The four-year Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (REACH) grant from the National Institutes of Health will help fund a public-private consortium, the Kentucky Network for Innovation & Commercialization – KYNETIC. The new organization will use NIH funding to advance the most promising biomedical research innovations from the state’s eight public universities and the Kentucky Community & Technical College System. Ultimately, its goal is to create startups that commercialize the technologies for public benefit.

KYNETIC, whose founding members will contribute a $2.56 million direct-cost match, will provide guidance and technical resources to advance the technologies toward commercialization. Additionally, KYNETIC will assist in scaling the resulting startups to help tackle some of the biggest health challenges facing the US population, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.

Innovations that KYNETIC will help bring to market may be new pharmaceuticals, therapies, devices and other health-related technologies. Those products could directly intervene in disease processes and conditions individuals suffer, or they may address health disparities like lack of health care access in rural areas or populations suffering disproportionate rates of disease and premature death.

As resulting startups move into clinical trials phases, many will rely on the strength of Kentucky’s public hospitals and health care systems.

UofL President Neeli Bendapudi said the expanding resources available through UofL Health will further support health care research.

“With the acquisition of Jewish Hospital and other KentuckyOne Health properties, researchers at UofL will have additional opportunities to recruit patients for clinical studies to advance research emerging from KYNETIC,” Bendapudi said. “Projects developed through KYNETIC will have the potential to further existing UofL research efforts in optimal aging, improve access to quality health care in underserved urban and rural regions, and bolster efforts to both attract and retain top faculty and students at UofL.”

In addition to its statewide approach, KYNETIC will intentionally seek both innovations and entrepreneurs from diverse and underrepresented groups.

Paula Bates, PhD, professor of medicine at UofL and co-principal investigator on the grant, said the state will benefit from broader collaborations facilitated by KYNETIC.

“When you get people from different backgrounds working together, you see innovation blossom,” Bates said. “I am looking forward to seeing some new collaborations, being able to share what we have learned and learn from other people in Kentucky. I think this is a really powerful way to reach everybody in Kentucky and get some great knowledge transferred and some great new ideas.”

Linda Dwoskin, PhD, UK professor of pharmaceutical sciences and co-principal investigator on the grant, said KYNETIC will benefit researchers, institutions and communities across Kentucky including underserved communities and populations.

“It is an honor to work with the University of Louisville, C3 and public academic institutions across the state to advance and accelerate innovative ideas that could lead to new products and technologies,” Dwoskin said. “Throughout the state we have untapped resources of inventive and entrepreneurial individuals and groups whom we hope to provide opportunities that will aid in transforming ideas and discoveries to tangible health benefits.”

“Kentucky’s ability to win this grant — one of only a handful ever awarded nationwide — was made possible in large part because of the unprecedented collaboration between our economic development cabinet, public universities and technical colleges in creating our non-profit commercialization center, C3,” said Governor Matt Bevin. “This grant further validates the significance of C3’s public-private structure and our decision to revitalize Kentucky’s innovation and entrepreneurial support system. Together, we can have a truly positive impact on the health of Kentuckians and people around the world.”

KYNETIC will leverage commercialization resources led by co-investigators Allen Morris, PhD, executive director of the UofL Commercialization EPI-Center, Ian McClure, executive director of the UK Office of Technology Commercialization, and April Turley director of C3’s Commercialization Core. It also will build on the experience brought by a current REACH hub at UofL () and other existing tech-transfer programs at UofL, as well as the regional IDeA biomedical technology transfer accelerator hub at UK 

Check out more in the video below: 

To solve that problem, researchers at the University of Louisville have for loading preservative compounds into red blood cells. This technology may aid in extending blood’s window of use by enabling the dehydration and dry storage of red blood cells at room temperature.

Now, via a $750,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a cooperative agreement with Indianapolis-based Cook Regentec, the team is working on further developing the technology and getting it to market.

“The goal is that this kind of system could be commercialized,” said Dr. Jonathan Kopechek, an assistant professor of bioengineering. “There’s a whole lot of opportunity. It’s exciting.”

Drs. Kopechek and Michael Menze, and graduate student Brett Janis, invented the technology and developed the prototype – a small, chamber with fluid channels inside. They are working with the to commercialize and protect the intellectual property.

“The researchers have proven it works and they have the prototype,” said Dr. Paula Bates, a UofL professor of medicine, who teamed up with the inventors to secure this grant as principal investigator.

By creating temporary breaks in the cell walls with tiny bubbles and ultrasound, the team can inject a preservative that protects the cell membranes. Once loaded with that preservative, the cells are ready for dehydration. Then, the blood can be rehydrated on-demand — even months later.

The process is sort of like dehydrating sea monkeys, then watching them spring back to life when they’re submerged in an aquarium.

“The dehydrated red blood cells can be reconstituted by gently mixing with water,” said Menze, an associate professor of biology and assistant chair. “It’s that simple: ’just add water’.”

Much of the initial proof-of-concept work and prototype development for the technology was funded by a grant from UofL’s translational research program, which is part of the National Institutes of Health REACH network. The researchers also are products of entrepreneurial training and NSF’s (I-Corps) site translational research program, both at UofL.

By , the UofL team hopes to accelerate the technology’s path to market and explore other potential uses. While it’s initially being used for blood, this is a platform technology and could have multiple applications, including for storing or transforming other cell types.