After designing a system that has successfully detected prostate cancer and could identify biological weapons, two ISU researchers have been awarded a R&D Award.

R&D awards, dubbed the “Oscars of applied sciences” by the Chicago Tribune, are given to 100 scientists each year for their work in applied sciences.

Bob Lipert, associate scientist for the Microanalytical Instrumentation Center, and Marc Porter, professor of chemistry, were recipients of the R&D Award for their work on the Ramanprobes System.

The concept behind Ramanprobes is to find a way to detect diseases earlier, Porter said.

“Earlier detection of diseases increases the potential success of their treatment,” he said.

Lipert and Porter aimed to design a system, which combines optimal performance, cost-effectiveness and ease of use in clinical labs to identify diseases.

Porter said they wanted to develop a way to instantaneously screen a drop of blood for biomarkers. Lipert said the idea of Ramanprobes is to detect disease markers. He said they first worked to identify the prostate cancer marker or prostate cancer’s specific antigen.

Porter said they are working to build a chip screen for cancer.

“The concept is a potential breakthrough,” Porter said. “It may displace the way chips are read today.”

Chips are traditionally read using fluorescence, which is limited in the number of things it can detect, he said. However, Ramanprobes reads a larger amount of antigens and reads them more efficiently.

Using the spectrometer, samples of slides are put under the fiber optic probe, Porter said. Within thirty seconds, the chip can be read through the use of a laser.

This work has grown out of a collaboration with Concurrent Analytical, Inc.

“We worked on this idea for a few years,” Porter said. “Then we got a call from Chris [Schoen] out of the blue.”

Before Schoen approached them, Porter and Lipert used a much bigger spectrometer.

The National Institute of Health is interested in Ramanprobes because of its capability to efficiently and reliably detect cancer.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is interested in the research due to its potential of identifying chemical and biological weapons.

Doug Jacobson, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, was also awarded an R&D award this year for his research.

He developed FireBlock, a hardware and software product, which is designed to protect the internal files of a corporation’s computer network, he said.

“Any organization has assets available to their employees, vendors and service people,” Jacobson said. “This product is designed to secure the internal files, preventing them from being accessed by unauthorized persons inside the company.”

The product does this by using a technology developed a few years ago and patented by Iowa State, he said. This technology allows the system to watch network traffic.

“If FireBlock doesn’t like the traffic taking place between party A and party B,” Jacobson said, “then it pretends to be both party A and party B by telling each party it’s done talking to them [thereby] terminating the conversation.”

Jacobson described how some of his customers use this product. One customer, a financial processing service provider, works with many brokerage houses coming through the same front door. However, the company wants to prevent one brokerage from accessing another brokerage’s files.

As the government increases regulations concerning privacy and security of information, more corporations will be interested in purchasing FireBlock to be in compliance with these regulations, Jacobson said.