Blackwell
Professor of Chemistry Helen Blackwell's work on compounds capable of disrupting serious bacterial infections earned a Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Innovation Award.
Blackwell and collaborators Danielle Stacy and Yftah Tal-Gan focused on the "quorum-sensing" ability of bacteria — the signaling process bacteria use when enough are present to begin multiplying, forming toxic biofilms and producing tissue degrading enzymes.
Blackwell's team chose Staphylococcus aureus for its work because staph infections result in a wide range of problems, including skin ailments, heart valve inflammation, toxic shock syndrome and serious hospital-acquired infections. In recent years, staph infections have demonstrated growing resistance to antibiotics, including the "last resort" drug vancomycin.
Blackwell's compounds disrupt the ability of staph bacteria to signal to one another by interfering with AgrC signal receptors and undermining group coordination. In the case of the staph strain responsible for toxic shock syndrome, the signaling interference reduces toxin production by more than 80 percent and the compounds may be combined with antibiotics for synergistic benefit.
"We appreciate this recognition and the support we have received from throughout campus as we continue our work," Blackwell said. "We are scaling up our ability to synthesize these compounds and look forward to next steps in the process to develop effective treatments to help people fight off these debilitating infections."
The WARF Innovation Award winners were chosen by an independent panel of judges from among more than 350 invention disclosures submitted to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation over the past 12 months. The winning inventions each receive an award of $5,000, with the funds going to the UW-Madison inventors named on the breakthroughs.
Professor of Computer Sciences David Wood and research assistant Somayeh Sardashti were finalists for the award for SuperTag, a compressed computer cache that improves capacity and reduces energy use.
To learn about the other winner and see the full list of finalists from across campus, read the original story by WARF's Jennifer Sereno.