UMass Chan commercialization arm awards $2M for healthcare research

Photo | Grant Welker UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester

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By Timothy Doyle

The research commercialization division of UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester granted $2.2 million to seven awardees to advance healthcare innovations.

The BRIDGE Innovation & Business Development program, founded in 2019, supports faculty projects with potential for commercialization in the biomedical field. The BRIDGE Fund has increased from $1 million in 2019 to $3 million in 2022, according to the UMass Chan announcement Tuesday.

“Thanks to our increased budget and the milestone-based restructuring of the funding process, this year we were able to fund seven projects,” Denise Karaoglu Hanzatian, executive director of new ventures for BRIDGE Innovation & Business Development, said in a press release. “BRIDGE Funding will support the first aim of each awarded proposal, and additional funds will be made available upon the successful achievement of suggested milestones.”

The awardees and their projects are:

Joel Richter, chair in neuroscience and professor of molecular medicine: A RNA treatment for fragile X syndrome
Katherine Fitzgerald, biomedical research chair, professor of medicine, vice chair of research in the Department of Medicine and director of the Program in Innate Immunity: Development of inhibitors for the treatment of inflammatory diseases
Michael Volkert, professor of microbiology and physiological systems: Large animal testing of gene therapy for retinal degeneration
Javed Mannan, assistant professor of pediatrics: Use of a chest shield during phototherapy to decrease side effects in premature infants
Jie Song, professor of orthopedics and physical rehabilitation: Antimicrobial delivery to combat medical implant-related infections
Michelle Xiaofang Yang, associate professor of pathology: Validation of liquid biopsy as an early noninvasive screening test and new therapeutic targets for cancer in the esophagus
Fitzgerald and Paul Thompson, professor of biochemistry and molecular biotechnology and director of the Chemical Biology Interface program: Development of inhibitors for the treatment of inflammatory diseases