LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Louisville announced today that a grant from the National Institutes of Health will combine with matching funds from the university to create a new $6.1 million initiative to commercialize discoveries made by UofL researchers.
UofL is one of just three institutions in the United States selected as a Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (REACH) by the NIH. The REACH award consists of $3 million over three years matched by an additional $3.1 million from UofL.
“The funding from the REACH grant significantly advances UofL#8217;s ability to bridge the gap between a great idea and the marketplace,” said UofL President James R. Ramsey in announcing the award. “The university will continue to supply a robust pipeline of diverse technologies and other discoveries along with the infrastructure and expertise required for translational research. The REACH grant will provide additional resources needed to bring that research to market.”
“This award illustrates the success UofL is witnessing in its mission to become a premiere metropolitan research university,” said William M. Pierce Jr., executive vice president for research and innovation. “We know it is not enough only to make great discoveries; we must find ways to bring those discoveries to the marketplace where they will benefit the people of our city, state and beyond. This grant provides significant support to do so.”
Executive Vice President for Health Affairs David L. Dunn, M.D., Ph.D., said the work that the grant supports is a natural outgrowth of UofL’s already demonstrated success in research. “UofL’s commitment to invest in talent and infrastructure already has paid dividends in translational research. UofL research that has led to new discoveries includes a first-in-class anticancer drug, a method to prevent organ transplant rejection, a treatment that can reverse damage caused by heart attack and a protocol that allows people with spinal cord injury to regain voluntary movement of their once paralyzed limbs. The REACH funding will enable us to translate even more of these types of new discoveries to the market.”
About the Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub grant
The REACH grant will create UofL’s “ExCITE Hub” – reflecting its function to “Expedite Commercialization, Innovation, Translation and Entrepreneurship” to increase the success rate and speed at which biomedical research is translated into products that bring a positive impact on health.
The ExCITE Hub has three major aims:
1.