Pitt startup Astria Biosciences continues to rack up milestones as it works to bring the first simple, whole blood-based test to detect the presence and monitor the progression of cerebral aneurysms to market. It’s latest accomplishment: receiving a $275,000 SBIR Phase 1 commercialization grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grant will be applied toward developing a robust data set with a focus on minorities to provide higher test fidelity in high-risk and under-represented patient groups and developing a dynamic rupture risk score that can be used to define novel aneurysm sub-groupings.
From undergrads to PhD candidates, Students Impress Judges with Grasp of Technology and Business Acumen
Company Receives Clearance for Phase I Safety Trial for Treatment of Macular Degeneration. Alan Wells and Cecelia Yates have collaborated on and off for nearly two decades at the University of Pittsburgh developing a class of synthetic proteins that act as switches to turn off the wound healing process. Now, after nearly 7 years of pre-clinical work, the company co-founded and launched from their research has entered a Phase 1 clinical trial with its therapy for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, also known as wet-AMD.
Three Pitt innovation teams each received $100,000 awards to continue on the path from the lab to market at the 10th annual Pitt Innovation Challenge (PInCh) sponsored by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).
UPMC Enterprises Translational Sciences and the University of Pittsburgh Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship are teaming on a second request for proposals for sponsored research projects in specific therapeutic areas. We are highlighting the two projects funded in the first RFP. We previously featured a project to develop a therapy for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a debilitating neurodegenerative disease with no effective treatments. Now we feature a gene therapy from the lab of Dwi Kemaladewi, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics.