To celebrate International Women’s Day, we’re sharing the stories of three women inventors in Indiana University’s campus system whose research has been or soon will be commercialized.
Bonnie Blazer-Yost, Professor, Department of Biology, Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis
Blazer-Yost is conducting research on treatments for polycystic kidney disease, or PKD. Between one in 400 and one in 1,000 people suffer from autosomal PKD, the most commonly inherited form. While healthy adult kidneys are fist-sized and weigh less than a pound, polycystic kidneys can weigh 20 to 30 pounds and grow as big as a football before renal failure occurs. She is leading clinical trials to determine if a diabetes drug could treat PKD. More about Blazer-Yost and her research is available here.
Dawn Neumann, Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Indiana University School of Medicine
Neumann founded a startup company called EmotEd, launched through the Indiana University Research and Technology Corp.’s Spin Up program. Neumann is developing a therapeutic software package known as Emotion Builder. It employs reality-based videos, quizzes, slide presentations, and surveys to help patients better manage and eventually reduce the emotional deficits that often accompany brain trauma. More about Neumann and EmotEd is available here.
Yvonne Lai, Senior Scientist, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington
Lai is co-founder of Anagin, a company developing effective treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. By developing drugs that block the target mechanism of PTSD within the brain without triggering other mechanisms that cause crippling side effects, Anagin aims to revolutionize how the disorder is treated. The company is also pursuing a treatment to reduce the functional deficits experienced after a person suffers a traumatic brain injury. More about Yvonne Lai and Anagin co-founder Anantha Shekhar is available here.
Thank you to these women inventors whose work could one day help people not only across Indiana, but perhaps the country and the world.
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