Medical researchers at the University of Washington are receiving a new boost to get their ideas off the bench and into the public domain.
A new center is being created with $4 million in matching funds from the National Institutes of Health for promising biomedical discoveries. The Washington Entrepreneurial Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (WE-REACH) will provide project funding to fuel four to six biomedical startups a year with up to $200,000 each.
WE-REACH is one of five national commercialization hubs selected for funding by the NIH in 2019.
The next round of grant funding requires a declaration of intent by Feb. 7 and complete submission by May 1.
“The University of Washington and regional partner institutions produce some of the most exciting biomedical discoveries and technologies in the world, but we always find it challenging to support their product development as they move into the early commercialization phases,” said Rodney Ho, a professor of pharmacy at the UW School of Pharmacy and the new executive director of the WE-REACH center.
Many times researchers will make a discovery that could help treat or cure certain diseases but do not have the funding to bring that treatment to reality.
The center will leverage resources with UW School of Medicine partners: the Institute of Translational Health Sciences and the Institute for Protein Design. The center is also partnering with UW CoMotion, the university’s collaborative innovation hub, and the UW School of Pharmacy.
Ho said the center will support innovation steps not typically supported by research grants, such as human clinical trials and product development.
Innovators will also receive guidance from multiple academic departments and regional institutions. Those institutions include the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle Children’s and other universities in the five states that make up the WWAMI region.
“We are delighted to welcome WE-REACH as a partner,” said Tong Sun, executive director of the Institute of Translational Health Sciences. “At ITHS we are committed to accelerating the translation of discoveries to the clinic, so they can help us in our mission to improve health in our communities.”
Fiona Wills, assistant vice president of innovation development at CoMotion, said the new center also builds on the infrastructure CoMotion has developed, including gap funding and training.
WE-REACH will be located in the South Campus Center on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus and at the Institute of Translational Health Sciences, located at UW Medicine’s South Lake Union campus.
For information on the new center and how to submit a grant proposal, contact Matthew Hartman at WEREACH@uw.edu or 561-339-0676.
The center will be formally launched at 8:30 a.m., Friday, Jan. 31 in the Orin Smith Auditorium at 850 Republican Street at UW Medicine’s South Lake Union campus. The launch will take place during the ITHS all-hands meeting.
