Entrepreneur of the Year
2019 Award Winner
Robert K. Ernst, PhD
School of Dentistry
Professor and vice chair, Department of Microbial Pathogenesis
“Pathogens, Patents, and Pataigin: Delivering Diagnostic Development"
Robert K. Ernst, PhD, says his laboratory at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry (UMSOD) follows the National Institutes of Health’s “bench to bedside” mantra, a phrase used to describe the mission to take the findings of research and develop them into new ways to treat patients.
Ernst, professor and vice chair in UMSOD’s Department of Microbial Pathogenesis, uses this approach to understand the interplay between a bacterial pathogen and the host defense mechanisms. He is clearly getting results in this area and others, earning major research contracts/grants, developing a diagnostic test to more rapidly identify bacteria- and fungi-caused infections, and co-founding a company, Pataigin, aimed at developing a method to quickly and accurately identify disease-producing agents, or pathogens.
Read the full story from University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Previous Awardees
2018
Steven I. Hanish, MD, FACS
Thomas M. Scalea, MD, FACS, MCCM
Deborah M. Stein, MD, MPH, FACS FCCM
School of Medicine
R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center
University of Maryland Medical Center
Molecular Adsorbent Recirculating System
Read more
2017
School of Medicine
Thomas E. and Alice Marie Hales Distinguished Professor in Transplant Surgery
Founder, Breethe, Inc.
Read More
2016
William Regine, MD, FACR, FACRO
School of Medicine
Executive Director, Maryland Proton Treatment Center
Read More
2015
School of Medicine
Research Associate, Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine
Read More
2014
School of Medicine
Professor and Chief of the Division of Cardiac Surgery
2013
Magaly Rodriguez de Bittner, PharmD
School of Pharmacy
Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science
Read More
2012
William A Blattner, MD and Robert R Redfield, MD
School of Medicine
Institute of Human Virology
2011
Scott E. Strome, MD, FACS
School of Medicine
Chair, Otorhinolaryngology
2010
School of Medicine
Clinical Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology
2009
School of Medicine
Director, Center for Vaccine Development
2008
School of Medicine
Professor, Departments of Neurosurgery, Pathology, Physiology
2007
School of Dentistry
Associate Professor, Department of Endodontics, Prosthodontics & Operative Dentistry
Leonard Litkowski, DDS, MS
School of Dentistry
2006
School of Medicine
Director, Center for Celiac Research and Director, Mucosal Biology Research Center