COE Researchers Honored at Annual BPLA Invented Here!

The Boston Patent Law Association (BPLA) hosted its annual Invented Here! contest and honored COE inventors who help further innovation not only in the region but worldwide.


This year, the Center for Research Innovation is excited to share that multiple Northeastern researchers have been honored in the annual Invented Here! contest, held by the Boston Patent Law Association (BPLA).

Established in 2010 by the BPLA, the Invented Here! contest is meant to celebrate local New England inventors, from their inventions to their own stories. Over 49 inventions and over 170 inventors have been recognized since 2010. These inventors are key to furthering innovation not only in our region, but across the world.

Several inventors from Northeastern have been added to this prestigious list:

  • Brush polymer-assisted compaction of oligonucleotides
    • Ke Zhang
    • Xueguang Lu
  • Encoding and decoding data in communication frames of a communications protocol
    • Kaushik Chowdhury
    • Yousof Naderi
  • Reconfigurable implantable medical system for ultrasonic power control and telemetry
    • Tommaso Melodia
    • Raffaele Guida
    • Giuseppe Enrico Santagati

pacOligo, a novel brush polymer

Ke Zhang and Xueguang Lu have made great strides with their new brush polymer-oligonucleotide conjugates, or pacOligo for short. The basis for this invention involves a delivery system for oligonucleotide-based gene therapy, which has typically been difficult to successfully achieve. With their new conjugates, Zhang and Lu may have found a more viable method to delivering those agents in the necessary therapies.

Encoding and decoding data in communications

For Kaushik Chowdhury and Yousof Naderi, communications are essential to many of their future developments; with their start-up, Deep Charge, they are actively pursuing revolutionary new technology in the area. Their encoding and decoding innovation follows the same principle, as it functions by improving existing systems (such as cellular towers). By improving these systems with this technology, a considerable amount of time, effort, and money can be saved by avoiding full, physical reworks of the systems.

Reconfigurable implantable medical system

Our final group of winners includes Tommaso Melodia, Raffaele Guida, and Giuseppe Enrico Santagati and novel medical system. This reconfigurable implantable medical system can be placed within a biological body, where it can then be configured to communicate wirelessly with a charging device; by using ultrasonic communication and charging links, the device can adapt to the ever-changing status within the body and communicate appropriately with the charging device.


Source: Center for Research Innovation

Related Faculty: Ke Zhang, Tommaso Melodia

Related Departments:Bioengineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering