Kaunas University of Technology

Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), established in 1922, is one of the largest technical universities in the Baltic States and one of the most prominent high education schools in the country, with a leading position in many research fields. There are five breakthrough areas of research and innovation, namely: health technologies, digital transformation and smart environment, new materials for industry and medicine, food technologies, innovation management. KTU National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre (KTU NIEC) – department coordinating university-business relationship, ensuring a smooth cooperation and providing professional commercialisation support for researchers and companies.

Our Technology Offers

Pyrazole-Indole Hybrids For Photodynamic Treatment

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a non-surgical, minimally invasive treatment which uses light-sensitive medication (photosensitizer, PS), light source and oxygen to produce cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS), which in turn cause abnormal cell destruction. Nowadays, several skin conditions, such as psoriasis, acne, bacterial infections, as well as various types of cancer such as basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, lung, head, mouth, nasopharyngeal, laryngeal, bladder, vaginal or cervical cancers can be treated using PDT. The trend of the cancer incidence rate is increasing at 0.6% every year. Although such diseases are increasingly detected unusually in young patients worldwide, the highest rates of cancer incidence are observed in the elderly (80-84 years and older) age groups.

The invention relates to new conjugated pyrazole-indole derivatives, which possess low dark toxicity while exhibiting photodynamic properties against cancer cell lines and bacteria under light conditions. The invention also describes a method of production of said new compounds and intermediates for preparation thereof, and use of the new compounds as medicaments.

Determination Of The Causality Score Of Atrial Fibrillation

Despite advances in arrhythmia treatment technology, atrial fibrillation (AF) remains a worldwide cardiovascular epidemic affecting more than 33 million individuals globally. AF carries a 5-fold increased risk of brain stroke, 3-fold increased risk of heart failure and causes up to 40% of annual hospitalizations of AF patients. For these reasons, AF imposes a substantial economic burden, e.g., the total healthcare costs of AF reach 2.6% of healthcare expenditure in Europe.

The present invention relates to methods for assessment of a person’s health risks based on the person’s biosignals, and more particularly, to a method for establishing a causality score between person’s atrial fibrillation triggers and atrial fibrillation pattern. The causality score might be useful in nonpharmacological self-management of the disease in its early stages by inspiring lifestyle behaviour changes.

Device For Oxygen Uptake Rate Monitoring

The COVID-19 virus, which caused a global pandemic, has prompted scientists to look for solutions. One of the most common complications of COVID-19 is pneumonia, after which the patient eventually develops acute respiratory distress syndrome, when oxygen no longer enters the bloodstream and the lungs begin to sink.

The invention is intended to make a preliminary initial assessment of a person's body condition through oxygen uptake and the dynamics of maintaining body biomass viability. It also allows the planning and management of hypoxemia correction measures that would delay or allow for the complete avoidance of intubation and artificial lung ventilation.

In addition to macro-organism monitoring, another use case is helping in maximization of the target product expression when performing aerobic microorganism cultivation in lab scale and industrial bioreactors. A typical installation is a bio-pharmaceutical plant with microbial, mammalian and then stem cells biosynthesis processes, including recombinant proteins, antibodies and other products.

Silicone Materials Having Antimicrobial Efficiency

Silicones are commonly used in the healthcare and medical sectors due to its excellent biocompatibility and versatility in properties. However, one main concern for materials developed for use in these sectors is the prevention of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). Therefore, to circumvent the risk of HAIs, an antimicrobial silicone-based material is necessary to reduce the infections caused by pathogens to patients.

The technology on offer is a scalable, cost-effective antimicrobial silicone composite material comprising of cellulose/silver and silicon as the matrix. Silver (Ag) nanoparticles are first deposited onto cellulose fibers through a simple process to prevent the migration of the silver particles. Upon solidfication, the cellulose/silver composite is next mixed with silicon to form the final silicone composite material. By incorporating silver into the material as the antimicrobial agent, a stable and strong antimicrobial material can be obtained for healthcare and medical applications.

Easily Swallowed Viscous Nutritional Emulsion

Ageism is a global challenge and according to World Health Organisation (WHO), the world’s population aged 60 and older is expected to increase to total 2 billion by 2050. The rising life expectancy within the older population is also increasing with long-lived people (85 years old and older) constituting 8% of the world’s older population. The characteristic of these people is polymorbidity when the same person has two or more chronic diseases.

The invention intended for solving the problem of malnutrition and alleviating the discomfort caused by dysphagia, a condition for swallowing difficulties. When swallowing are exacerbated by dysphagia, one tend to have loss in appetite, subsequent weight loss, poorer nutritional status, and dehydration Therefore, this clinically tested food product increases the content of vitamins B12 and D in the blood and helps to restore weight.

The technology will interest potential partners such as pharmaceutical manufacturers, nursing homes and hospitals.

Bread Products With Defatted By Sea Buckthorn Berry Pomace

Sea buckthorn berry has been recognised for centuries for its health properties. This berry has a high content of bioactive compounds, including anti-inflammatory effects, antioxidants, phytosterol, high in dietary fiber, and vitamins C, K, and E. Hence, this technology incorporated defatted sea buckthorn berry pomace into bread for value-added benefits.

The technology discloses a method of defatting sea buckthorn berry using supercritical carbon dioxide extraction. Supercritical CO2 extraction is a separation technology that uses carbon dioxide fluid solvent for defatting extraction to achieve defatted buckthorn berry pomace.

The technology will interest potential partners such as food or bakery manufacturer who wish to enrich their products and manufacturers seeking effective supercritical CO2 extraction.

Materials for Highly Efficient Tandem Solar Cells

Increasing the efficiency of solar cells is the subject of research by many scientific groups around the world. This can be achieved by using tandem technology, where two (or more) light-absorbing layers are used, and thus the losses are reduced.

Realisation of the highly efficient tandems requires simple and robust interconnection layer, which should bridge two different technologies, and thus, be compatible with both of them. This role goes to the hole-transporting material, where typically organic materials are used.

This technology presents simple organic molecules synthesised by the research team, which self-assemble into a molecular-thick electrode layer, providing a simple way to realise highly efficient tandem solar cells with perovskite absorber layer. The efficiency of tandem Si/perovskite solar cells developed by the international team is 29.15%. This is a world record for this type of element. The technology was created and developed in collaboration with a German energy materials research institute.

Organic Molecular Materials For Optoelectronic Devices

The employment of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) in the active layers of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) has opened wide possibilities in the search for new efficient OLED materials. The external quantum efficiency (EQE) of OLEDs based on organic small molecules are improving steadily in recent years. However, the demand of flexible molecular design, good morphological and electrochemical stabilities and well-controlled photophysical characteristics of organic emissive compounds remains relevant. Despite significant research efforts devoted to find easily synthesized and efficient organic materials, molecular design still consists of complex synthesis pathways that are technologically complicated to implement. The synthesis process is usually lengthy, multi-step, time-consuming and expensive.

This technology offer is a bipolar organic light-emitting compound containing benzanthrone according to general formula (I). The purpose of this technology is to provide new emissive organic compounds, which have novel acceptor unit benzanthrone in their structure. This technology offer enables new emissive materials with effective emission properties and with suitable energy levels.

Analysis System For Early - Stage Diagnostic Of Skin Tumors

The accuracy of clinical diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma is only 60% and strongly depends on the experience of the dermatologist performing the study. The use of non-visual imaging devices in clinical dermatological practice increases the accuracy of the diagnosis of melanoma (malignant skin tumor of melanocyte origin) by 10-27%.

The proposed automatic quantitative parameter evaluation and decision support system simultaneously analyzes the data recorded by several different methods (spectrophotometry, ultrasound images and data), evaluates not only the skin surface tissues and their changes, but also the depth of tumor penetration into those tissues. It helps to make a faster and better decision on the diagnosis (malignant or non-malignant tumor), to select the next tests and to plan treatment tactics.

We are seeking companies for R&D collaboration to further improve the system or for companies keen to license this technology.

System For Early Diagnosis Of Pancreatic Pathologies

This technology is a system and method for ultrasound image and data analysis and ultrasound with contrast medium of human pancreatic tissues to automatically diagnose acute pancreatitis of the pancreas and identify pancreatic non-viable tissues at an early stage. It is one of the most accessible, safest (without ionizing radiation) and cheapest imaging methods to assess the condition of the pancreas and surrounding tissues, and other abdominal organs.

We are looking for companies to collaborate on research and development to further improve this system and also for companies keen to license this technology.

System For Predicting Of Acute Hypotensive Episodes

Acute hypotensive episodes are one of the most critical events that generally occur in intensive care units (ICUs). An acute hypotensive episode is a clinical condition typically characterized by abnormally low blood pressure values and other related values. If an acute hypotensive episode is not promptly and appropriately treated, it may result in an irreversible organ damage and, eventually death.

The invention is a method and system of predicting a hypotensive episode in a patient using one or more time varying hypotension specific biomarkers corresponding to physiological processes in the patient.

We are looking for companies to license this technology.