The Ignition Award Program awards funds to Boston University faculty to bridge the gap between government-funded, discovery-oriented research and the follow-on development work performed by external commercial or non-profit entities. By enabling researchers to generate relevant data, reach key milestones, develop a prototype, or test an implementation strategy the Ignition Awards will help bring raw technology and business concepts to a mature enough state where they can be either licensed, form the basis of a new company, or create a new, non-profit social enterprise.

Two awards apiece focused on healthcare and clean energy. The Ignition Award winners are as follows:

1) Preclinical validation of anti-hDEspR Mab-Rxtic* prototype: in vivo efficacy

PI: Victoria L.M. Herrera, MD; Professor of Medicine, Director of Ultrasound Micro-imaging Core; Department of Medicine, Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute, BUMC

Co-PI: Nelson Ruiz-Opazo, PhD., Department of Medicine, Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute, BUMC

2) Large Scale Rapid Response Energy Storage and Electrical Energy Generation System

PI: Uday B. Pal, Profesor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University

Co-PI: Srikanth Gopalan, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University

Co-PI: Soumendra Basu, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University

3) Expressing Mammalian fat-storing genes to generate genetically-engineered plants for biofuel/ oil production

PI: Vishwajeet Puri, PhD., Department of Medicine, Section of Endicrinology, Diabetes, and Nutrition, Boston University School of Medicine

4) A Molecular Diagnostic for Thyroid Cancer using a novel miRNA/ Microfluidics Platform

PI: Maurizio Cattaneo, PhD.

Co-PI: Dr. Catherine Klapperich, Associate Professor, BME

Co-PI: Dr. Jennifer Rosen, Associate Professor, MED

The Office of Technology Development works with a committee of faculty, students, senior venture capitalists, industry representatives, foundations and entrepreneurs to review the feasibility and impact of the proposed project and select award recipients.  After receiving the awards, OTD will monitor awardees’ progress and provide strategic business support to help maximize the potential for follow-on funding from the appropriate developmental sources.

OTD Managing Director Vinit Nijhawan

Dear Reader,

The Office of Technology Development is accelerating BU spin-offs by investing in infrastructure elements: the Kindle mentoring program, Ignition Grants for faculty and Launch Award convertible debt funding and Business Incubation.

In 2010 we funded 11 Ignition grants ($500K), two Launch Awards ($350K) and currently have 86 mentors and 49 mentee projects being mentored. We have 15 companies in the incubator (including Good Start Genetics who just raised $18M). Furthermore we are creating a co-working space in the incubator with 10 desks available for individual entrepreneurs.

We have spun-off 21 companies who have either raised funding or are about to raise funding (see table below).  Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about any of these projects.

Have a safe and happy holiday season.

Sincerely,

Vinit Nijhawan, OTD Managing Director