The Pandemic-Related Product Acceleration & Responsive Entrepreneurship Program, or , partners UofL researchers with companies and members of the community to scale up innovative ideas. The end goal is to grow existing companies or spin up new ones to bring those ideas to market.Ěý

PRePARE announced its first round of projects in December 2021, each of which received project management, entrepreneurial support and up to $50,000 in direct costs to fund product development at UofL. In its second round, the program selected three new projects, and awarded additional funding to two existing ones.ĚýĚý

The new projects are:Ěý

• Data-driven personalized treatment for eating disorders: Researchers Cheri Levinson and Christina Ralph-Nearman (both from the College of Arts and Sciences) working with Awaken Digital Health Solutions;Ěý
• Development of evidence-informed mental health for student athletes: Researcher Becky Antle (Kent School of Social Work) working with UofL Health; andĚý
• A virtual reality software for listening with hearing aids in realistic environments: Researcher Matthew Neal (School of Medicine) working with Heuser Hearing Institute.Ěý

The two projects receiving additional funding are:Ěý

• OxyCART: An efficient and durable oxygen concentrator for COVID-19 and beyond: Researcher Gautum Gupta (J.B. Speed School of Engineering) working with medical equipment company, , and non-profit, ; andĚý
• Wicked Smart Pad: Washable bedding with sensors for the detection and mitigation of moisture events: Researcher Cindy Harnett (J.B. Speed School of Engineering) working with tech startup, .Ěý

“These are truly innovative ideas, and each one addresses an important social, economic, health or other challenge presented by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Paula Bates, a professor of medicine who leads the program with the Office of Research and Innovation’s Will Metcalf, Sara Price and Jessica Sharon. “These products, backed by UofL researchers and community partners, have the potential to make a real impact that could help us recover faster from this pandemic and become more resilient against future ones.”Ěý

PRePARE is part of the UofL Office of Research and Innovation’s office, which works to launch and grow startups built on UofL intellectual property and helps to manage a suite of aimed at turning research into viable commercial products. UofL is one of only a handful of universities in the U.S. to receive each of these innovation-associated awards, and it’s the only one to receive all of them. Ěý

“PRePARE and UofL’s other translational programs create important connectivity between industry and our campus,” said Metcalf, an associate vice president for research and innovation who heads UofL New Ventures and helps lead the PRePARE grant. “That connectivity is critical to economic development, and I encourage researchers and industry who want to be involved to reach out to our staff at ventures@louisville.edu. By working together, we can build innovative companies and products that solve problems, like those related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and make a positive impact on our world.”Ěý

Six projects were selected this funding cycle, two of which are from UofL:

• Pediatric NeuroRecovery Posture Control System (researcher Andrea Behrman)
• Vertify Probe: Intraoperative Device for Measurement of Bone Quality (researchers Stuart Williams, Maxwell Boakye and Michael Voor)

KYNETIC is a statewide program supported by $6.6 million in funding, including a $4 millionĚýResearch Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (REACH) grant from the National Institutes of Health and matching funds. The goal is to advance the most promising biomedical research innovations — including pharmaceuticals, devices and apps — from the state’s eight public universities and the Kentucky Community & Technical College System (KCTCS).

KYNETIC grants support six-month, milestone-driven projects focused onĚýquickly determining whether or not each technology is viable as a commercial product.ĚýAwardees will receive funding for product-focused research and development, attend trainings, and get advice from program staff, industry, investors and other experts on identifying needs, navigating regulations and protecting their intellectual property.Ěý

Paula Bates, professor of medicine at UofL, who co-leads KYNETIC, said the idea is to spur innovation and economic development through collaboration.

“I’m very pleased with the strong projects awarded in this cycle of KYNETIC, each of which will have a positive impact on human health,” she said. “Collaboration and innovation go hand-in-hand, and that’s our goal with KYNETIC. It’s a really powerful way to use our collective expertise to help to turn great ideas from our state into products that improve people’s health and wellbeing.”

Applications for the next cycle of KYNETIC funding are ĚýandĚýrequire a two-page pre-proposal. Funding cycles are offered twice a year and are open to faculty, staff, trainees and students. Competitive renewal opportunities are available.

Launched in 2019, the KYNETIC program builds on UofL’s strong history of translational research support, which includes a prestigious for turning research into products.

“Through these programs, UofL supports commercialization of the work being done by our researchers here,” said Jessica Sharon, UofL’s director of innovation programs. “The goal is to translate research into products that can improve, or even save, lives.”

KYNETIC is led by UofL, the University of Kentucky, the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, and Kentucky Commercialization Ventures, and works closely with Kentucky’s regional universities and KCTCS.

The Pandemic-Related Product Acceleration & Responsive Entrepreneurship Program, or , partners UofL researchers with companies and members of the community to scale up innovative ideas. The end goal is to grow existing companies or spin up new ones to bring those ideas to market.

PRePARE selected five projects in this round, each of which receives project management, entrepreneurial support and up to $50,000 in direct costs to fund product development at UofL. Those projects are:

• Geolocation-enabled app to support first-generation Asian immigrants and their second-generation caregivers: UofL researchers Dee Antimisaris (public health) and Lihui Bai (engineering) working with the ;

• OxyCART: An efficient and durable oxygen concentrator for COVID-19 and beyond: Researcher Gautum Gupta (engineering) working with medical equipment company, , and non-profit, ;

• Wicked Smart Pad: Washable bedding with sensors for the detection and mitigation of moisture events: Researcher Cindy Harnett (engineering) working with tech startup, ;

• Utilization of Melanated Healthcare app to evaluate COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Black Americans and persons of color: Researchers Mollie Aleshire (nursing) and Monica Wendel (public health) working with , an app developer aimed at preventing racial bias in health care; and

• Pre-commercialization prototype refinement and in vivo testing of a novel over-the-scope enteral feeding tube and enteroscope to improve severe COVID-19 nutrition support: Researcher Stephen McClave (medicine) working with medical technology company, .

“I’m extremely pleased with the strong and diverse group of projects in this first round of PRePARE funding, each of which tackles one of the many changes and challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Paula Bates, professor of medicine and a lead on the grant. “By furthering these projects, we can make a real impact that not only hastens the end of this pandemic, but also increases resilience against future ones.”

Applications are now open for the second cycle of PRePARE project funding. UofL is soliciting ideas for filling unmet needs and solving problems from community partners in the seven-county Kentuckiana Regional Planning & Development Agency economic development district. The district, centered around Louisville, includes Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer and Trimble counties.

Community partners can be individuals, companies or organizations. UofL students, staff and faculty also are encouraged to submit ideas. Ideas may be submitted through the .

PRePARE is part of UofL’s office, which works to launch and grow startups built on UofL intellectual property and helps to manage a suite of aimed at turning research into viable commercial products. UofL is one of only a handful of universities in the U.S. to receive each of these innovation-associated awards, and it’s the only one to receive all of them.Ěý

“Programs like PRePARE that create connectivity between industry and our campus are absolutely critical to innovation and economic development,” said Will Metcalf, an associate vice president for research and innovation who heads UofL New Ventures and helps lead the PRePARE grant. “By connecting our researchers with entrepreneurs and the community, we can work together to develop companies and products that solve problems, like those related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and make a positive impact on our world.”

The Pandemic-Related Product Acceleration & Responsive Entrepreneurship Program, or PRePARE, will partner UofL researchers with members of the community to scale up innovative ideas. The end goal is to grow existing companies or spin up new ones to bring those ideas to market.

Innovations boosted through the program might include ways to track viral spread more efficiently, expand access to virtual services or bring employees back to work safely.

“The pandemic has caused so many changes and challenges,” said Paula Bates, professor of medicine and a lead on the grant. “Our hope is that by pairing these bold ideas with UofL’s researchers and innovation expertise, we can make a real impact that not only hastens the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also increases resilience against future ones.”

UofL is soliciting ideas for filling unmet needs and solving problems from community partners in the seven-county Kentuckiana Regional Planning & Development Agency economic development district. The district, centered around Louisville, includes Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer and Trimble counties.

Community partners can be individuals, companies or organizations. UofL students, staff and faculty also are encouraged to submit ideas. Ideas may be submitted through the .

Community members whose ideas are selected will be partnered with one or more UofL researchers, who will have up to $75,000 to fund project development at UofL. Teams also will receive project management and entrepreneurial support from PRePARE’s program staff.Ěý

PRePARE is funded through the E.D.A.’s .

PRePARE builds on UofL’s suite of aimed at turning research into viable commercial products, dubbed the “superfecta.” UofL is one of only a handful of universities in the U.S. to receive each of these innovation-associated awards, and it’s the only one to receive all of them.

The PRePARE program will be led by a group of university innovation experts that includes Bates, along with the Office of Research and Innovation’s Holly Clark, Will Metcalf and Jessica Sharon.

“UofL has significant earned expertise in developing and commercializing new technologies that can save and improve lives,” said Kevin Gardner, UofL’s executive vice president for research and innovation. “PRePARE is an extension of that work to empower our communities, advance our health and engineer our future economy through innovation and entrepreneurship.”

“Innovation is absolutely critical to UofL’s mission,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi. “It’s what drives us and inspires us. Our three most important goals as a university are to be a great place to learn, to work and to invest, and the work of these innovators contributes to all three.”Ěý

The second annual event, hosted virtually this year by the and its technology transfer arm, the honored UofL innovators who had recently been awarded a patent or whose technology had been licensed to a company for commercialization in fiscal year 2020, which ended June 30, 2020.Ěý

Two large awards were also presented: Paula Bates was given the Innovator of the Year Award, and Theo Edmonds, Brad Shuck and Laura Weingartner all accepted Trailblazer awards on behalf of their teams. Each was delivered a red-and-black glass flame — the symbol for the event.

“Our office, and UofL as a whole, are committed to taking the brilliant, groundbreaking research happening on our campus out of the lab, out of the classroom, and translating it into inventions and products that improve the way we work and live,” said Executive Vice President for Research and Innovation, Kevin Gardner. “And, this past year, our researchers worked tirelessly to develop innovations that in a very real way, may save lives — all while dealing with the added challenges of COVID-19.”Ěý

Innovator of the Year, Bates, is a serial inventor and , known for a long track record of developing strong partnerships with industry to commercialize her technologies. In 2020, she partnered with other UofL innovators to develop a potential breakthrough in our fight against COVID-19 that is believed to block the virus from infecting human cells. The technologyĚý to a now publicly-traded biomedical company, which is working with UofL to further develop it for market.

As for the Trailblazers, who are awarded for work in new areas of innovation for UofL, Edmonds accepted the award for the Cultural Wellbeing Index, a tool that helps companies improve corporate culture and organizational wellbeing. To commercialize the technology, Edmonds launched , UofL’s .

Shuck accepted for the Employee Engagement Scale, a software that helps companies measure workforce engagement. The technology’s non-exclusive license to startup Unitonomy marks the — followed by the second and third, also secured by Shuck, when the technology was licensed to two other companies in the same year.

Lastly, Weingartner accepted the award for “,” a first-of-its-kind manual aimed at better-training future medical professionals on caring for LGBTQ and other non-normative patients. The manual is meant to provide resources and guidance so that medical schools, residencies and continuing medical education programs across the country are able to implement training and provide better resources for more equitable care.

All told, fiscal year 2020 was the at UofL, with a total income of $9.4 million driven by a strong year for startups and deals. It also was UofL’s best year on-record for competitive research funding, with total new awards of $170 million.

“This was a great year for innovation and research — also our best year on record,” said Allen Morris, executive director of the Commercialization EPI-Center. “Our innovators all share in that success, and I look forward to continuing that work together in 2021.”

Building on more than two decades of success in cancer research, the University of Louisville is poised to advance immunotherapy with a grant of $11.5 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to establish the (CCII). The new center will develop and improve strategies that use the immune response to fight cancer. The five-year grant also will allow UofL to establish the CCII as a National Institutes of Health-designated Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE) to support young investigators and develop additional basic, translational and clinical research at the .

“One of the university’s Grand Challenges is to advance the health of all people,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi. “Through this center, our cancer researchers will grow the field of immunotherapy, saving the lives of many more patients with cancer in the future.”

“Our mission is to harness the power of the immune system to eradicate cancer,” said Jason Chesney, director of the Brown Cancer Center. “The University of Louisville, UofL Health and the Brown Cancer Center have been at the forefront of the clinical development of a new generation of immunotherapies that have been proven to increase the survival of cancer patients. This grant from the federal government leverages our existing strengths in cancer immunology and clinical trials to accelerate the development of new immunotherapies that will translate into lives saved across the globe.”

Cancer survivor Jeff Habermel received two different immunotherapies at Brown Cancer Center in the course of treatment for three different cancers, including metastasized melanoma.

“I consider myself very fortunate to have the type of care that Dr. Chesney and Dr. (Donald) Miller and the whole staff provide at the Brown Cancer Center. We have a world-class facility right in our backyard,” Habermel said. “I truly feel I am the luckiest man in the world to live in a time when we have such technologies and such amazing abilities to treat cancer in these ways.”

The newest cancer treatments often are available at Brown Cancer Center through clinical trials before they are available anywhere else. One such treatment is CAR T-cell therapy, in which a patient’s own immune cells known as T cells are modified in the lab to more effectively attack cancer cells. UofL announced the creation of the at UofL in October.

“Our leading-edge cancer program improves access for patients in our region, giving them the opportunity to benefit from life-saving immunotherapies through clinical trials,” said Tom Miller, CEO of UofL Health. “Thousands of our cancer patients – our neighbors and family members – are alive today because of this early focus on drugs that activate immunity against cancer.”

Researchers within the CCII will build on expertise and resources gained from previous research at UofL to develop better cancer immunotherapies. This will be achieved in part by enabling talented junior investigators who have not yet obtained major funding to advance their research and subsequently obtain major grant awards of their own.

“One of the major goals of the center is to cultivate the next generation of cancer scientists in immunology and immunotherapy,” said Jun Yan, professor, director of the CCII and chief of the UofL Division of Immunotherapy. “Starting in year two, we will call for pilot projects that will bring in more researchers and investigators to work on immunotherapy and immunology.”

The young researchers are provided funding, mentorship and access to sophisticated facilities to advance their research. Once CCII-supported researchers obtain their own funding they rotate out, allowing new investigators to come in to the program.

“It’s training a cohort of new investigators who will have their own large grants and expertise,” said Paula Bates, professor of medicine and co-investigator for the CCII along with John Trent. “We are building a critical mass of well-funded researchers in the area.”

Senior UofL faculty members Robert Mitchell, Nejat Egilmez, Haribabu Bodduluri, Huang-Ge Zhang and Bing Li will serve as mentors and core directors for the CCII. In the first year of the program, four junior researchers at UofL are conducting projects to improve the effectiveness of immune therapies.

• Chuanlin Ding is investigating the impact of chemotherapy on anti-tumor immunity in breast cancer order to discover effective combination regimens that improve conventional chemotherapy.
• Qingsheng Li is exploring a method to improve immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for non-small cell lung cancer. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a type of immunotherapy that blocks proteins (checkpoints) made by immune system cells, such as T cells. The checkpoints can prevent T cells from attacking cancer cells.
• Corey Watson is studying immune cells to determine which of these cells are beneficial to lung cancer patient outcomes and how they may help kill tumor cells.
• Kavitha Yaddanapuddi is studying immune checkpoint inhibitor resistance in lung cancer patients. This will help in developing therapies that reduce resistance and improve treatment.

This grant may be extended for two additional five-year phases. A previous CoBRE program for cancer research at UofL was extended through all three phases, lasting 15 years. That program significantly expanded the contingent of both junior and senior investigators at UofL, including Chesney, Trent and others whose research was funded by the previous program.

“This type of funding has been truly transformative for this cancer center,” Trent said. “The research for the current generation of immunotherapeutic checkpoint inhibitors was done more than 18 years ago. This grant’s research will feed into the clinical work in time. These grants lay the groundwork for the next generation of therapies.”

To extend the impact of the CCII still further, Kosair Charities has provided an additional $200,000 to facilitate the discovery and development of immunotherapy drugs for children with cancer. This gift bridges the CCII and the UofL Kosair Charities Pediatric Oncology Research Program, allowing the CCII to focus also on immuno-oncology for children.

“Kosair Charities is proud to be the first community partner to support the UofL Center for Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy,” said Kosair Charities President Keith Inman. “The UofL Kosair Charities Pediatric Cancer Research Program will allow this new center to include crucial pediatric cancer research as well as expand the scope to all people living with cancer – children and adults alike.”

UofL is seeking to fast-track development of , including application to the Food and Drug Administration, for approval to begin treating patients already infected with COVID-19. The UPS gift, which will fund trials and test materials, will help enable that work.

“UPS delivers all over the world, so everywhere we operate is now affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said UPS Airlines President Brendan Canavan. “We’re committed to serve every one of those communities and are hopeful that this grant will help unlock an effective treatment for the virus.”

UPS Airlines is based in Louisville, and UPS has a long-standing relationship with UofL through the Metropolitan College program.

The work being conducted at UofL involves a piece of synthetic DNA known as an “aptamer” and was originally developed as a cancer treatment by researcher with co-researchers John Trent and Dr. Don Miller. With the global pandemic of coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease it causes, Bates partnered with fellow researcher Kenneth Palmer, director of UofL’s Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, to apply the technology once again.

Their work is especially promising because the biotechnology has already been tested in clinical trials, and researchers have conducted proof-of-concept experiments showing the aptamer is effective against the virus. Previous clinical trials for cancer patients also show that the treatment is safe for patients.

“I deeply appreciate the gift from UPS that helps support my work,” said Bates, a professor of medicine. “It is with gifts such as this that we will be able to advance our research and our ability to treat the novel coronavirus.ĚýI’m alsoĚýthankful to be in such a collaborative setting with great facilities and a supportive environment for translational research. There are only a few places where we could have tested this idea so quickly.”

Keynton is a professor and the Lutz Endowed Chair of Biomechanical Devices of the Department of Bioengineering at the J.B. Speed School of Engineering. Keynton was founding chair of the bioengineering department, which under his tenure grew into the most productive basic and translational research department in the Speed School. He is also the director of research initiatives in the office of the executive vice president for research and innovation.

“I am humbled by the nomination and support from my colleagues at UofL and I am truly honored to have been selected to be a member of the National Academy of Inventors and to be associated with such a prestigious group,” Keynton said. Ěý

Keynton’s research focuses on Lab-on-a-Chip devices, microsensors, biomedical devices and biomaterials. He joined UofL in 1999 and has co-founded three companies with UofL colleagues. His career has centered on multidisciplinary research, which includes more than $51 million of funding from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, Wallace H. Coulter Foundation and the Veterans Administration.

“Professor Robert S. Keynton is a leader in research and innovation at UofL and the nation and around the world,” said William Pierce, UofL executive vice president for research and innovation, who was named an NAI Fellow in 2015. “As founder of our department of bioengineering, he hasĚýbuilt a talented faculty as he built his own research efforts.ĚýHe has brought in many millions of researchĚýdollars in research funding individually and has led or helped lead development of our Nanotechnology Center, our Coulter Project initiative, our REACH (NIH) for proof-of-concept centers, and our NSF I-Corps Centers to provide opportunity for so many.ĚýCurrently he leads efforts that will provide opportunities for untold numbers of students, fellows and future alumni.ĚýWe are proud to have Rob as one of our leading innovators, inventors and scientists.”

Keynton is the fifth UofL researcher to be named an NAI Fellow. In addition to Pierce in 2015, honorees have been Suzanne T. Ildstad, MD, and Kevin M. Walsh in 2014 and Paula J. Bates in 2016.

With the election of the 2017 class there are 912 representing more than 250 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes. The 2017 Fellows are named inventors on nearly 6,000 issued U.S. patents, bringing the collective patents held by all NAI Fellows to more than 32,000 issued U.S. patents.

The new NAI Fellows will be inducted April 5 as part of the of the National Academy of Inventors at the Mayflower Hotel, Autograph Collection inĚýWashington, DC.