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SBU Student & CFB Fundamentals Program Alum
Wins NIH Pitch Competition

Christopher Ashdown, a Stony Brook University MD/PhD student and alumnus of the CFB’s Fundamentals of the Bioscience Industry Program, has won the Innovator Showcase Pitch Event at the 2022 Proof of Concept Network (POCN) Annual Meeting hosted by National Institutes of Health SEED (Small business Education and Entrepreneurial Development). Chris pitched on behalf of Lahara Bio.

Chris advanced through multiple rounds of pitching and was selected to present at the POCN Innovator Showcase with two other exceptional POCN innovators. Congratulations Chris!

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CFB Client, IAMBIC has been awarded approximately $1M in grant funding from the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research program. IAMBIC is an innovative shoe company disrupting the centuries-old footwear industry with their sizeless, precision-fit footwear driven by proprietary AI algorithms. This substantial funding from NSF enables IAMBIC to scale its cutting-edge precision-fit shoe design and manufacturing.

The Center for Biotechnology and its accelerator programs have been instrumental in assisting IAMBIC with their SBIR pursuits and commercialization development.

Read more about IAMBIC and their recent funding here.

[post_title] => CFB Client IAMBIC Receives $1 Million NSF SBIR Phase II Grant [post_excerpt] => This substantial funding from NSF enables IAMBIC to scale its operations. [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => iambic-receives-1-million-nsf-sbir-phase-ii-grant [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2024-11-19 10:50:15 [post_modified_gmt] => 2024-11-19 15:50:15 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://centerforbiotechnology.org/?p=4439 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [1] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 1391 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2015-02-05 13:34:47 [post_date_gmt] => 2015-02-05 13:34:47 [post_content] => The Center for Biotechnology at Stony Brook University has announced the appointment of Mohan Chellani, PhD, and Michael Bielski, MS, JD to the position of BioEntrepreneurs-In-Residence (B-EIR). Both Dr. Chellani and Mr. Bielski have extensive bioscience industry experience at the senior management level, and have successfully commercialized multiple academic innovations. Their roles as BEIRs is to identify technologies that have the potential to support company formation in the region. Each brings unique skills and perspectives to technology assessment and bioscience-startups. Dr. Chellani has over twenty years of experience in the diagnostics industry prior to his appointment as B-EIR, having served as VP, Scientific Affairs at Enzo Biochem, and as a Director and Advisor to Quest Diagnostics. He has also served as founder and CEO of two startup companies, Progen Life Sciences and Discitis Diagnostics. Dr. Chellani holds a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UMD-New Jersey and an MBA from Fordham University. Mr. Bielski has founded multiple technology companies, including co-founding NewLeaf Symbiotics, Inc., an agricultural biotechnology company that has raised over $25M in venture capital. He also served as the Assistant Director for Science and Technology Commercialization at the Center for Biotechnology for six years prior to pursuing his entrepreneurial ventures. Mr. Bielski holds a JD and an MS in Neuroscience from Syracuse University. Both Dr. Chellani and Mr. Bielski will conduct due diligence to identify a technology or technologies around which they may build a company. If successful, they will also be provided with access to a technology development budget that will help them position the technology for commercialization. B-EIRs also have access to the Center's business and technology development support staff to help develop appropriate business strategies. Ultimately, the goal is to help the company prepare for SBIR/STTR grant opportunities, and Angel and VC investment. 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The technology relies on software to re-design the genomes of potentially harmful viruses to make them safe and effective vaccines. The technology stems from research in the laboratory of Eckard Wimmer, PhD, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology. The lead indication for vaccine development generated is a vaccine against Seasonal Influenza slated for Phase I human clinical trials in 2017. Dr. Wimmer, along with Steffen Mueller, PhD, Codagenix President and Chief Science Officer, and J. Robert Coleman, PhD, Codagenix Chief Operating officer, worked as colleagues for years in Dr. Wimmer’s laboratory examining and experimenting with the genes of viruses. By collaborating with Stony Brook scientists Bruce Futcher, PhD, in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology, and Steven Skienna, PhD, in the Department of Computer Science, they discovered a way using gene manipulation and computer algorithms to “re-code” the genes of viruses. This re-coding process makes viruses extremely weak and thus ideal candidates as ultra-low dose attenuated vaccines. The licensing agreement enables Codgenix to develop and potentially market next generation vaccines using software-based gene design and whole viral synthesis to create low-dose, attenuated virus vaccines. The company expects to use this design to first test its vaccine against influenza; however, there are plans for human testing of their Zika and other vaccine candidates. Codagenix is also in partnership with a large agricultural company to make vaccines using the technology for companion and agricultural animals. The technology has been shown to be effective against numerous viruses including ZIka, Dengue, and RSV all of which are in preclinical testing. The development of this pipeline of vaccines can be seen in numerous scientific papers since 2008, including a paper in Science, PNAS, National Biotechnology and most recently in 2015 in MBIo. 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The Challenge goal is to support research ideas that would further an understanding of Substance Use Disorders (SUD) and that are intended to be the foundation for the development of successful new startups. NIDA expects that the contest will enable participants to test the premise that their research idea can be fostered into a biotech startup, and that eventually the newly created startups will contribute to the pool of innovative small business companies that can successfully compete for NIDA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) funding. The Challenge will offer up to ten awards of $10,000 each and technical expertise and mentoring from NIDA scientific research entrepreneurship experts. The Challenge total purse is up to $100,000. Submission Due Date: May 26, 2020, 5:00 p.m. ET. Judging Period: May 27, 2020 to June 15, 2020. Winners Announced: June 22, 2020. 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CFB Client, IAMBIC has been awarded approximately $1M in grant funding from the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research program. IAMBIC is an innovative shoe company disrupting the centuries-old footwear industry with their sizeless, precision-fit footwear driven by proprietary AI algorithms. This substantial funding from NSF enables IAMBIC to scale its cutting-edge precision-fit shoe design and manufacturing.

The Center for Biotechnology and its accelerator programs have been instrumental in assisting IAMBIC with their SBIR pursuits and commercialization development.

Read more about IAMBIC and their recent funding here.

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CFB Client IAMBIC Receives $1 Million NSF SBIR Phase II Grant

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Center for Biotechnology Continues to Expand B-EIR Program

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Codagenix Inks Exclusive License Agreement

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NIDA/ NIH Challenge “Start a SUD Startup”

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