A company formed out of Rosalind Franklin University's biomedical incubator received federal funding this week to help treat a deadly form of brain cancer.
Founded in 2022, U.P. Oncolytics is developing new treatments for poorly responsive cancers with an initial focus on glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. The company received a $100,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health this week to further validate the treatment.
The NIH Fast-Track grant that the company received aims to minimize funding gaps and awards funding to projects that are considered to have high potential for commercialization. A single fast-track proposal may be submitted for up to $400,000 in research-and-development funding for Phase I, with a duration of six to 12 months, and up to more than $1 million in Phase II over an additional 18 to 24 months.
The grant comes as the NIH has shown recent support to Rosalind Franklin University research projects related to brain function and diseases, also awarding nearly $10 million in funding to three researchers. Fundraising for Chicagoland life sciences has increased every year since 2018, a report released last year from Cushman & Wakefield showed.
Rosalind Franklin University Executive Vice President for Research Dr. Ronald Kaplan said in a statement that the awards, in addition to other NIH grants earned by university researchers in 2024, demonstrate the university's commitment to scientific discovery.
Housed in Rosalind Franklin Unviersity's Helix 51, a 2024 Inno Fire winner, U.P. Oncolytics is looking to find new treatments for the most common form of malignant brain cancer, glioblastoma, which has a survival rate of 6.9%, according to the National Brain Tumor Society.
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