Bob Palais - Lifetime Achievement Award
Bob Palais, research professor in the Department of Mathematics at the U, has devoted decades of experience to his study of DNA melting analysis. His long-term efforts and work with the Wittwer Lab have led to the development of high-resolution melting methods for DNA analysis that provide a rapid, inexpensive means of mutation scanning, genotyping and sequence matching through the use of saturation dyes.
“I am surprised, moved and humbled to receive this recognition for what has always been a group effort and accomplishment,” said Palais at the awards event, before crediting a long list of colleagues and predecessors, teachers and graduate students, along with the Department of Mathematics where he is a faculty member.”
Innovation ecosystem
“On my very first of many hikes to this day with Carl Wittwer, Kirk Ririe and Randy Rasmussen,” said Palais to the appreciative crowd, “the discussion included something called an ‘invention disclosure’ dropped off [at] someplace called the university's Technology [Licensing] Office.” That auspicious “drop off” became a patent for a novel use of a DNA saturating dye that would revolutionize diagnostics of infectious disease and genetic variations.
On another hike up the same mountain a couple of years later, reported Palais, “I had the idea that led to my first patent with Carl Wittwer," U professor of pathology and a longtime colleague of Palais’.
Since these formative years, ARUP Labs in the U’s Research Park where much of Palais’ work was commercialized, has performed 1.2 million genetic tests with the software he developed with Wittwer.Additionally, four million-plus designs have been simulated by the uMelt software he developed with data engineer Zach Dwight by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as universities and companies around the world.
“Orders of magnitude more high-resolution DNA melting analysis tests have been performed by the BioFire Diagnostics [now bioMérieux] platforms,” added Palais. "The rapid contact tracing these tests enabled made it possible to tamp down incipient epidemics like Ebola, preventing potential pandemics.”
“The Technology Licensing Office used to have a quote from me on a poster in the entry," concluded Palais, “expressing my immense appreciation and praise for the support you all provide for faculty and student inventors to facilitate entrepreneurial collaborations that has built a thriving regional technology innovation ecosystem. That gratitude has only grown stronger.”
by David Pace, taken from the College of Science article where other Innovation Award recipients are also acknowledged.