RICHMOND, VA – August 14, 2018 – The Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corporation (VBHRC), now known as Virginia Catalyst, today announced that it is accepting applications/letters of intent (LOIs) for round nine of grants to fund the development and commercialization of life science projects that address major unmet needs for improving human health. ​The awards, which range from $200,000 to $800,000, help fund collaborative efforts between industry and Virginia research universities with the goal of:

• Funding innovative, collaborative, translational research projects that elevate the level of sponsored research at Virginia’s universities and have the potential to significantly improve human health and create high value jobs in the Commonwealth
• Accelerating commercialization of Virginia research university inventions and discoveries and to achieve competitive critical mass through robust collaborations of Virginia research universities and industry

Letters of intent (LOI) must be received by November 15, 2018 at 5:00 PM EST. Projects that meet criteria will be invited to submit a full application. Awards will be announced in March 2019. 

Read the full press release here

CLICK HERE for more information and how to submit a Letter of Intent for Grant Round 9

Six winning projects to address human health needs such as myocardial infarctions, traumatic brain injury, musculoskeletal injury and catheter associated infections

The Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corporation (VBHRC), now known as Virginia Catalyst, today announced that it has awarded a total of $2.7 million to six life and bioscience projects in the Commonwealth of Virginia. These grants, which will be met with nearly $5.7 million in matching funds from partner companies, were awarded as Round 8 of Virginia Catalyst’s ongoing mission to stimulate economic development by promoting collaborative projects that address large, unmet medical needs, and that can create high-paying jobs in the Commonwealth.
 
“With this eighth round of funding, Virginia Catalyst has now awarded $15.7 million to Virginia companies and universities working on incredible technologies that can benefit the whole of society,” said Mike Grisham, CEO of Virginia Catalyst. “These six projects embody Virginia Catalyst’s core mission in that not only can they help citizens in our state, and our country, treat diseases and to discover new forms of treatment, but they can also help keep Virginia’s economy moving forward.”

Read the full press release here.

The Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corporation, known as Virginia Catalyst, today announced that it has awarded a $500,000 grant to a collaborative bioscience commercialization project including a team from the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, the University of Virginia, Carilion Medical Center, and BRAINBox Solutions, Inc., which is headquartered in Richmond. This grant, which includes matching funding of $500,000 provided by BRAINBox, will support the Virginia Brain Injury Diagnosis and Monitoring Initiative. This work will focus on a multi-modality system approach which will include point-of-care device detection of testing for brain injury blood biomarkers and development of integrated neuro-imaging, behavioral and biomarker models for outcome prediction for athletic brain injury and general brain injury management.

​Read the full press release here.

The Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corporation, known as Virginia Catalyst, today announced that it has awarded a $400,000 grant to a collaborative bioscience commercialization project including a team from Virginia Commonwealth University, Eastern Virginia Medical School and ReAlta Life Sciences, LLC. This grant, which includes matching funding of $400,000 provided by ReAlta, is intended to establish the efficacy of Peptide Inhibitor of Complement C1 (PIC1) in decreasing brain injury in an animal model of neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE), as well as establish the long-term improvement in neurological outcomes after PIC1 treatment in an animal model of neonatal HIE. 

Read the full press release here. 

The Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corporation (VBHRC), now known as Virginia Catalyst, today announced that it is accepting applications/letters of intent (LOIs) for round eight of grants to fund the development and commercialization of life science projects that address major unmet needs for improving human health. The awards, which range from $200,000 to $800,000, will accelerate translational research in the Commonwealth of Virginia through collaborations between industry and Virginia research universities. The purpose of this funding is to:

• Fund innovative, collaborative, translational research projects that elevate the level of sponsored research at Virginia’s universities and have the potential to significantly improve human health and create high value jobs in the Commonwealth
• Accelerate commercialization of our research university inventions and discoveries and to achieve competitive critical mass through robust collaborations of our research universities and industry

 
Letters of intent must be received by February 1, 2018 at 5:00 PM EST. Projects that meet criteria will be invited to submit a full application. Awards will be announced in April 2018. 

​Read the full press release here.

The Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corporation, known as Virginia Catalyst, today announced that it has awarded a $500,000 grant to a collaborative bioscience commercialization project including a team from Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, Inova Health System and Indivior Inc., a global specialty pharmaceutical company with a 20-year legacy of leadership in patient advocacy and health policy. This grant, which includes matching funding of $500,000 provided by Indivior, is intended to catalyze the development and commercialization of life science projects that address major unmet needs for improving human health, while also contributing to Virginia’s economic growth. This project is focused on addressing neuroscience initiatives involving the treatment and care of patients recovering from an opioid overdose.

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Read the full article at Virginia Business.

Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corporation, now known as Virginia Catalyst, and the Commonwealth Health Research Board (CHRB) have partnered to award a $300,000 grant to a team from Sanyal Biotechnology, Eastern Virginia Medical School and George Mason University.

​The grant aims to help accelerate the commercialization of Sanyal Biotechnology’s innovative DIAMONDTM mouse model, which is being commercialized for preclinical assessment of therapeutic agents for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a severe liver disease that can lead to fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Virginia Catalyst will provide $100,000 in funding while CHRB will provide $200,000. Sanyal Biotechnology is investing $166,000 as matching funds for the project titled, “Characterization of GUT Microbiome and Liver Cell Populations to Accelerate Commercialization of the DIAMONDTM Mouse Model.” 

Seven academic research institutions in Virginia have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to share core facilities and resources in an effort to advance life sciences and other areas of research in the Commonwealth. This initiative will accelerate the commercialization of Virginia’s innovations, creating more high potential start-up companies, producing many more high-paying jobs, and growing the Commonwealth’s biosciences economy.

The Vice Presidents for Research from the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Eastern Virginia Medical School, George Mason University, Old Dominion University, Virginia Tech and William & Mary, working together with Virginia Catalyst, have achieved a breakthrough in collaborations that will greatly increase Virginia's competitiveness nationally and globally.

The universities have agreed to provide reciprocal access to shared R&D resources. The institutions have individually made significant investments to acquire specialized equipment and establish unique research laboratories to support basic, translational and clinical research. To further enhance the availability of these existing resources, the institutions seek to share, in an economical manner, specialized technical services and access to equipment and expertise for research purposes.

​Read the full press release. 

The Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corporation, known as Virginia Catalyst, today announced that it has awarded $2.825 million in grants to six collaborative bioscience commercialization projects between Virginia’s research universities and private companies. Round six of funding is intended to catalyze the development and commercialization of life science projects that address major unmet needs for improving human health, while also contributing to Virginia’s economic growth.

​“Virginia’s research universities are providing leadership on a national and global level in the life sciences by combining their intellectual and scientific prowess through collaborations to achieve critical mass. This competitive critical mass is attracting significant outside capital and industry participation to commercialize Virginia’s innovations, while creating high-paying jobs for Virginia,” said Mike Grisham, CEO, Virginia Catalyst. “Bioscience continues to be a vital part of Virginia’s economy and we are excited to help fuel innovation, collaboration and economic growth in our state. Virginia, Maryland and the D.C. metro area are now nationally ranked by Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN) as a top five biopharma cluster.”

Read the full press release.