Regents’ Professor Mark Prausnitz has been selected as one of three recipients of Georgia Bio’s 2016 Innovation Awards.

The awards, which will be presented January 28 at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, honor the department, institution, company or individuals who are forging new ground by thinking outside traditional paradigms to create unique technology.

Prausnitz, who holds the J. Erskine Love Jr. Chair at Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, is being recognized for his success in translating science into useful products that will have a positive impact on the health of individuals and the population at large. He is the key scientific member of teams that have taken fundamental discoveries in microneedles and turned them into products to treat diseases of the eye and for cost-effective administration of vaccines to the global community.

Prausnitz leads a research group of more than 30 people working to develop novel mechanisms and technology to enhance and target drug and vaccine delivery for medical applications. His work has produced more than 220 research papers and more than 35 issued or pending U.S. patents (in addition to international filings).

In 2011, he co-founded Clearside Biomedical, which has raised $48 million in funding and is running three phase 2 or 3 clinical trials to treat inflammatory conditions in the back of the eye using the novel microneedle injection technology developed in Prausnitz’s lab.

In 2014, he co-founded Micron Biomedical, which is a clinical-stage company that seeks to commercialize microneedle patch technology developed in Prausnitz's lab for needle-free vaccination against influenza, polio and other diseases and self-administration of biopharmaceuticals without injections.

Georgia Bio is the state’s life science industry association whose members include pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, medical centers, universities and research institutes, government groups and other business organizations involved in the development of life sciences related products and services.

Other winners of Georgia Bio's 2016 Innovation Award include NFANT Labs and Abeome Corporation.