February 25, 2009 – Research Triangle Park, NC — In the midst of a difficult economy, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center continues to award grants, this time for projects that bring together university and corporate scientists around the state.
The Collaborative Funding Grants program, designed to help generate discoveries that the corporate partner might commercialize, had its second deadline of the funding year today.
The awards pay for a postdoctoral researcher or technician in a university laboratory. They are jointly funded by the Biotechnology Center and the William R. Kenan Jr. Institute for Engineering, Technology & Science at North Carolina State University.
The Biotechnology Center's goal with the program is to stimulate North Carolina's economy and, in the process, create good jobs. It's also aimed at promoting long-term cooperation among North Carolina universities, nonprofit research institutes and biotechnology companies.
"This award program has a proven track record of success for bringing additional, long-term funding to universities and companies that participate," said Maria Rapoza, Ph.D., vice president of the Science and Technology Development Program at the Biotechnology Center.
CFGs pay $40,000 to $50,000 to support the university researcher or technician who will perform projects of commercial interest under the guidance of a principal investigator. The university and corporate collaborator also contribute money to the project.
The grant program has evolved during the past few years, said Rapoza, adapting to changes in the state's biotech landscape. Last year's funding caps were different: three CFGs of $100,000 each and two of $50,000 each were awarded. The $100,000 recipients included:
Kevin Anderson, D.V.M., North Carolina State University professor of veterinary medicine, for his work on a diagnostic test for identifying infectious bovine mastitis. He's collaborating with Advanced Animal Diagnostics, an 8-year-old Research Triangle Park firm that itself received a $20,000 Biotechnology Center loan two years ago.
Thomas Fischer, Ph.D., scientific director of the Francis Owen Blood Research Laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for his work combining recent developments that understand how to stop blood loss with advances in polymer and fiber science to develop an advanced generation of textiles for controlling hemorrhage. Fischer is also chief science officer at collaborator Entegrion, an RTP-based UNC-CH spin-out company started with the help of a $150,000 Small Business Research Loan from the Biotechnology Center.
Duke's Lori Setton, Ph.D., for her work developing injectable "drug depots" capable of keeping anti-inflammatory drugs within osteoarthritic joint spaces. That's to reduce the number of injections needed for pain relief and to reduce side effects by keeping the medicine where it's needed. The technology is being developed in conjunction with Morrisville-based PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals. The Biotechnology Center provided PhaseBio a $15,000 Business Development Loan in 2002, a $75,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Bridge Loan in 2005 and a $150,000 Small Business Research Loan in 2006 to help it develop its novel drug-delivery technology.
The $50,000 recipients were:
The Duke University Civil and Environmental Engineering Department's Claudia Gunsch, Ph.D., to support the assistant professor's research in biological wastewater treatment, in collaboration with Entex Technologies of Chapel Hill. Gunsch and Entex are collaborating on experiments at the South Durham Water Reclamation Facility to improve wastewater treatment efficiency. The research will include removal of potentially hazardous and increasingly worrisome endocrine disruptors that may be sneaking into the environment from unused medicines flushed down toilets and from the urine of women taking birth-control pills.
Sheila Collins, Ph.D., of The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, for her work in collaboration with RTP-based Zen-Bio on a better understanding of obesity. Zen-Bio, which has received $235,000 in loans from the Biotechnology Center since forming in 1995, was recently awarded a $1.88 million Phase II SBIR grant to help it commercialize its line of synthetically grown human cells for use by scientists studying obesity, diabetes, and common cancers.
Rapoza said applicants meeting today's CFG deadline will be evaluated during the next several weeks. Recipients will be announced this spring.
The Biotechnology Center is a private, non-profit corporation supported by the N.C. General Assembly. Its mission is to provide long-term economic and societal benefits to North Carolina by supporting biotechnology research, business, education and strategic policy statewide.
Joy Parr Drach
Senior Partner
Entira
815.992.8460
joy@entira.net
www.entira.net