Research Spotlight on Dr. Jianjao Guan
Spring 2011
Assistant Professor
Since 2005, the FSU Research Foundation has been funding a highly competitive grant program designed to support Florida State University researchers as they seek to transfer their technology out of the laboratory and into the commercial marketplace. It is called the GAP program.
For 2011, Professor Jingjao Guan of the Department of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering has earned one of only four GAP Awards in the amount of $45,000 for his proposal "An Improved Method for Diagnosing Breast Cancer," which seeks to develop and test a new method for increasing the image field used clinically to identify potentially tumor cells.
The GAP program is designed to support enhancements of inventions or other original works that have been disclosed to FSU. It funds projects that FSU researchers and other interested parties agree will quickly improve the odds that current research results will lead to public availability of a new product or service. The FSU Research Foundation has allocated up to $250,000 per year for at least four years to provide grants under this program.
Once researchers or a research group receive a GAP award, they are assigned a team of local business leaders who act as mentors. This group meets on a quarterly basis to provide insight and assistance to the GAP winners in the area of product development. GAP projects should reach completion in a year or less. Funded tasks will be performed under the supervision of the proposing faculty member but may include third party efforts within or outside the University. Grant funds can be used to pay students or postdoctoral fellows, or to obtain materials, services and assistance outside the university.
The winners of these GAP awards are researchers who most clearly can identify the commercial viability of a product, process or license that will come from their efforts with a corporate partner.
For more information about the GAP Program at The Florida State University, visit: http://www.techtransfer.fsu.edu/.
For more information about the four 2010-2011 GAP awardees: http://www.research.fsu.edu/foundation/gap/fy2011awards.html.
