Jennifer Maynard: 2015 UT Austin Emerging Inventor of the Year

Pertussis, or whooping cough, is a disease that claims the lives of 195,000 children across the globe annually. Jennifer Maynard, an associate professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, is on the cusp of a treatment.

She was named 2015 UT Austin Emerging Inventor of the Year by the university's Office of Technology Commercialization.

While working on her Ph.D. research to create an antibody to neutralize anthrax toxins, Maynard realized a similar technique could be used to fight pertussis. She is testing a therapeutic injection to treat the symptoms of pertussis and the painful coughing fits that come with the illness.

"It gives this one-two punch to deal with the toxin," Maynard says. The therapeutic can also help babies who have contracted the disease by easing their symptoms while antibiotics work to eliminate the bacteria that causes the illness.

Video by Thomas Humphreys