UofL research study groups picked for prominent nationwide innovation program

2 University of Louisville research study groups have actually been picked to participate in a prominent, nationally competitive development program through the National Science Structure.

The NSF’s Development Corps (I-Corps) Groups program offers training and $50,000 in financing that assists university scientists translate the concepts they develop in the laboratory into new, technology-backed startups. Taking part teams complete an intense, two-month bootcamp discovering commercialization, engaging with industry and talking with possible consumers.

Two projects from UofL were chosen to take part in current bootcamp friends:

• BioCaRGOS, brief for Capture and Release Gels for Optimized Storage (bioCaRGOS), uses an unique water-based stabilizer to make it possible for storage of delicate biospecimens like RNA, DNA or proteins at low temperatures for long periods of time, consisting of throughout transportation to remote places. The job group includes: co-inventors Gautam Gupta andRajat Chauhan, both in the J.B. Speed School of Engineering, and business mentor Jeff Cummins, who also is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with the UofL Workplace of Research and Development.

Chauhan, of the BioCaRGOS group, stated the experience assisted his group find an industry commercialization partner. They presently are seeking partners for an approaching application NSF Collaborations for Development program, which enables NSF-backed projects like his to work with market on research study and development and accelerate the technology’s path to market.

“Vaccine stability (specifically for COVID-19) stays an important obstacle and is the vital traffic jam for efficient circulation of the state-of-art MRNA based vaccines to current population,” stated Chauhan, BioCaRGOS entrepreneurial lead and a postdoctoral research scientist. “Our technology has the prospective to advance the delivery of vaccines at room temperature level, a task that can not be achieved currently.”

Groups should be nominated for the national I-Corps bootcamp, and should initially complete a local I-Corps site program. Both the BioCARGOS and ARNA groups finished UofL’s I-Corps website program– part of UofL’s suite of prestigious translational research grants, that likewise includes the UofL Coulter Translational Collaboration, NIH KYNETIC and NSF AWARE: GAIN ACCESS TO programs. I-Corps at UofL needs effective participation and completion of LaunchIt, UofL’s own 10-week entrepreneurial bootcamp.

“These programs support commercialization of the work being done by our scientists here at UofL,” stated Jessica Sharon, UofL’s director of development programs. “We’re happy of the ARNA and BioCARGOS groups, and their work to accelerate product advancement of their innovations to attend to unmet needs in the market.”