Center For Biotechnology Awarded $500k U.S. Department of Commerce Grant

The i6 Challenge award sets aim on enhancing Long Island Bioscience Ecosystem

The Center for Biotechnology at Stony Brook University has announced that is has received a three-year, $500,000 U.S. Department of Commerce i6 Challenge Investment. The award will support the Center for Biotechnology’s (CFB) efforts to bolster the regional bioscience ecosystem by supporting a formal mentorship program, as well as a critical NIH-focused SBIR/STTR training and application development program which will assist in capital formation and launching new companies.

The Center for Biotechnology is among 35 organizations — including nonprofits, institutions of higher education, and entrepreneurship-focused organizations — from 19 states that will receive nearly $15 million to create and expand cluster-focused, proof-of-concept and commercialization programs, and early-stage seed capital funds through the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program. The Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE), housed within the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), leads the Regional Innovation Strategies Program to spur innovation capacity-building activities in regions across the nation.

“Long Island’s innovation economy is rooted in cutting-edge basic and applied science and engineering, fostered by top-tier research institutions, a highly educated population, and a depth, breadth and scope of intellectual capital.” said Dr. Clinton T. Rubin, Director, Center for Biotechnology. Dr. Rubin continued, “This award and the initiatives it will support add to the growing, concentrated efforts the Center for Biotechnology, the Long Island Bioscience Hub and the hub’s partner institutions are making to grow the high technology innovations born in our region into fully realized ventures.”

The Center for Biotechnology (CFB) at Stony Brook University is an Empire State Development Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) Center for Advanced Technology. Established in 1983, the CFB’s efforts are focused on accelerating the development of biomedical technologies in order to have a positive impact on human health and society. The CFB is also the lead administrative institution for the Long Island Bioscience Hub (LIBH) an NIH-designated Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (REACH) established with a National Institutes of Health grant in 2015. The initiatives under the i6 Challenge award will complement the efforts of the LIBH, a partnership between the Center for Biotechnology, Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, to commercialize biomedical innovations emerging from the partner institutions.

Download a PDF of the press release here.

Related Articles:
Schumer: Biz-Development Funds Big Deal For SBU – Innovate Long Island
Stony Brook Biotech Center Wins $500,000 to Foster Companies – Newsday

DepYmed Announces $2 Million Series A

DepYMed Inc. has announced the completion of a Series ‘A’ Round of funding with TopSpin Fund, L.P. for a total of $2 million. At closing, $1 million was received by Depymed, and another $1 million will be provided pending the achievement of specific development milestones.

DepYmed, Inc., headed by a Center for Biotechnology BioEntrepreneur-in-Residence Andreas G. Grill, is a pharmaceutical company focused on phosphatase inhibition for multiple therapeutic applications. The company is currently conducting a phase 1 clinical trial of its lead compound, MSI-1436C (Trodusquemine), as a therapeutic candidate for HER2-positive breast cancer. DepYMed was founded through a joint venture between Ohr Pharmaceutical, Inc. and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Read more about the financing here.

Traverse Biosciences Receives $1.3M NIH/NIDCR Phase II STTR Award

Traverse Biosciences, led by the CFB’s first BioEntrepreneur-in-Residence Joseph Scaduto, has received a $1.3M Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Award in partnership with the School of Dental Medicine at Stony Brook University. Funding from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to Evaluate the Pre-Clinical Safety and Effectiveness of TRB-N0224 for the Treatment of Periodontal Disease. The research will be led by Lorne Golub, DMD, MD (Honorary) in the Department of Oral Biology and Pathology, and Ying Gu, PhD, DDS, in the Department of General Dentistry, who will serve as co-principle investigators on the award, in close collaboration with Traverse Biosciences. Read more here. 

Next HHS SBIR/STTR Application Deadline 9/6 – Get Started Today

September 6 is the next HHS SBIR/STTR standard deadline. Talk to an HHS SBIR/STTR program manager today for advice: http://bit.ly/SBIR_IC_Contacts

The next HHS SBIR/STTR application deadline is less than two months away on Tuesday, September 6, 2016 at 5 pm local time. (Note – the standard deadline falls on September 5, a federal holiday, so the revised deadline is September 6).

Make sure you are registered! The 5-step registration process may take 6 – 8 weeks, so it is important to start now. All registrations must be completed prior to the application being submitted, and the System for Awards Management (SAM) registration must be updated annually. Learn more about the five required registrations, here.

Don’t be shy – speak to an HHS SBIR/STTR Program Manager! It is critical for success that applicants speak to a program manager before submitting! You should send the program manager a non-confidential abstract or executive summary of your research topic, including a description of your technology, which may include your specific aims. After you connect via email, you and the program manager may decide to set up a call to discuss your application in more detail. For questions about who to contact, please email sbir@od.nih.gov.

ASSIST vs. Downloadable Forms – You may submit your application using ASSIST or the Downloadable Forms method, starting on March 5, 2016. Please select the “Apply Online Using ASSIST” button, or the “Apply Using Downloadable Forms” button within the SBIR/STTR solicitation. View the ASSIST webinar materials here.

Be sure to use the Annotated SF424 SBIR/STTR Form Set in conjunction with the SF424 R&R SBIR/STTR Application Guide (FORMS-D) to guide you step-by-step through the application process. Applicants also find the Top 5 Most Common eRA Commons Errors and the SBIR Sample Application from NIAID helpful. All resources can be found on our Resources page.

Remember – The standard due dates occur on September 5, January 5, and April 5. The standard due dates apply to all SBIR/STTR solicitations that follow the Standard Due Dates, including the SBIR/STTR Omnibus solicitations and the Commercialization Readiness Pilot Program solicitations. You can find all solicitations here.

 

Intensity Therapeutics, Inc. Raises $10 Million Series A

Intensity

 

 

Intensity Therapeutics has announced that it has secured $10 million in new capital from a Series A preferred stock financing. Participants included Batterson Venture Capital, VCapital, FastForward Innovations, SalvaRx Group PLC, Declan Doogan M.D. and Jim Mellon as well as several other accredited investors and family offices.

Lead by President and CEO Lewis H. Bender, the company is developing a proprietary cancer immunotherapy products. In a statement Bender said, “Our lead drug, INT230-6, has shown strong results in severe murine models of metastatic cancer via a combination of direct tumor killing and immune system activation.” According to Bender, “Proceeds will be used to fund operations, manufacture the clinical supplies, permit the needed regulatory filings and conduct a series of clinical trial cohorts in cancer patients with various tumor types.”

The company has also announced the addition of Dr. Decalan Doogan former Senior Vice President and Head of worldwide drug development at Pfizer and Emer Leahy, Ph.D., CEO of PsychoGenics will join Intensity’s Board of Directors. More information about Intensity Therapeutics can be found on the company’s website: www.intensitytherapeutics.com.