works with inventors to help commercialize innovations developed at the U of S.

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For more information, contact:

Doug Gill
Managing Director
Industry Liaison Office (ILO)
(306) 966-7335
Doug.Gill@usask.ca
http://www.usask.ca/research/ilo

Susan Burton
Corporate Relations Manager
Innovation Place
(306) 933-7137
sburton@innovationplace.com
www.innovationplace.com

Michael Robin
U of S Research Communications
(306) 966-2427
michael.robin@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research