Author Archives: Center for Biotechnology

Envisagenics Awarded $2M+ Direct to Phase II NCI SBIR Grant

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Envisagenics announced that it has been awarded a Direct to Phase II SBIR grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The award will provide more than $2 million over two years to support further development and commercialization of SpliceCore®, including SpliceDisco™, a new machine learning algorithm designed to connect cancer-specific therapeutic targets with the splicing mechanisms that drive disease. With this capability, Envisagenics can prioritize targets with strong biological rationale and therapeutic potential.

The project funded with this grant will support the development of SpliceDisco. By combining AI-driven prioritization with experimental validation, the project is designed to generate cancer-specific, partner-ready therapeutic target opportunities with defined disease relevance, patient prevalence, and modality fit across Envisagenics’ internal oncology pipeline and external collaboration programs.

Read more about the award, and Evisagenic’s SpliceCore® technology here.

CFB Innovator Receives Seed Funding Through SUNY Technology Accelerator Fund

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Congratulations to CFB Innovator and Stony Brook University Professor Dr. M. Hassan Arbab on securing an award from the SUNY Technology Accelerator Fund!

The SUNY Technology Accelerator Fund (TAF) helps support critical research, such as feasibility studies, prototyping, and testing, which demonstrate that an idea or innovation has commercial potential. The goal is to accelerate time to market for these innovations and increase their market readiness for potential investors, strategic partners and customers

Dr. Arbab, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, has developed a handheld, portable scanner for the diagnosis and triage of burn injuries with 93 to 95 percent or better accuracy, as compared to the current rate of clinical techniques around 60 to 65 percent, greatly expanding diagnostic capabilities and improving the care provided to patients. The Center for Biotechnology has proudly supported Dr. Arbab’s research, most recently through our BioREACH Program.

Read more about Dr. Arbab’s research and the TAF award here: https://news.stonybrook.edu/university/stony-brook-receives-seed-funding-through-suny-technology-accelerator-fund/

Visit Dr. Arbab’s Terahertz Biophotonics Laboratory page here: https://you.stonybrook.edu/terahertz/

Envisagenics Announces strategic multi-year collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim

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Our colleagues at Envisagenics recently announced their strategic multi-year collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim to advance the development of next-generation oncology therapies. This partnership brings together Envisagenics’ SpliceCore platform for the discovery and validation of novel tumor-specific targets with Boehringer’s expertise in oncology drug development.

The agreement supports Boehringer Ingelheim’s oncology strategy of pairing bold modalities with novel, highly tumor-selective targets sourced through long-term partnerships. The collaboration builds on targets previously identified through Envisagenics’ proprietary SpliceCore® platform and will further validate their therapeutic potential across multiple therapeutic modalities, including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), T-cell engagers (TcEs) and multispecific antibodies. Upon successful completion of the research program, Boehringer Ingelheim will have the option to exclusively license selected targets for further development and commercialization.

Envisagenics is eligible to receive more than US$1 billion in potential payments, including an upfront payment, research funding, option fees and development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus royalties on future product sales.

Learn more about the collaboration and the full announcement here.

BioREACH: Translational Research Funding Opportunity

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Applications are now open for the 12th BioREACH Award Program from the Center for Biotechnology, which provides $50,000 in translational research funding for Stony Brook faculty and postdoctoral researchers to generate the evidence needed to advance promising innovations to the next stage of development.

BioREACH funds milestone-driven studies and welcomes biomedical innovations as well as platforms, tools, computational technologies, and other enabling technologies with the potential to contribute to solutions addressing unmet needs in health.

Application deadline: October 29, 2026, 5:00pm ET

For info sessions, eligibility and deadlines visit our REACH Website and FAQ.

The Center for Biotechnology (CfB) has helped advance some of Stony Brook University’s most impactful biomedical innovations, among them the yeast two-hybrid system, Xiaflex®, ReoPro®, Oracea®, and 3D virtual colonoscopy. The CfB has supported more than 475 faculty-led translational research projects and contributed to 306 license agreements generating $51 million in royalty returns to the University.

Questions? Reach out to our program contacts or sign up for office hours:

Dee Dao, PhD, Associate Director, dee.dao@stonybrook.edu
Office Hours: Monday–Friday, 2–3:30 PM | Sign up Here

Zelda Mendelowitz, PhD, Venture Associate, zelda.mendelowitz@stonybrook.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, 8–11 AM | Sign up Here

CFB Supports SBU’s Science and Research Awareness Series

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Stony Brook Medicine’s Science and Research Awareness Series, better known as SARAS, celebrated its 22nd year this summer.n The Center for Biotechnology is a long-term supporter of the event as it speaks to our passion for helping to train the next generation of life sciences professionals.

Founded by Dr. Srinivas Pentyala, a professor and the director of translational research in the Department of Anesthesiology, SARAS is a three-week immersion into healthcare and biomedical research, built and staffed almost entirely by Stony Brook Medicine’s own physicians, nurses, researchers, and administrators. This year 125 high school students were given the opportunity to experience the “full arc of medicine”as Dr. Pentyala noted, and understanding that “the basic science, the translational science, how it is discovered… unless it is discovered or invented by someone, it cannot be translated in a clinic.”

Since its founding, SARAS has trained more than 4,000 high schoolers. Read more on this year’s program and the here.