[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 244 (Monday, December 21, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Page 79348]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-31890]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

National Institutes of Health


Government-Owned Inventions; Availability for Licensing

AGENCY: National Institutes of Health, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The inventions listed below are owned by an agency of the U.S. 
Government and are available for licensing in the U.S. in accordance 
with 35 U.S.C. 209 and 37 CFR part 404 to achieve expeditious 
commercialization of results of federally-funded research and 
development. Foreign patent applications are filed on selected 
inventions to extend market coverage for companies and may also be 
available for licensing.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Licensing information and copies of 
the U.S. patent applications listed below may be obtained by emailing 
the indicated licensing contact at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood, 
Office of Technology Transfer and Development Office of Technology 
Transfer, 31 Center Drive Room 4A29, MSC2479, Bethesda, MD 20892-2479; 
telephone: 301-402-5579. A signed Confidential Disclosure Agreement may 
be required to receive copies of the patent applications.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Technology description follows.

Fluorescent Nanodiamonds as Fiducial Markers for Microscopy

Description of Technology

    The invention relates to fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) and their 
uses as fiducial markers for microscopy. FNDs are bright fluorescent 
probes that do not blink or bleach and have broad fluorescence 
excitation and emission peaks. The fluorescence intensity can be 
readily controlled by the size of the FND, the number of fluorescent 
centers produced in the nanodiamonds, or in situ through the 
application of a weak magnetic field. The particular advantage of the 
FND compositions of this invention are that they are particularly 
useful for extended imaging of a single sample over time periods that 
can be as long as a week or more. In an exemplary embodiment, FNDs are 
immobilized in a substrate that are coated with an inert top coating, 
like silicon dioxide, or transparent polymer (e.g. poly-L-lysine, poly-
L-arginine, or siloxanes). Generally, any suitable methods known for 
surface functionalization of the substrate can be used to make the 
composition. In another aspect of this invention, the inventors 
designed software for super-resolution imaging correction method is 
employed to precisely determine the position coordinates of each of a 
set of FNDs in a plurality of images by using Gaussian fitting of the 
point spread function comprises each of the FNDs in the plurality of 
images. The calculated correction is then used to displace each image 
to align the coordinates of the FNDs. The positions of the FNDs can be 
tracked with sub-nanometer precision and residual drift can be reduced 
to the nanometer scale over hundreds of hours of tracking.

Potential Commercial Applications

 Fluorescent Microscopy
 Super-resolution microscopy
 Correlative imaging techniques combing fluorescence microscopy 
with electron, x-ray, or atomic force microscopy imaging modalities

Competitive Advantages

 Non-blinking, Non-bleaching
 Chemically inert
 Chemically and physically stable
 Broad excitation
 Longevity

Development Stage

 In vitro data

Inventors

 Keir Neuman, Ambika Bumb, Han Wen, Jennifer Hong and Susanta 
Sarkar (all of NHLBI)
 Chang Yi, Lawrence Samelson, Asit Manna (all of NCI)
    Intellectual Property: HHS Reference No. E-217-2015/0-US-01
 US Provisional Patent Application 62/262,058 filed December 2, 
2015.

    Licensing Contact: Michael Shmilovich, Esq, CLP; 301-435-5019; 
[email protected].
    Collaborative Research Opportunity: The National Heart, Lung and 
Blood Institute seeks statements of capability or interest from parties 
interested in collaborative research to further develop and evaluate 
metallic nanoparticle vesicles for cancer phototherapy. For 
collaboration opportunities, please contact Vincent Kolesnitchenko, 
Ph.D. at [email protected].

    Dated: December 15, 2015.
Michael Shmilovich,
Senior Licensing and Patenting Manager, National Heart, Lung, and Blood 
Institute, Office of Technology Transfer and Development.
[FR Doc. 2015-31890 Filed 12-18-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P