A local engineering and hardware startup has landed a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to accelerate a 3D-printing project with Georgia Tech, Harvard Medical School's Massachusetts General Hospital and Virginia Tech.
Cornelius-based Phase Inc., founded in 2018, develops 3D-printing medical devices for microfluidic organ-on-a-chip devices, a technology that allows researchers to mimic the function of tissues and organs. The startup said it plans to use the funding to build on that work as well as to develop a blood-brain-barrier device that will address model restrictions of the brain used to treat neurological diseases and brain cancer.
The project will ultimately lead to improvements of models that mimic advance biomanufacturing and in vivo environment, or when research is done with or within a whole living organism. Phase said as U.S. and European Union regulators work to eliminate animal testing, organ-on-a-chip models and microfluidics are becoming even more significant to develop drugs, test toxicity and recreate an in vivo environment.
“With the support of the NIH and with this team of leading researchers, we believe this project will not only help create a better blood-brain-barrier model, but also lay the foundation for creating other organ-on-a-chip models that will greatly benefit researchers and patients alike," Jeff Schultz, co-founder of Phase, said.
Zeke Barlow, Phase's other co-founder, said the funding will also help advance the commercialization of its product. The company is seeking partners who can help take its technology to market.
The recent funding from NIH follows other investments and support Phase has landed from scientific and economic development organizations. Phase snagged a North Carolina Biotechnology Center grant last year to help bring its 3D-printing concepts to market. In January 2022, the startup received a National Institutes of Health grant to pursue a 3D-printing project with the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences.
The startup also secured $75,000 from the One North Carolina Small Business Program. The program, founded in 2005, offers state grants to companies that are seeking or have won federal funds through the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. Both programs, also known as America’s Seed Fund, support startups that have a high chance of being marketable.
Since inception, Phase has raised about $2.5 million in non-dilutive funding.
