IACS Affiliate Kozakov wins LIBH grant of $50K

IACS Affiliate faculty member Dima Kozakov recently won $50K from the Long Island Bioscience Hub (LIBH) for his proposal titled Fast Hybrid Approach For Determination of Structure of Therapeutic Protein Complexes. These technology development grants are a feature of the Hub which represents a partnership between the Center for Biotechnology, Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory to expand technology commercialization and company formation in the region and throughout New York State. The full press release is below.

 Long Island Bioscience Hub Announces Funded Projects
Accelerating biomedical discoveries for commercialization

STONY BROOK, N.Y. – The Center for Biotechnology at Stony Brook University, on behalf of the Long Island Bioscience Hub (LIBH), announced today the recipients of the first technology development grants awarded by the Hub. Thirteen awards totaling $900,000 were granted to applicants from Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The LIBH technology development grants are a multi-tiered funding initiative aimed at collectively contributing to a pipeline of commercially promising biomedical technology in the region. The three funding initiatives include Feasibility, Proof of Concept and Commercialization awards.

Feasibility awards are designed to rapidly test the feasibility of new ideas in a “fail-fast-or-proceed” format, or to add value to existing intellectual property leading to new market applications of an existing technology.  Proof of Concept Awards provide targeted, milestone driven support for proof of concept research, development, testing, and analysis of existing intellectual property. The final tier, Commercialization Awards, provide targeted, milestone-driven support for a subset of projects with existing intellectual property where additional investment will clearly advance the technology to a major value inflection point for commercialization.

The grants awarded this cycle will support technologies developed across multiple disciplines including pharmacology, biomedical engineering, chemistry, and microbiology. Among the award recipients were two post-doctoral researchers. Of the thirteen grants awarded, eight were Feasibility awards and five were Proof of Concept Awards. The recipients of this round of awards are:

Feasibility awards

• Targeting Pathogenic Viral Infections with First-In-Class Viral Budding Inhibitors - Dr. Carol Carter
• Development of Small Molecule Inhibitors for PLD6 as Therapeutics for Triple Negative Breast Cancer - Dr. Michael Frohman
• Novel miR-129 Based Therapeutics for Colon Cancer - Dr. Jingfang Ju
• Fast Hybrid Approach For Determination of Structure of Therapeutic Protein Complexes - Dr. Dima Kosakov
• Enhancement of Protein Yields Using Mechanical Signals: Augmenting Biotech Production to Reduce Drug Costs - Dr. Gabriel Pagnotti
• Non-invasive Acoustic Radiation Force Therapy for OA Induced Pain and Cartilage Regeneration - Dr. Yixian Qin
• DNA Safe Deposit Box: A Smart Appliance for Secure Storage and Sharing of Biological Samples and Genomic Data in Clinical Laboratories - Dr. Judy Wieber
• LDL as Biomarker for Childhood Tuberculosis (TB) - Dr. Xinxin Yang

Proof of Concept awards

• A New Standard of Care for Implant Bed Preparation Utilizing an Innovative Drill Bit Technology - Dr. Marcous Abbou 
• Orthovoltage X-Ray Minibeams: Brain Tumor Therapy with Tissue-sparing Incident Beams - Dr. Avraham Dilmanian
• NEW‐HARP: A Highly Sensitive Avalanche Selenium Detector for Time‐of‐Flight (TOF) Positron Emission Tomography (PET) - Dr. Amirhossein Goldan
• Azasteroids for Combination Anti-TB Therapy - Dr. Nicole Sampson
• A Novel Glioblastoma Drug – Oncolytic Virus PV1-Mono-Cre - Dr. Eckard Wimmer

​“We are excited to see such a robust and diverse portfolio of early stage technologies supported through the LIBH and NIH-REACH consortium,” said Clinton T. Rubin, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Director, Center for Biotechnology. “We are hopeful that this investment by the federal and state government, as well as SBU, CSHL and BNL, will foster and accelerate the translation of these technologies from the bench to the bed side, and help attract further investment from the industrial and financial sectors.”

The main goal of the LIBH is to foster the development of therapeutics, preventatives, diagnostics, devices and research tools emerging from LIBH partner institutions that address diseases within the NIH’s mission. 

Contact:
Diane Fabel
Director of Operations
diane.fabel@stonybrook.edu
631-632-8521

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About the Long Island Bioscience Hub

The Long Island Bioscience Hub, a National Institutes of Health-designated Research, Evaluation, and Commercialization Hub, represents a partnership between the Center for Biotechnology, Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory to commercialize biomedical innovations emerging from the partner institutions.  In addition to the support provided by NIH and the partner institutions, the Long Island Bioscience Hub is supported by Empire State Development and The Research Foundation for SUNY.  Together, the Center for Biotechnology and Long Island BioscienceHub represent a significant opportunity to expand technology commercialization and company formation in the region and throughout New York State.

About the Center for Biotechnology at Stony Brook University

Established in 1983, 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. The CFB’s programs specifically target the development and commercialization of biomedical based technologies and critical components and staff of the LIBH will be supported by the CFB.