The Office of Technology Development completed its 6th annual Ignition Award cycle and we are pleased to announce this year’s winners.  The Ignition Program awards $50K, one-year grants to faculty of Boston University and Boston Medical Center to validate early-stage technologies and enable follow-on funding. The Ignition Award Program was initiated to help bridge the gap between government funded, basic research and product development activities undertaken by commercial or non-profit entities. Awards are made in the domains of Life Sciences, Medtech, and Physical Sciences. Proposals must demonstrate potential for commercial, medical, and/or societal impact.  An external committee (made up of business executives, investors, and others) with domain expertise in each area was recruited to judge proposals and recommend awards.

OTD received a higher number of applications this year and made a total of 11 awards: 5 in Life Sciences, 3 in Medtech, and 3 in Physical Sciences. The next Ignition cycle will begin with Pre-proposal applications due in the Fall (October, 2015). Stronger Pre-proposals will be invited to submit Full-Proposals. Applicants present their Full-Proposals to the Ignition Committee and award decisions are announced (March, 2016). More details on BU’s Ignition Program can be found here. Following is a brief description of the 2015 Ignition awardees.

Life Sciences:

• Tony Godfrey, PhD (Associate Professor of Surgery) will develop a next generation sequencing platform that enables ultrasensitive detection of genetic mutations for use in novel cancer and other diagnostics.
• Wilson Wong, PhD (Assistant Professor, BME) will validate proof-of-concept for a novel chimeric antigen receptor platform for immunotherapy.
• Lindsay Farrer, PhD (Professor, Biomedical Genetics) will generate pilot data on plexin-A4 isoform levels in brain, which may serve as a therapeutic target and development of a biomarker assay for Alzheimer disease
• Hui Feng, MD/PhD (Assistant Professor, Pharmacology & Medicine) will validate novel molecular antagonists of DLST in both in vitro and in vivo preclinical models to develop novel treatments for MYC-driven cancers
• Robert Lafyatis, MD (Professor of Medicine) will develop a serum biomarker panel to diagnose systemic sclerosis patients that have developed complications, such as pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and interstitial lung disease (ILD).

MedTech:

• Mark Grinstaff, PhD (Professor, Chemistry & BME) will conduct in vivo testing of paclitaxel-loaded nanoparticles in a resection model of intraperitoneal mesothelioma as well as conduct a pharmacokinetic/biodistribution study.
• Jerome Mertz, PhD (Professor, BME) will demonstrate proof-of-concept on a novel, speckle-free ultrasound imaging modality for biomedical applications, called oblique backscattering ultrasound (OBUS) imaging.
• Allyn Hubbard, PhD (Professor, BME & ECE) will develop a wearable device with acoustic sensors that perform remote monitoring of heart and lung sounds in congestive heart failure patients.

Physical Sciences:

• David Bishop, PhD (Professor, ECE, MSE, & Physics) will be developing smarter, more efficient lighting using low cost MEMS micromirrors.
• Linda Doerrer, PhD (Associate Professor, Chemistry) has developed chemical methods to eliminate excess nitrates present in raw sewage in order to treat waterways affected by harmful algal blooms.
• Enrico Bellotti, PhD (Professor, ECE, MSE) will create high-sensitivity imagers that will dramatically reduce size, weight, power and cost of solid-state photodetectors by reducing dark currents.