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. 

“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.”

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.