Ivy Biomedical Innovation Fund
The Ivy Biomedical Innovation Fund was created by The Ivy Foundation to support biomedical innovation and translational research projects at the University of Virginia. The program plans to make 5 awards averaging $100K each for 12 months. The requested amount of funding must be commensurate with the project stage and goals. To generate and advance novel and compelling translational ideas, we strongly encourage projects that involve faculty co-investigators from multiple departments, schools, or specialties at UVA.
Program Objective:
The goal of this program is to support translational research projects that address unmet clinical needs and have a realistic path to delivering improvements in health care. Examples of desirable outcomes include: improved diagnosis and treatment of disease through new medical devices; new biomarkers or diagnostics; new therapeutic targets and agents; or new clinical adoption of developed tools. It is expected that outcomes from funded projects will result in new intellectual property, industry partnerships, license deals and/or the creation of a start-up companies.
Program Overview:
- Fund established in 2008
- 322 applications have been received to date
- 75 projects have been funded with 23 project renewals, 1 pilot project
- 2024 deadline is 12/16 on track to receive 10-12 applications
- Average award size is $90-$100K
- Patents filed in the past year: 3
- Total transactions: 50 In 2024: 2 executed
- Over the years, Ivy funded projects have generated $29,737,138M in follow on funding.
o Kevin Lynch project is waiting on his Notice of Award for a NIH RO1
o Gadrey RO1 waiting on NOA $4,032,920
o Gadrey – Hartwell $300K - Total Presentations & Publications by projects: (169)
o 8 presentations & 3 publications in 2024
(Presentations Kundu 1/ Epstein 2 and publications Kundu (2) Lynch 2/Ma 1/Epstein 1)
Start-up companies launched catalyzed by after receiving Ivy Biomedical Innovation Funding: 12
o Vasarya
o Advaray, Inc.
o S1P Therapeutics Inc.
o Nouveau BioSciences
o PS Fertility
o GenEp
o KeViRx
o Tear Solutions
o EpiEP
o RetiVue
o SoundPipe
o Sphynkx (inactive)
Renewal: Systemic administration of the UVA developed antimicrobial peptide D8 to treat infection in a
murine pneumonia model: follow-on efficacy testing from NIAID Pre-Clinical Services Re
Molly Hughes, MD, Infectious Disease
Matt Crawford, PhD, Infectious Disease
Base Editing Gene Therapy for the Treatment of SCN8A Epileptic Encephalopathy
Manoj Patel, PhD, Anesthesiology.
Howard Goodkin, MD, PhD, Chair Neurology
Monitoring high-risk labored breathing in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) using
UVA’s proprietary Analysis of Respiratory Kinematics (ARK) technology
Brynne Sullivan, MD Neonatology - Pediatrics
Shrirang Gadrey, MBBS MPH, Medicine-Hospital Medicine
Exploiting CD24 as Next Generation Bispecific Antibody Immunotherapy of Mantle Cell
Lymphoma
Jianguo Tao, MD, PhD Pathology
Lawrence Lum, MD, DSc, Hematology and Oncology
Craig Portell, MD, Hematology and Oncology
