WE-REACH is proud to support the UW School of Pharmacy 2025 Nudelman Lecture, “The AI Frontier,” featuring Nobel laureate Dr. David Baker along with Dr. Gaurav Bhardwaj and Dean Jay Panyam!
The lecture is both in person (Alder Hall Auditorium) and virtual on Thursday, March 6th at 6:30pm! Make sure to register!
WE-REACH is proud to announce that a supported team has published in Nature Medicine on its ability to predict preeclampsia risk from prenatal cell-free DNA screening! The team is using WE-REACH support to validate its methods with collected samples and to develop a commercialization pathway for a blood test product. For more information, see the UW Newsroom story!
WE-REACH is proud to announce that the currently supported SoundBubble team has won a $100k Infosys prize for their SoundBubble hearing aid, while the larger concept of AI headphones has been featured in Nature Electronics.
For more information, see the following stories at:
WE-REACH is proud to announce that project alumni James Lazarovits and George Ueda have launched their startup, Archon Biosciences, with $20M in seed financing to advance their AI-drive Antibody Cage (AbC) technology to unlock new therapeutic targets. The team leverages technology from the University of Washington Institute for Protein Design (IPD), which was recognized earlier this month when the PI of the institute–Dr. David Baker–was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
For more information, see the full press release from the Archon team: link.
Congratulations to David Baker of the University of Washington; he is one of the 2024 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry. Dr. Baker serves on the Executive Committee of the UW WE-REACH leadership team. For more information, follow the link to the Nobel Prize Announcement: link.
WE-REACH is pleased to announce plans for an upcoming Summer 2024 Research Funding Announcement! Stay tuned for more information on Friday 5/24!
(Seattle, WA)— The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has chosen the University of Montana’s L.S. Skaggs Institute of Health Innovation as the new Pacific Northwest location for one of five entrepreneurial hubs across the United States. Dubbed SIHI-REACH, this hub will support academic innovators across the WWAMI region in Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. The University of Washington’s WE-REACH is pleased to be a part of this new, NIH-funded, national REACH hub.
Led by Dr. Erica Woodahl, Professor and Director of SIHI—and a graduate from the University of Washington Department of Pharmaceutics—and Dr. Karen Brown, Principal Scientist in SIHI, this partnership will build on the training and project support structures built by WE-REACH and the resources at the ITHS (Institute of Translational Health Sciences) to support the translational journey of academic inventors. As the University of Washington’s WE-REACH partners with SIHI-REACH, the hope is to continue the great work that has been done by WE-REACH over the last four years.
“WE-REACH will be happy to support this partnership and the work of SIHI-REACH as it expands into the broader region, with its all-encompassing support of academic innovators and their innovations,” says WE-REACH executive director, Rodney Ho.
The program is expected to be supported with four years of non-renewable funding from the NIH. Additional details of this partnership can be found at the SIHI-REACH website.
WE-REACH is supported by NIH Grant U01 HL152401 and University of Washington matching funds.
SIHI-REACH is supported by NIH Grant U01 GM152530.
ITHS is supported by NIH Grant UL1 TR002319.
It all began with a bad experience. Isn’t that the catalyst for most innovations?
Professor Eric Seibel, a UW researcher in Mechanical Engineering and practical problem-solver, was by the bedside of his young son who had fallen out of a tree and ended up in Seattle Children’s Hospital with cracked ribs. During his treatment, Seibel’s son was given fluids through an intravenous catheter (IV) taped to his arm. Unfortunately, changing IVs caused terrible pain for his son both from jostling of the tubing inside his vein as well as skin tears and redness from the removal of the medical tape. According to the young patient, this painful IV removal process was by far the most miserable aspect of his hospital stay!
If you have not experienced problems with medical tape, it may come as a surprise to hear that adhesion – either too little or too much – can lead to serious consequences for the patient. Nurses are frustrated when adhesion is weak, resulting in tubing and devices dislodging and causing harm to their patients. Yet if the tape sticks strongly, it may damage the skin when it’s pulled off. This is especially serious in pediatric patients who have more fragile skin than adults, and in elderly patients whose skin tends to be dry and papery. Most medical tapes are made to work on the “average patient,” leaving many of these other patient populations poorly served.
Motivated by his son’s bad experience, Seibel decided to take a closer look at the medical tape issue. It just didn’t seem right that the worst aspect of his son’s hospital stay, broken ribs and all, was the IV changes and the resulting raw, sore skin from medical tape removal. Seibel was also amazed to hear from one of the nurses who was caring his son that the IV changing process on young patients was the worst part of her job! He thought that surely there should be a better solution.
Thus the project, “UnTape,” now called “ThermoTape,” was born. Seibel set the goal of developing a medical tape that would stick strongly when applied to the skin, but then become “unsticky” when it was time for removal. Drawing on his background in optical technologies, he came up with the concept of a clear tape that would weaken the bond to the skin when heated by near infrared (NIR) light, enabling easy removal. The rationale was that light wands are familiar to medical personnel because small flashlights are routinely carried by nurses. However, much to Seibel’s surprise, when an early prototype was put in front of mentors with medical product experience, including some doctors and nurses, there were strong objections to the non-contact light wand concept.
Listening to his customers and users, Seibel and his research team realized it was time for a technical pivot. During this retrenchment period he discussed the clinical problem with his colleague Len Nelson, PhD, Affiliate Assistant Professor at UW in Mechanical Engineering. Nelson is a career chemist who came to the university post-retirement to mentor students and help them learn how to apply their knowledge to practical problem-solving. His interest in the medical tape problem was piqued, so he began thinking about possible solutions beyond the one requiring a light wand. In Nelson’s opinion, it would be better to have an adhesive that would release under application of a heat pack with direct contact.
By this time a growing cadre of students from the UW Engineering Innovation in Health program got involved and several of them joined the regional Pacific Northwest/CoMotion NSF I-Corps program where, through customer discovery interviews with 20 to 30 nurses, they heard overwhelming feedback that heat packs were preferred over light wands. Nurses pointed out heat packs are readily available in hospitals making it easy to envision how the new medical tape would fit right into their patient care routines.
At this point, mechanical engineering graduate student Shawn Swanson jumped on board. He previously spun a technology company out of UW and was looking for a new project to focus on for his graduate studies that would also have potential as a commercial product. To him, this medical tape project looked compelling.
Nurse feedback in hand and a committed graduate student on the project, the team moved on to develop a new heat-release adhesive formulation. To do this, they realized they needed yet another set of skills, someone with the technical know-how to work on the adhesive chemistry. Len Nelson, being a good sleuth, managed to round up just the right person, chemistry graduate student Chris Fellin who was advised by Professor Alshakim Nelson. Building on the background chemistry Len Nelson had identified, Fellin drew on his creativity and technical know-how to come up with some great ideas right away.
Now that they had key people in place and a validated clinical problem, the team applied for CoMotion Innovation Gap funding and made it through the review process to win an award that would help them take the project into the next stage of prototype development.
Prototyping required a good, FDA approved medical grade adhesive as the basis of the formulation. Len started making calls to companies selling medical grade adhesives to see if he could secure a supply for the project. He called company after company hearing, “No,” many different ways. Not one to give up easily, he kept at it and finally connected with a technical customer solutions expert at Henkel, a large global adhesive supplier, who surprised Len by saying, “Yes, we work with people like you all the time!” Finally, a collaborative relationship was born, free medical grade adhesive samples were provided, and the technical side of the project was on its way. Chris, using his chemistry chops, went to work and in short order came up with an additive that mixed well with one of the preferred adhesives Henkel had provided. The team synthesized small quantities and mixed it in various concentrations with the Henkel adhesive so they could test it.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has a unique program called Partnerships for Innovation aimed at academic projects with groundbreaking technologies that are geared toward translation into new products. The grants require an industry partner to be involved and help coach the team through development. With Henkel on board, the team thought they were a good fit and applied. They came close to winning an award but did not quite make it. However, they were encouraged by NSF program managers to keep up the forward momentum by participating in the National NSF I-Corps program where they would go through fast-paced entrepreneurship training and conduct more than 100 customer discovery interviews. This program has been exceptionally successful at helping technical teams transition from research into commercialization. The team knew it was a serious time commitment but agreed to participate in the 7-week, nearly full-time, program. They dove in and interviewed more than 120 potential customers, investors, manufacturers, distributors, and others to hear feedback and see if their product concept would be validated or not. What they heard was that nurses clearly wanted new types of tape. The big surprise was that tape removal was not seen as the big problem, but strong adhesion was. Nurses noted that they frequently see tubing and devices dislodge because tape does not stick well enough. They really want a tape that adheres more strongly than those in common use, yet removes easily without causing skin damage. With this enhanced understanding the team was ready to tackle their product development.
Unfortunately, the project was nearly out of funds again. It was at this point the team learned about the WE-REACH Funding and Support program at UW and realized their early-stage commercialization project fit the criteria. Accepted projects are managed by the WE-REACH Biomedical Entrepreneurship Center, an NIH supported hub, and come with project management and coaching. It was just the thing the team was ready for, as reflected in the positive feedback their project received from reviewers. The team won an award and this propelled them into more sophisticated product prototyping and early clinical testing. 
Deploying the WE-REACH funds and benefiting from the dedicated efforts of undergraduate students Allayna Gross and Ryan Smith from UW Materials Science and Engineering, under the guidance of Professor Devin Mackenzie at the Washington Clean Energy Test Beds, the team has been able to produce consistent, high-quality samples on a precision slot coater. These samples are being tested now in a clinical trial with healthy young adult subjects. This will be an important demonstration of the tape’s performance across a range of people before moving on to testing on patients.
Seibel and team agree that without WE-REACH funding and support the project would have lost momentum. They had applied for other grants but were at a stand-still while scampering for additional support. WE-REACH support has been critical as they worked through key prototyping steps and has enabled them to progress into early clinical studies, which are essential for proof-of-concept demonstrations to nurses and other potential customers.
Wherever the project heads next, this team is committed to powering through to provide a medical tape that serves patients better than what is available today. They envision a future where people don’t have painful experiences like those of Seibel’s son and nurses don’t have to dread the simple process of removing tape from fragile skin. The right tape for the right use means better patient care, and that is good news for all.
Read more in the team’s recent publication, “Prototype Development of a Temperature-Sensitive High-Adhesion Medical Tape to Reduce Medical Adhesive-Related Skin Injury and Improve Quality of Care.”
WE-REACH is one of the NIH Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hubs (REACH) and is supported by NIH Grant U01HL152401.
WE-REACH is proud to support spinouts from the UW Institute for Protein Design (IPD) including Anindya Roy’s Lila Biologics, Stephanie Berger’s Mopac Bio, and George Ueda and James Lazarovits Tie2 super agonists project to treat acute respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis.
For more information, see Charlotte Schubert’s latest article in Geekwire.
Seattle, WA (May 2, 2022)—The Washington Entrepreneurial Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (WE-REACH) is pleased to announce a product concept award for Dr. Anindya Roy and his team at the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design, including Drs. Jake Kraft and Hua Bai. They are developing a novel binder protein in an aerosolized delivery system to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). IPF is a chronic respiratory disease with no cure that produces scarring in lungs leading to breathlessness, fatigue, and heart failure. The search for an effective IPF treatment is a top NIH priority.
WE-REACH’s support will enable Roy and his team to produce a stable nebulized inhalable product amenable for human administration that will neutralize a key mediator called αvβ6. Early toxicology studies in larger rodents will provide safety information necessary for regulatory filing. Roy’s team is combining WE-REACH’s funding with support from the Washington Research Foundation (WRF) to test the safety and efficacy of the protein binder in an aerosolized dosage form. The team plans to leverage this support to spin out from the University of Washington and commercialize their product so that they can improve the lives of those suffering from IPF.
“We are pleased to journey with this team of scientists to translate technical innovations in protein binder design into a viable product concept for IPF,” said Dr. Rodney Ho, executive director of WE-REACH. “Beyond funding, we believe that it is critical to provide the mentorship and strategy that keeps teams moving forward.”
“IPF is a debilitating disease with no cure,” said Roy. “It affects mainly older populations (>65 years old). A fraction of patients suffering from ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) from ongoing COVID-19 are also expected to develop IPF-like conditions, which was the case after the last SARS outbreak. We are using state-of-the-art protein design technology to develop an inhaled therapeutic to address this unmet need. Using the help from WE-REACH funding, we will be able to advance this molecule one step closer toward clinical investigation.”
This project received invaluable input from experts at the NIH, Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, third-party payers, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office, as well as an entrepreneurial committee of local experts in the Seattle area.
The next round of WE-REACH projects will begin in Fall 2022.
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WE-REACH is an NIH-designated entrepreneurial product innovation hub for the Pacific Northwest. WE-REACH is supported by public-private partnerships accelerating the transformation of biomedical discoveries into innovative products intended to improve patient care, access, and health. Learn more at https://www.washington.edu/we-reach/.
Partners and contributors to WE-REACH include:
In addition to providing funding, CoMotion helps with sourcing, selecting, and ongoing guidance of the projects teams. CoMotion partners with the UW community on their innovation journey, providing tools, connections, and acumen to transform ideas into economic and societal impact. Learn more at https://comotion.uw.edu/.
The Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS) is dedicated to speeding scientific discovery to clinical practice for the benefit of communities throughout Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho and beyond. ITHS promotes this mission by fostering innovative research, cultivating multi-disciplinary research partnerships, and ensuring a pipeline of next generation researchers through educational and career development programs. Learn more at iths.org.
The Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington School of Medicine is creating a new world of synthetic proteins to address 21st-century challenges in medicine, energy, and technology. Learn more about our research at ipd.uw.edu.
The University of Washington School of Pharmacy: https://sop.washington.edu.
WE-REACH is supported by NIH Grant 1 U01 HL152401-01.