Warren O. Haggard, Ph.D.

April 1, 2015 – The University of Memphis Research Foundation (UMRF) has been granted United States patent No. 8,993,540, “Compositions and Methods for Delivering an Agent to a Wound.” It is the 20th patent granted to UMRF. The product covered by this patent was invented in the University of Memphis Herff College Of Engineering’s Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME). The inventors are Dr. Warren Haggard and Dr. Joel Bumgardner, both professors of BME, and Dr. Scott Noel of Bionova Medical, who earned his PhD under Haggard’s supervision.

The patent is exclusively licensed to Bionova Medical, a privately held medical device company in Germantown, Tenn. The company’s flagship product, Sentrex BioSponge MPD, covered by this new patent, has received two clearances from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use as a local wound management device that is also compatible with Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT).

“We are very pleased to receive a patent on this exciting technology that is based on cutting-edge science from our researchers,” said University President M. David Rudd. “It validates the real-world impact of the work of our researchers in the Herff College of Engineering, and demonstrates the leading role played by the FedEx Institute in bridging the gap between the lab and the marketplace.”

Dr. Jasbir Dhaliwal, executive director of the FedEx Institute of Technology and chief innovation officer of the University, said, “The FedEx Institute has been hard at work building up its portfolio of technology patents and intellectual property by supporting basic research and development of proof-of-concepts underlying innovations such as this would care device. We are now ready to work with regional biomedical partners to commercialize these innovations.”