The Delaware Bioscience Center for Advanced Technology (Bioscience CAT) has awarded a new group of grants.

The Bioscience CAT grants synergize efforts between the academic and industrial bioscience research communities to address the technology innovation gap and promote economic development in Delaware. Projects involve partnerships among principal investigators at Delaware’s academic or research institutions and scientists from Delaware companies.

Following are the latest CAT grant-funded projects and partners.  

• Erin Crowgey from the Nemours/A.I. duPont Hospital for Children will collaborate with Genome Profiling to develop new diagnostic tests and treatments for cerebral palsy.

• Joseph Fox from the University of Delaware will collaborate with Affinity Research Chemicals to create new tools applicable to monitoring and diagnosing a wide array of diseases.

• Varleisha Gibbs from Wesley College will collaborate with Bayhealth to explore older driver rehabilitation through occupational therapy intervention and driving simulation technology to develop new practice areas for therapists within the state of Delaware.

• April Kloxin from the University of Delaware will work with the Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology to control the release of therapeutics when and where they are needed within the body using light-responsive materials.

• Tariq Rahman of Nemours/A.I. duPont Hospital for Children will collaborate with Creative Micro Designs Inc. in the development of a point-of-care, non-invasive respiratory monitor.

• John Slater from the University of Delaware will develop advanced technologies to measure protein in solution that can be used to characterize and identify diseases.

“This latest round of Bioscience CAT projects highlights the breadth of excellence Delaware’s life science industry has to offer and highlights their interest in collaborations with the academic research community to continue delivering cutting edge biotechnology innovations needed in our society,” said Kelvin Lee, director of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute.

The value of support

Previous awardees shared how the Bioscience CAT grants have supported their research:

“The CAT grant has facilitated our ability to evaluate if biomarkers of tendon health are affected by laser therapy,” said Karin Silbernagel, assistant professor of physical therapy at the University of Delaware. “In collaboration with LiteCure, we have the ability to assess the mechanism of laser therapy on tendon, which will enhance patient treatment and future device design.”

“The CAT program is enabling the commercialization of novel microscopes developed by our research group and start-up company, Blue Dragon Bioimaging” said Dr. Chandran Sabanayagam, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Delaware. “The grant provided us with resources to acquire specialized equipment to greatly speed up our prototyping at significantly reduced costs.”

Delaware Biotechnology Institute plans to announce another call for proposals this month, with details coming soon.

About Delaware Biotechnology Institute (DBI)

The Delaware Biotechnology Institute is a partnership between government, academia and industry to help establish the First State as a center of excellence in biotechnology and the life sciences.

DBI promotes research, education and technology transfer for biotechnology applications to the benefit of the environment, agriculture and human health.

About Delaware Bioscience CAT

The Delaware Bioscience CAT’s mission is to support and grow Delaware’s economy and bioscience community by fostering innovative applied research collaborations between Delaware businesses and academic institutions. For more information, please see www.cat.dbi.udel.edu.