VCU news

By Frances Dumenci

Virginia Commonwealth University received funding for five research projects through a statewide network designed to accelerate innovation and economic growth. The Virginia Innovation Partnership, created last fall as part of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s i6 Challenge, awarded more than $250,000 to VCU research projects.

The Virginia Innovation Partnership provides proof-of-concept funding to advance early-stage research and connects academic researchers with mentors, corporations and investors to accelerate commercialization of the new discoveries.  

Researchers from 10 academic institutions in Virginia submitted funding proposals for 84 projects. An external advisory group with government, corporate, research, community and venture capital experience selected 27 projects for oral presentations, with 18 of those ultimately selected for funding. At $258,000, VCU’s five funded proposals represented the highest dollar award total for all Virginia universities.

The VCU awardees:

• “Development of a novel chimeric vaccine for tick-transmitted disease,” submitted by Jason Carlyon, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and immunology in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, and Richard Marconi, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and immunology in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, was awarded $70,000.

• “Transporter-directed prodrugs for drug delivery to the brain: In vivo proof of concept,” submitted by Phillip Gerk, Ph.D., association professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics, was awarded $68,000.
  
  
• “Point-of-care biomarker of ischemia,” submitted by Lynne Gehr, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, and Todd Gehr, M.D., professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, was awarded $40,000.
  
  
• “Airway stent delivery system,” submitted by Aamer Syed, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, and Hans Lee, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, was awarded $40,000.
  
  
• “Sustained drug release formulation for glaucoma,” submitted by Hu Yang, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, was awarded $40,000.
  
  
• “VCU Tech Transfer was instrumental in preparing the commercialized plans for the winning proposals, creating the presentations and rehearsing the ‘pitches’ of our researchers,” said Ivelina Metcheva, Ph.D., executive director of VCU Tech Transfer. “Our team and members of our advisory panel will be involved with the mentoring teams created for each of the awardees to ensure that our projects gain significant traction.”

The awards mark the Virginia Innovation Partnership’s first round of funding. The partnership is supported by $1 million in federal funding over two years as part of the i6 Challenge, with additional matching funds provided by corporate participants, university partners and other entities. The partnership includes all research universities in Virginia with overall research activities of more than $1.5 billion annually; the state’s community colleges; 10 commercialization incubators; and multiple corporate and government agency partners.


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