Eight George Mason Inventions You Need to Know About

American inventor Thomas Edison is credited with saying “genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration,” and many innovators can attest to this. The inventive process requires a lot of grit and determination. It can often take years to bring an innovation from idea to market.

Each year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issues patents to George Mason University that cover the creation of new or improved products, processes, or machines. The university received its first patent in 1996 for research professor Jenefir Isbister’s invention of a test for microbial contamination. Since then, George Mason has been awarded 296 U.S. and international patents, a quantifiable testament to the university’s bold approach to problem-solving and perseverance in creating solutions.

Alumni often share inventorship of patents with their faculty mentors for work they contributed during their time at George Mason.

In 2023, the Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact recognized University Professor Lance Liotta, cofounder and codirector of the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM), with a George Mason Lifetime Disclosure Award. During his career at George Mason, Liotta has filed more than 120 patent disclosures.

Disclosures to the university’s Office of Technology Transfer are the first step toward a patent for an invention or discovery. Liotta has 100 inventions to date and the prototype of one of these inventions—laser capture microdissection, a method to procure subpopulations of tissue cells under direct microscopic visualization—is in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History collection.

The Office of Technology Transfer at George Mason is the bridge between university researchers and industry visionaries bringing cutting-edge technology to life. Not only are they charged with protecting the university’s and researchers’ intellectual property, but they also negotiate licensing agreements to launch these technologies in the marketplace.

In this feature, we take a look at some of the George Mason patents that are available for licensing.

Graphic of a smart watch, a cloud, and a phone working in a system.

1. Regulating substance craving in real time

George Mason professors Padmanabhan Seshaiyer of the Department of Mathematical Sciences and Holly Matto of the Department of Social Work share a patent for REMind-h, an innovative tool that helps individuals in substance abuse recovery regulate their responses to drug craving cues. Their invention monitors the biobehavioral state of the user and strategically delivers, in real time, personalized recovery cues to prevent the person from relapsing. It is the first patent for the Department of Social Work.

Graphic of an electronic device around a knee.

2. Giving rehab a leg up

Liotta and CAPMM research professor Marissa Howard, BS Bioengineering ’17, PhD Biosciences ’22, hold the patent on a wearable device that measures, tracks, and monitors a wearer's physiological conditions during a rehabilitation period. The device collects metrics, such as temperature, patellar shifting, limb circumference, and acceleration, and communicates data through a networked communication system so medical personnel and patients can stay updated with the patient’s rehabilitation progress and make adjustments. Howard and Liotta share the patent with Rachel Naidich, Matthew Luu Trang, Ish Sethi, Rebecca Woodhouse, and Kshamata Neupane, who worked on the device as high school students in George Mason’s Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program.

3. Keeping the lights on

George Mason alum Eniye Tebekaemi, PhD Information Technology ’18, and College of Engineering and Computing professor Duminda Wijesekera have a patent for a secure overlay communication model for decentralized autonomous power grids. The model is a logic-based system deployed onto computing devices in power grid stations and substations. In response to detecting various power grid faults, such as line failures and overcurrent states, the system can automatically rearrange power line configurations.

Graphic of two virus cells, with the symbol for "not" over top.

4. Putting an end to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

Researcher Yuntao Wu, a professor in George Mason’s School of Systems Biology and the Center for Infectious Disease Research, has devoted his career to finding a cure for HIV. He’s received several patents for his work in this area, including “Targeting the Cofilin Pathway” and “Method and System for Inactivating Virus Infectivity for Producing Live-Attenuated Vaccines.” In 2013, he founded the biotech company Virongy after licensing an HIV drug-screening technology that was developed in his Science and Technology Campus lab.

5. Making aircraft safer

Professor Lance Sherry, director of George Mason’s Center for Air Transportation Systems Research, and PhD student Oleksandra Snisarevska share a patent for “Systems and Methods for Improved Airline Safety,” a machine learning model that can be trained using historical flight data to generate alerts. When sent to a computing device onboard an aircraft, these alerts can provide information to the flight crew regarding the status of automated aircraft functions.

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6. On-demand protection from flood waters

This invention—patented by Professor Emeritus George Donohue and alumni Adel Youssef, BS Systems Engineering ’20; Lucciana Remy, BS Systems Engineering ’20; Faris Masri, BS Systems Engineering ’20; and Murat Gokturk, BS Systems Engineering ’20—provides systems and methods for making dynamic, low-visibility, portable pneumatic cofferdams that can be readily deployed in flood susceptible areas. Created as a senior design project, this inflatable, pneumatic cofferdam system is permanently anchored around a location’s perimeter. It creates a barrier of flood protection that can be deployed instantly in the event of a flood threat. When not deployed, it acts as a functional boardwalk.

Graphic of someone dealing with shoulder pain.

7. Wearable device monitors muscle function

While there are wearable sensors for heart rate, skin temperature, and even electrolytes, no commercially available sensors monitor for muscle function. George Mason bioengineering professor Siddhartha Sikdar, director of the Center for Advancing Systems Science and Bioengineering Innovation, and Professor Parag Chitnis have developed a wireless wearable device that uses ultrasound sensors to monitor for muscle injury, function, and fatigue and can assess muscle recovery. The monitoring technology is ideal for sports medicine, personal fitness, and rehabilitation applications.

Graphic of a bandaid with a komodo dragon on it.

8. Promoting wound healing and closure

Inspired by a peptide that was first discovered in Komodo dragons, DRGN-1 is an antimicrobial peptide developed by College of Science researchers Barney Bishop, Monique Van Hoek, and Myung Chung. The peptide has been modified into a cost-effective antimicrobial and anti-biofilm treatment that can be used as an alternative to antibiotics in the treatment of infected wounds. The potential uses of DRGN-1 include antimicrobial sprays, wound dressings, topical gels, and as a coating for catheters.