January 5, 2021
Three Biomedical Innovations Spanning Neonatal to Elderly Care Win WE-REACH Go-To-Market Awards
Seattle, WA (January 5, 2021)—The Washington Entrepreneurial Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (WE-REACH) is pleased to announce three new awards to expedite early-stage product development for promising biomedical innovations. WE-REACH invests up to $200,000 for each project with added resources and support. Project funding is made possible by public-private partnerships including the NIH, University of Washington (UW) Office of Research, CoMotion, and the Institute for Protein Design, with matching support from our partners at the Institute of Translational Health Sciences and the UW School of Pharmacy.
The recipients and awards are as follows:
Dr. Bly
Randall Bly, MD, Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at UW and Seattle Children’s: His team is designing a device that enables endoscopy to be viewed, archived, and analyzed on a smartphone. This smart and portable endoscopy device will improve access to specialty care for patients. Once developed, this innovative product will facilitate collaboration and information exchange between physicians.
Drs. Voorhis & Plymate
Wes Van Voorhis, MD, PhD and Stephen Plymate MD, Professors of Medicine at UW: Their team is developing a small molecule therapeutic drug to treat castrate-resistant prostate cancer, a form of prostate cancer for which current therapies have limited efficacy. Success in developing this small molecule inhibitor of prostate cancer could lead to a first-in-class therapeutic for this indication.
Dr. Sawyer
Taylor Sawyer, DO, M. Ed, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at UW and Seattle Children’s: His team plans to design a device for neonatal intubation without blocking airflow. This innovative design includes built in video capability, making the procedure easier and safer.
All three projects have 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 January 2021.
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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.