{"553411":{"#nid":"553411","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Turning Ideas Into Reality","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESix promising biomedical research projects from Georgia Tech and Emory University, including several based in labs at the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, are receiving critical early-stage support in the form of funding and operational guidance through the Coulter Translational Research Partnership Program.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe program, partnering with the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory, provides annual awards to research teams working on products with commercial potential that meet a significant unmet or underserved clinical need.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis year\u2019s round of seed funding, totaling more than $1.1 million, will accelerate the progress of five new research teams and one team that is seeing its funding renewed for a second year. But the hope for, and the interest in these projects extend well beyond this year.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe goal for all of our projects is to get follow-on investing, funding from outside the university setting,\u201d says Rachael Hagan, program director for the translational research partnership at Georgia Tech\/Emory. \u201cWe haven\u2019t accomplished the job until that happens.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHelping to do the job of guiding these teams through the translational process are Hagan and two program managers in her office, Shawna Hagen and Katie Merritt, along with a team of four biotech entrepreneurs, \u201cpeople who have been through the process before, from diverse professional backgrounds,\u201d Hagan says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe basically become part of the interim business team,\u201d she adds. \u201cWe help them meet milestones, traveling with them to conferences to make sure they talk to the right people in the right ways. It\u2019s not just mentoring. Sometimes we lead the charge. It really is a hands-on coaching process that breeds serial innovators.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s a process that actually begins before the final teams are selected for the award. Hagan estimates that 50 teams applied for the program. While only a handful make the final cut, all of the teams gain significant insight in how to present their products to potential investors, which includes the Coulter program\u2019s oversight committee.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe want every project to have a fair opportunity to get selected on its own merits,\u201d says Hagan, whose team helps prepare the research teams before they present in front of the committee. \u201cWe don\u2019t want them to go into this cold turkey and unprepared.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis year the committee (which is composed of Emory doctors, Georgia Tech biomedical engineers, industry experts, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, angel investors and technology transfer experts from each school) selected the following projects:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAd Cor:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003EA drug delivery platform for localized delivery of therapeutic-seeded hydrogels to the pericardial space. This is the second year of funding for Ad Cor (known last year as Levit Catheter). Principal investigators: Andr\u00e9s Garc\u00eda (Georgia Tech\/Petit Institute researcher), Rebecca Levitt (Emory).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECAR T Cell Manufacturing:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003ECell processing and treatment technologies that will enable better manufacturing and functionalization of therapeutic T-Cells for patients with Diffuse B Cell Leukemia. Principal investigators: Todd Sulchek (Georgia Tech\/Petit Institute researcher), Edmund Waller (Emory\/Petit Institute researcher).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFraudScope:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003EProvides intelligent claims analysis to help identify, address, and mitigate payment of fraudulent healthcare billing. Principal investigators: Musheer Ahmed (Georgia Tech), Mustaque Ahamad (Georgia Tech), Richard Duszak (Emory).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMitraPlug:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003EA transcatheter implant that seeks to \u201cplug\u201d the fluid path, which is seen in patients with mitral regurgitation. Principal investigators: Murali Padala (Emory\/Petit Institute researcher), Eric Sarin (Emory).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPlasma Cell Media:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003ENovel media that dramatically increases the time in which plasma cells can survive\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003Ein vitro\u003C\/em\u003E. Principal investigators: Ronghu Wu (Georgia Tech\/Petit Institute researcher), Frances Eun-Hyung (Emory).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESubconjunctival Injector:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003EA device which allows for safe, efficient, and controlled delivery of ophthalmic therapeutics to the subconjunctival space of the eye. Principal investigators: Ross Ethier (Georgia Tech\/Petit Institute researcher), Rand Allingham (Duke University).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe also encouraged a few teams that didn\u2019t make the cut this year to come back and apply next year,\u201d says Hagan.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe translational research program has fiscal roots in the $25 million grant the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation made to the Georgia Tech-Emory biomedical engineering program in 2001. This gift resulted in naming of the Coulter Department, while also targeting $10 million toward the ongoing support of translational research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIncluding the Georgia Tech-Emory department, there are 15 universities with translational research partnership programs supported by the Coulter Foundation, including Columbia, Duke, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford universities. And many of them have called on Hagan and her team as a resource.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe get calls regularly from other universities who want to know how we implement the program. It\u2019s become a popular model in the U.S.,\u201d Hagan says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn fact, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the largest funder of biomedical research in the world, and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation has called on Hagan and her team to implement the educational and mentoring aspects of the program for some of the NIH\u2019s SBIR and RO1 grantees.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThey want a more effective plan to make those NIH dollars really work,\u201d Hagan says. \u201cThe NIH is after the same goals that we are in the Coulter partnership \u2013 they want these companies to be successful.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Coulter Translational Research Partnership supporting early stage biomedical projects"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECoulter Translational Research Partnership supporting early stage biomedical projects\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Coulter Translational Research Partnership supporting early stage biomedical projects"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2016-07-16 01:10:01","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:22:08","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-07-16T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2016-07-16T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"553401":{"id":"553401","type":"image","title":"Coulter Partnership","body":null,"created":"1468641748","gmt_created":"2016-07-16 04:02:28","changed":"1475895350","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:55:50","alt":"Coulter Partnership","file":{"fid":"218192","name":"ctp_team_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ctp_team_0_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ctp_team_0_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":158693,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ctp_team_0_0.jpg?itok=oRPF74ZL"}}},"media_ids":["553401"],"groups":[{"id":"1254","name":"Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"81351","name":"coulter foundation"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}