Biomedical Innovation Program awards provide funds, project management and mentorship to facilitate the development of innovative technologies at OHSU and accelerate their translation to the marketplace.

Three OHSU investigators will be funded in the program’s drug discovery track this year. This category of funding supports drug discovery platforms and early-stage therapeutic technology projects, including validation of drug targets and development of small molecules, antibodies, vaccines or biologics. 

2019 Biomedical Innovation Program, drug discovery track awardees and project abstracts:

• Luiz Bertassoni, D.D.S., Ph.D., assistant professor, restorative dentistry, “BoneMimetics—A drug discovery platform for bone-related therapies”
• Summer L. Gibbs, Ph.D., associate professor, biomedical engineering, “Near infrared nerve-specific probes enable improved surgical outcomes”
• Michael Cohen, Ph.D., associate professor, physiology and pharmacology, “Allosteric modulation of PARP1-DNA binding with small molecule inhibitors: a potential therapeutic strategy for treating Ewing sarcoma”

The Oregon Clinical & Translational Research Institute and OHSU Technology Transfer and Business Development jointly administer the program. 

“OCTRI is proud to support these investigators and their important work furthering drug discovery at OHSU,” says David Ellison, M.D., OCTRI director. “By prioritizing commercialization outcomes, the Biomedical Innovation Program helps position technologies such that they have the best possible chance of making it to market and improving human health.”

Find out more about the Biomedical Innovation Program. Funding for the program is made possible by the University Venture Development Fund. Interested donors are encouraged to contact Timothy Coffey at coffeyt@ohsu.edu.

OCTRI is supported by (UL1TR002369) from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science at the National Institutes of Health.