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Kathera Bioscience Receives SBIR Phase I Fast Track Award To Advance Novel Drugs To Treat Life Threatening Fungal Infections

Kathera Bioscience Inc., a privately-held biotech startup was awarded a SBIR Fast Track grant with a value of up to $3,298,530 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for its dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) program. Kathera Bioscience was founded by CFB Advisor and Long Island BIoMentor Initiative Mentor Dr. Stephen Parent.

Kathera is developing novel therapeutics to treat fungal infections, a major cause of human disease with an estimated 11.5 million annual life-threatening infections globally, resulting in more than 1.5 million deaths. The award will fund selection of a lead series in the Phase 1 award and lead optimization in Phase 2. Read more about Kathera and the award here.

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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

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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.

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In early February, we welcomed leadership from Empire State Development (ESD), including its Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) and New York Ventures, for a two-day visit focused on applied research, industry collaboration and economic development across New York State.

The visit spotlighted key teams throughout Stony Brook University, including the Center’s role in driving innovation through supporting hundreds of patents, licenses, and commercialization efforts to help translate breakthrough discoveries into real‑world medical and biotechnology applications. As our very own Clinton Rubin remarked, "We are excited by NYS’s commitment to harnessing Stony Brook’s research enterprise for economic impact, and building the life sciences innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem here on campus, on Long Island and in our State.”

We’re excited to share more soon about how our Center is bringing its vision to life by accelerating the path from academic research to marketplace solutions.

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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

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

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