The University of Alabama at Birmingham has selected six applicants to receive funding from the 2024 Blazer Bridge Fund.
The fund, which was started in spring 2023 by UAB’s Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, aims to support innovative projects born from UAB by identifying and assisting in the development of ideas, discoveries and technologies with commercial potential from UAB faculty and staff.
The six recipients of the Blazer Bridge Fund will get up to $50,000 in funding to develop their ideas and inventions and pursue commercial go-to-market strategies.
The fund received 27 applications from 62 inventors across 26 UAB departments and divisions in six schools.
The six winners of this round of funding are:
• Flexi-coat, a solution for biomedical device coating, invented by Jesse Jones of the Department of Neurosurgery, and Vinoy Thomas of the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.
• Application to predict and prevent neonatal apnea, invented by Colm Travers and Namasivayam Ambalavanan of the Department of Pediatrics and Arie Nakhmani of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
• Characterizing UAB126 as a drug candidate for diabetic retinopathy, invented by Jeonga Kim of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism; Venkatram Atigadda of the Department of Dermatology; Maria Grant of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences; and Marina Gorbatyuk of the School of Optometry.
• Portable and scalable multifunctional plasma-catalytic membrane reactor, invented by Andrei Stanishevsky, Riley Yager, Riley Nick and John Conaway, all of the Department of Physics.
• Fluid Aviator, a tool designed to address the issue of balancing adequate hydration and avoiding fluid overload in critically ill ICU patients, invented by David Askenazi, Nancy Tofil, and James Odum of the Department of Pediatrics; and Andres Morales, Samuel Misko and Michael Brascome of the School of Engineering.
• Development of target engagement biomarkers for Tau-SH3 inhibitors, invented by Erik Roberson of the Department of Neurology.
