WHO'S WHO: 3 Houston innovators to know this week

University of Houston's Dr. Seamus Curran. Photo courtesy of University of Houston

InnovationMap has shared Three Houston Innovators to know this week which includes Integricote CEO, Prof. Shay Curran.

Across industries, Houston innovation leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators are coming up with creative solutions for the coronavirus or its subsequent challenges — from digital resources to reliable face masks.

Water beading (green food color added for demo) on an ordinary mask coated with Integricote Premium Hydrophobic Coating (right) and uncoated mask (left)

Seamus Curran is well-known for his work commercializing nanotechnologies, and he is pulling from his past to deal with a future demand. The professor is using a hydrophobic coating he developed nearly 10 years ago to improve the ability of surgical masks to protect against transmission of the virus.

The world is in dire need of more face masks, and Curran notes that standard masks are "somewhat porous, and especially if they get wet, they can allow the virus to penetrate." People infected with the virus, he adds, could spread it even through a mask, while people who aren't sick could still become infected, despite wearing a less-protective mask.

Curran is hoping his solution can prove to be much more effective at preventing the spread of the disease. Click here to continue reading.

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University of Houston unmasks cutting-edge technology to battle COVID-19

Dr. Seamus Curran, a professor of physics at the University of Houston, doesn’t mince words when it comes to society’s need to adjust to the new normal and don masks in public to combat the spread of COVID-19.

“We left normal in December,” Curran tells CultureMap, “and, when everyone was planning their New Year’s resolutions, little did we know that the old normal of before is gone. None of us saw that life passing away — and it was taken away by a bug 1,000 times smaller than lice. And like lice, it’s going to be with us for a long time.”

(Read full story here…)

UNIVISION 45 HOUSTON - This waterproof product can be used in home face masks to protect us against coronavirus

Integricote CEO Pro. Shay Curran shares his idea on how Integricote’s hydrophobic/water-repellent coating for fabrics can help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Any piece of fabric coated with our hydrophobic coating can make the fabric droplet/liquid/water-repellent which is the main cause of the current virus spread.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended using scarves, scarves, or a piece of cloth to create non-medical masks that help prevent the spread of this virus. The hydrophobic coating does significantly increase the ability of a coated fabric to protect us against the virus spread.

(Watch the full story here…)

UH professor presents idea on how to make face masks more COVID-19 efficient

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- With the recent White House announcement recommending almost all Americans to wear face coverings while away from home, now more than ever the demand for face masks has never been greater.

If you do not have access to one in your area, the CDC recently recommended wearing a homemade mask like a bandana or scarf. But would that be enough to protect you?

Professor of physics at the University of Houston, Dr. Seamus Curran, may have a solution for added protection.

His company Integricote developed a hydrophobic coating quite a few years ago to waterproof surfaces like masonry, wood and concrete.

But recently, he shifted his focus toward the fight against COVID-19.

(Watch/read full story here…)

UH professor develops coating that protects PPE from droplets that spread COVID-19

Integricote CEO, Prof. Shay Curran, shares his idea on how Integricote can help build the first line of defense against the ongoing virus spread using the company’s proprietary hydrophobic coating for fabrics. The nation has been currently going through a shortage of PPE for health workers/public. The water-repellent coating can make masks, bandana, and other fabrics droplet and liquid repellent which is the main cause of virus spread.

(Read/watch the full story here…)

UH professor develops innovative water-proofing for N95 masks to combat spread of COVID-19

In the wake of the growing coronavirus pandemic, UH professor Dr. Seamus Curran developed a viable solution to a pressing problem. When Curran first heard about the critical shortage of N95 masks, he wanted to help.

"To be absolutely frank with you, I was horrified when I first heard these calls about doctors and nurses in very unsafe situations," he said.

Curran is now waiting for FDA approval of an innovative waterproofing solution he created for the N95 masks.

(Read the full story…)

Nanotech Coating Developed by UH Researchers Improves Protective Abilities of Surgical Masks

We would like to congratulate our CEO, Prof. Shay Curran, and the team for successfully developing a hydrophobic coating that can improve the ability of common masks to protect against the spread of the virus. Common masks are generally porous and can allow virus transmission when they are wet.

A snippet from the original article by-

Jeannie Kever (University of Houston)

HOUSTON, March 31, 2020— Seamus Curran never liked playing defense. Mention a problem, and he wants to take charge.

The coronavirus, it turns out, is no different. Curran, a professor of physics at the University of Houston who is well-known for his work commercializing nanotechnologies, is using a hydrophobic coating he developed almost a decade ago to improve the ability of surgical masks to protect against transmission of the virus.

“Standard masks are somewhat porous, and especially if they get wet, they can allow the virus to penetrate,” Curran said, noting that goes both ways – people infected with the virus could spread it even through a mask, while people who aren’t sick could still become infected, despite wearing a mask.

(Read more…)

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The link to Integricote’s media release about this work! https://www.integricote.com/news-events-1/2020/3/30/media-release

Coated mask

Uncoated mask

Media Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 30, 2020

Innovative Nanotechnology Coating Could Ease Critical Shortage of Masks

Improves protection for health, emergency professionals

Houston, March 30, 2020 – Integricote has announced a breakthrough coating that creates a droplet / fluid / water-repellent barrier, making inexpensive (and more readily available) masks and other PPE products an effective way to hinder SARS-CoV-2. 

The innovative new coating, based on a decade of research and many US and international patents and filed applications, is designed to address and meet the emergency need for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). It is designed to specifically deliver a protective coating for facemasks, surgical scrubs, air filters, and bed linens. 

Integricote’s founder, a 30-year nanotechnology veteran and UH professor, Dr. Shay Curran, said “At a time when specialized medical safety equipment is in critical demand and short supply, we are excited to offer a real solution to provide water repellent coatings that work on painters masks, fabrics, and vent filters made from fiberglass and fabrics. This effectively reduces the risk of any waterborne organism – including the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 – from penetrating a coated fabric.” 

The nanocoating is available now for manufacturers of PPEs. It can also be used on older out-of-date N95 masks or lower cost masks that need to be enhanced. Before using masks, scrubs, etc., have suppliers spray on the coating to give front line health workers added protection. 

“Using cloths, scarves, homemade masks, and other fabrics is not a good move. We don’t have to go there when Integricote can help now. Tell your health officials, your PPE suppliers, your governor, and other elected officials that there are other options. This is where the US needs to be winning the war against COVID-19. Our focus should be on finding a cure, doing the right thing, and protecting our frontline workers,” according to Curran. 

About Integricote: Established in 2013, Integricote is a nanocompany that has been working on water repellent coatings on many surfaces including fabrics, tarps, wood, and masonry. Integricote products and solutions are designed to improve the nature and quality of the surfaces we protect. The technology was developed in the materials/chemistry labs (Institute for NanoEnergy) of the physics department at the University of Houston.

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Contact Becky Scott at becky@integricote.com for more details on how we can help your state and local hospitals – this is not for individuals right now but for medical suppliers and manufacturers.

Seamus Curran Honored with Silicon Valley 50 Award

It’s an immensely proud moment for us to announce that Integricote CEO, Prof. Shay Curran, has been honored with Irish Technology Leadership Group’s Silicon Valley 50 Award at Stanford University. This award recognizes Irish or Irish-American tech leaders “who are driving the most disruptive and groundbreaking work in technology today.”

Congratulations, Dr. Curran!

A snippet from the original article:

Jeannie Kever
jekever@uh.edu
713-743-0778

Irish Technology Leadership Group Chooses 50 Technology Executives For Award 

University of Houston physicist Seamus Curran will be receiving the Irish Technology Leadership Group’s Silicon Valley 50 Award at Stanford University later this year.

The group’s 13th annual Silicon Valley 50 recognizes Irish or Irish-American technology leaders “who are driving the most disruptive and groundbreaking work in technology today.”

The awards were scheduled for March 12 but have been postponed due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. A new date for the event has not yet been determined by the group.

The purpose of the Irish Technology Leadership Group is to foster innovation, entrepreneurship and economic success across a global Irish network of technology leaders. Other 2020 honorees include executives at Amazon, Bayer AG and Enterprise Ireland.

“I’m very much flabbergasted,” said Curran of the recognition. “I’m in awe of a lot of these folks. They’re bright, creative; they’ve started businesses that have launched billions upon billions of dollars of revenue for their companies.”

(Read more…)

New Material Could Turn Clothing into a Health Monitor

Integricote family would like to congratulate CEO, Prof. Shay Curran, COO (Mr. Alexander J. Wang), Research Scientist (Dr. Surendra Maharjan), and CTO (Dr. Kang-Shyang Liao) for the wonderful work on a composite material that could turn clothing into a Health Monitor. The material is pliable enough to be woven into fabric but imbued with sensing capabilities that could serve as an early warning system for injury or illness. This work was published in ACS Applied Nano Materials.

Congratulations, Team Integricote!

This work was also selected for Supplementary Cover Art by ACS Applied Nano Materials.

A snippet from the original article:

Jeannie Kever
jekever@uh.edu
713-743-0778

The material, described in a paper published by ACS Applied Nano Materials, involves the use of carbon nanotubes and is capable of sensing slight changes in body temperature while maintaining a pliable disordered structure – as opposed to a rigid crystalline structure – making it a good candidate for reusable or disposable wearable human body temperature sensors. Changes in body heat change the electrical resistance, alerting someone monitoring that change to the potential need for intervention.

“Your body can tell you something is wrong before it becomes obvious,” said Seamus Curran, a physics professor at the University of Houston’s College of Natural Sciences & Mathe and co-author on the paper. Possible applications range from detecting dehydration in an ultra-marathoner to the beginnings of a pressure sore in a nursing home patient.

The researchers said it is also cost-effective because the raw materials required are used in relatively low concentrations.

(Read more…)

UH Nanotech Startup Enters the ‘Green’ Energy Market

Huge congratulations to our CEO, Prof. Shay Curran, for being featured in the UH Media.

Sealer Protects Clean-Burning Wood Pellets from Water Damage

Original article by-

Jeannie Kever
jekever@uh.edu
713-743-0778

Global energy demand is growing as developing nations expand electric service, prompting efforts to find a readily available source of fuel that is more environmentally friendly than coal.

A nanotechnology company based at the University of Houston’s Technology Bridge research park has a suggestion.

Countries in Europe and Asia already are using wood pellets – a form of biomass made up of compressed sawdust and other wood waste – to fuel power generating stations in an effort to cut fossil fuel emissions.

There are drawbacks, including the fact that the pellets disintegrate easily if exposed to water or even high humidity, raising the cost of storage and transportation. Using solid wood pellets can help, but that raises the cost substantially.

Seamus “Shay” Curran, a physicist at UH and CEO of Integricote, said researchers have discovered that a nanotech coating can protect the composite pellets from degradation without affecting how they burn or the amount of energy they can produce.

The company launched in late 2013, marketing a water- and stain-repellant coating developed by Curran. It later changed its name to Integricote and now offers products to seal and stain wood, masonry and concrete. They work by penetrating the surface of the material and forming a protective barrier below.

The pellets don’t burn as hot as coal, so more pellets must be burned to produce an equivalent amount of energy. But Curran said the pellets are a green energy solution because they produce fewer emissions than either coal or larger chunks of wood and can be produced from wood waste.

“It makes sense to use this,” he said. “We have issues with coal, so could we change our coal-fired plants to use something else?”

Wood pellets are produced in the United States and Canada, making them a domestic energy solution, Curran said.

Integricote markets its sealers and stains under the name CaraPro and produces them in facilities at the UH Technology Bridge (formerly known as the Energy Research Park) on the Gulf Freeway.

They are available on the East Coast through a distributor and are also sold through the website.

The coating for pellets would be the company’s first industrial product; Curran said Integricote is currently looking for a partner to produce the treated pellets.

“I got into this thinking I could solve a problem,” he said. “We don’t have to shut down every coal plant to be thinking green.”

- Jeannie Kever, University Media Relations

Using Nature to Produce a Revolutionary Optical Material

We would like to congratulate Integricote CEO (Prof. Shay Curran), CTO (Dr. Shawn Liao), and Research Scientist (Dr. Surendra Maharjan) for being a huge part of an international research collaboration which resulted in a publication in a very prestigious journal “Nature Communications’. The reported work is based on nanocomposite material capable of protecting humans and optical sensors against intense light (highly intense laser pulses), which also holds promise for high-speed communication. Congratulations to the team!

Media Contact

Jeannie Kever
jekever@uh.edu
713-743-0778

A snippet from the original article below:

Nanocomposite Protects Against Intense Light, Holds Promise for Expanding High-Speed Optical Networking Capacity

An international team of researchers has reported a new way to safeguard drones, surveillance cameras and other equipment against laser attacks, which can disable or destroy the equipment. The capability is known as optical limiting.

The work, published in the journal Nature Communication, also describes a superior manner of telecom switching without the use of electronics; instead, they use an all-optical method that could improve the speed and capacity of internet communications. That could remove a roadblock in moving from 4GLTE to 5G networks.

The team reported that a material created using tellurium nanorods – produced by naturally occurring bacteria – is an effective nonlinear optical material, capable of protecting electronic devices against high-intensity bursts of light, including those emitted by inexpensive household lasers targeted at aircraft, drones or other critical systems. The researchers describe the material and its performance as a material of choice for next-generation optoelectronic and photonic devices.

Seamus Curran, a physics professor at the University of Houston’s College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics and one of the paper’s authors, said while most optical materials are chemically synthesized, using a biologically-based nanomaterial proved less expensive and less toxic. “We found a cheaper, easier, simpler way to manufacture the material,” he said. “We let Mother Nature do it.”

(Read more…)

Integricote CEO featured on the front page of Houston Chronicle Business Journal

We are proud to share that Integricote CEO, Prof. Shay Curran, was featured on the front page of Houston Chronicle Business Journal published today. In this article, he shares his 27 years long experience of doing basic science to the establishment of startup company based off self-cleaning coating for solar panels in 2009 (C-Voltaics, Inc. ), and then a successful operation of fully-cultivated nanotechnology company that manufactures water-resistant sealers/stains for wood, masonry, and concrete (Integricote, Inc.).

In these 27 years, he published more than 100 peer-reviewed journals, 31 issued and pending US patents, 40 international patents, and received many academic and entrepreneurship awards. He has recently been named a fellow of National Academy of Inventors (NAI) in recognition of his outstanding contribution in the field of nanotechnology.

Photo Courtesy: Yi-Chin Lee, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer

Congratulations, Prof. Curran!

(Read more…)

Integricote CEO named National Academy of Inventors Fellow

It is a really proud moment for us to announce that Integricote, Inc. CEO & Physics Professor at UH, Prof. Shay Curran, has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) in recognition of his outstanding contribution in the field of nanotechnology. Prof. Curran had been chosen by the academy for "a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development and welfare of society.

Prof. Curran currently holds 19 issued and pending U.S. patents and 40 international patents. He will become the 15th faculty member to be named a fellow of NAI from UH. The NAI Fellows will be officially inducted at a ceremony during the NAI annual meeting, to be held on April 10, 2020.

Kudos to Prof. Shay Curran for his great achievement!

(Read more…)

Integricote CEO, CTO, and COO honored with INVENTOR PATENT AWARDS 2019

It is a truly proud moment for us to share the news that Integricote CEO, Prof. Seamus (Shay) Curran, CTO, Dr. Kang-Shyang (Shawn) Liao, and COO, Mr. Alexander Wang are honored with INVENTOR PATENT AWARDS 2019 during a ceremony organized by Division of Research, University of Houston. The event was held on Thursday, March 07, 2019. The awards were given to the individuals in the recognition of two US patents they acquired in the year 2018, specifically US Patent No. 9790336 (Graphitic Nanocomposites in Solid State Matrices and Methods for Making Same) and 10053388 (Multifunctional Composites and Material Laminates with Graphitic or Other Nanomaterials ).

Congratulations Prof. Curran, Dr. Liao, and Mr. Wang!

Starting from left COO (Mr. Alex Wang), CEO (Prof. Shay Curran), and CTO (Dr. Shawn Liao) holding their respective patent awards.

Startup Pains: What I Wish I Knew

Integricote CEO & UH Professor of Physics, Dr. Seamus Curran, will be presenting his experience of the journey of Integricote, Inc. from its inception to the current stage where business has become profitable. The talk will be held on Friday, March 8, 2019, 4:00 -5:00 PM CST at Innovation Center, UH Technology Bridge, Building 4, Floor 2, 5000 Gulf Freeway, 77023. It is a free event and we encourage you all to attend. Please register in the given link below if you plan to attend the event.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/startup-pains-what-i-wish-i-knew-tickets-56072381001

“Startup Pains” is a monthly talk organized by Division of Research, Office of Technology Transfer and Innovation at University of Houston. The researcher-turned-entrepreneurs will share their experience about starting a company and their transition from scientist to business owner.

Date And Time

Fri, March 8, 2019

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM CST

Location

Innovation Center

UH Technology Bridge, Building 4, Floor 2

5000 Gulf Freeway

Houston, TX 77023

Integricote Seals A Large Problematic Brick Facade of Building 3 at the University of Houston Energy Research Park.

Integricote recently completed a large project for Transwestern that entailed cleaning and sealing the north-facing exterior brick facade of Building 3 at the University of Houston Energy Research Park. Transwestern had noted ongoing complaints of water/moisture ingress/seepages, particularly on rainy days. After sealing the north-facing brick facade with CaraPro® Single-Coat-Clear Masonry Sealer, building management has yet to report any cases of further water ingress/seepage.