The discoveries – each of them unrelated – will be presented at the 2015 TechConnect World Innovation Conference in Washington, D.C., from June 14-17. The annual event is designed to accelerate the commercialization of innovations out of the lab and into industry, and draws some of the brightest and most innovative researchers, funding agencies, national labs, international research organizations, universities, investors and corporate partners.

The şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą discoveries are among the top 20 percent of submittals selected to receive TechConnect Innovation Awards. The technologies include:

Another member of the UCF faculty, Jayan Thomas, will speak at the conference. Thomas, an assistant professor with the NanoScience Technology Center,ĚýtheĚýCollege of Optics and Photonics and theĚý, was a finalist for a prestigious 2014 World Technology Network Award for his research on cables that can store and transmit energy.

The simple test developed by şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą scientist Qun “Treen” Huo holds the promise of earlier detection of one of the deadliest cancers among men. It would also reduce the number of unnecessary and invasive biopsies stemming from the less precise PSA test that’s now used.

“It’s fantastic,” said Dr. Inoel Rivera, a urologic oncologist at Florida Hospital Cancer Institute, which collaborated with Huo on the recent pilot studies. “It’s a simple test. It’s much better than the test we have right now, which is the PSA, and it’s cost-effective.”

When a cancerous tumor begins to develop, the body mobilizes to produce antibodies. Huo’s test detects that immune response using gold nanoparticles about 10,000 times smaller than a freckle.

When a few drops of blood serum from a finger prick are mixed with the gold nanoparticles, certain cancer biomarkers cling to the surface of the tiny particles, increasing their size and causing them to clump together.

Among researchers, gold nanoparticles are known for their extraordinary efficiency at absorbing and scattering light. Huo and her team at UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center developed a technique known as nanoparticle-enabled dynamic light scattering assay (NanoDLSay) to measure the size of the particles by analyzing the light they throw off. That size reveals whether a patient has prostate cancer and how advanced it may be.

And although it uses gold, the test is cheap. A small bottle of nanoparticles suspended in water costs about $250, and contains enough for about 2,500 tests.

“What’s different and unique about our technique is it’s a very simple process, and the material required for the test is less than $1,” Huo said. “And because it’s low-cost, we’re hoping most people can have this test in their doctor’s office. If we can catch this cancer in its early stages, the impact is going to be big.”

After lung cancer, prostate cancer is the second-leading killer cancer among men, with more than 240,000 new diagnoses and 28,000 deaths every year.ĚýThe most commonly used screening tool is the PSA, but it produces so many false-positive results – leading to painful biopsies and extreme treatments – that one of its discoverers recently called it “hardly more effective than a coin toss.”

Pilot studies found Huo’s technique is significantly more exact. The test determines with 90 to 95 percent confidence that the result is not false-positive. When it comes to false-negatives, there is 50 percent confidence – not ideal, but still significantly higher than the PSA’s 20 percent – and Huo is working to improve that number.

The results of the pilot studies were published recently in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Huo is also scheduled to present her findings in June at the TechConnect World Innovation Summit & Expo in suburban Washington, D.C.

Huo’s team is pursuing more extensive clinical validation studies with Florida Hospital and others, including the VA Medical Center Orlando. She hopes to complete major clinical trials and see the test being used by physicians in two to three years.

Huo also is researching her technique’s effectiveness as a screening tool for other tumors.

“Potentially, we could have a universal screening test for cancer,” she said. “Our vision is to develop an array of blood tests for early detection and diagnosis of all major cancer types, and these blood tests are all based on the same technique and same procedure.”

Huo co-founded Nano Discovery Inc., a startup company headquartered in a UCF Business Incubator, to commercialize the new diagnostic test. The company manufacturers a test device specifically for medical research and diagnostic purposes.

“That’s really what is unique and exciting about our new discovery,” said associate professor Qun “Treen” Huo, the lead investigator on the project. “Our nanoparticles not only seek out a chemical reaction that is specific to prostate cancer, they can also tell us how aggressive the cancerous cells are likely to be, which can give doctors better information to treat their patients.”

Current tests can’t tell how aggressive the cancer is, which often leads to the gland’s removal when other options might be available. For example, a very aggressive type of cancer in a young man may require immediate removal of his prostate gland to save his life. A slow-acting cancer in a young patient may give him more options that are less radical.

And options are good because the prostate is a very important gland. It helps regulate urine flow and is involved in the production of semen in men. The effects of surgical removal of the prostate gland can range from mild loss of erection and pain on orgasm, to total loss of erection and incontinence.

Huo’s work is published in the Ěý today.

The technique is rather simple, Huo said.

She uses gold nanoparticles that detect a specific chemical reaction between a prostate tumor and the human immunoglobulin G (IgG). IgG is an abundant protein circulating in the blood.Ěý Research has shown that IgG likes to stick to the surface of the gold nanoparticles to form a protein corona. This corona can be detected by a technique called dynamic light scattering. ĚýHuo found that when cancer cells are present, they can “destroy” the IgG in the blood, and this specific interaction is picked up by the gold nanoparticles. Using this simple test, Huo can determine quantitatively how aggressive the prostate tumors are and the likelihood they will metastasize. The team tested out the technique on human tissue samples.

“We’ve had already done our study with animal and human blood samples,” (, ) Huo said. “Now we’ve confirmed our findings in both animal models and human tissue samples. I am in the process of conducting a validation study with the Florida Hospital Cancer Institute and I am very confidant the technology works.”

If all goes well, clinical trials could begin in Ěýtwo to three years, and Huo hopes the diagnostic tool could be routinely used by physicians in as little as five years. The test most likely would be used to supplement those already used to provide doctors with more quantitative and accurate information, which could lead to more treatment options.

The system that detects the reaction was discovered in Huo’s lab four years ago. It’s called “nanoparticle-enabled dynamic light scattering assay (NanoDLSay) and it is being used by many researchers around the world for everything from detecting cancer in blood to finding lead in water.

“We’re looking for funding now to get to the next step,” Huo said.

The National Science Foundation and the Florida Department of Health Bankhead-Coley Foundation funded a lot of the basic research that went into creating the new technology.

“Ultimately it’s about working together to help doctors help patients,” Huo said. “That’s why I research cancer. I want to help make that happen.”

Collaborators on the project include: Shannon Sullivan and Hillari Hallquist also from the UCF NanoScience Technology Center, and Sally A. Litherland, Dr. David A. Decker and Inoel Rivera-Ramirez from the Florida Hospital Cancer Institute.

Huo joined UCF in 2005 after working as an assistant professor at North Dakota State şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą.Ěý She has a doctorate degree in chemistry from the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of Miami and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the same institution. She earned a National Science Foundation CAREER award among other recognition. She also is a panel review member for the National Institutes of Health. She has several patents for her innovative work. At UCF she works at the NanoScience Technology Center and has joint appointments in the department of chemistry, college of medicine and department of mechanics, materials and aerospace engineering. She also is president of Nano Discovery Inc. a start-up company that she cofounded to commercialize NanoDLSay.