A startup to stop hemorrhagic shock and treat cardiac and other critical illnesses has a new infusion of capital on its road to the first tests in humans.
 
Perfusion Medical this fall was awarded a $2.9 million grant from the Defense Health Agency. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding will enable the company to complete pre-clinical studies and submit an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the FDA for its drug candidate, called PM-208 (developed under the name PEG-20k). The solution was invented by a team led by Martin J. Mangino, Ph.D., a professor of surgery, physiology and biophysics in the Department of Surgery at the VCU School of Medicine.

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Find more about Perfusion Medical, see this January 2023 story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch

A VCU biomedical engineer is on a mission to better repair muscle injuries, and today has a bit
more funding to help him achieve it.

Michael McClure, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the College of Engineering’s Department of
Biomedical Engineering, was this summer awarded $75,000 by the Virginia Innovation
Partnership Corp. to pursue a new method of repairing muscle loss and tears. His intellectual
property is also the basis of a startup, Sarcogenics.

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By the way: McClure’s company, Sarcogenics, is related to the term sarcopenia, the progressive loss of muscle due to age. Age plays a significant role in injury severity and a role in surgical success.In rotator cuff surgeries in particular, almost 50% of surgeries re-tear within a 12-month period. Part of the goal of the research team’s scaffolding material is to improve surgical success in patients with advanced age.

A VCU startup that is developing technologies to improve forensic investigations has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The $270,578 Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award to Rapid Forensic Cell Typing will help the company develop technology that can analyze “non-genetic attributes” of cells within forensic evidence, explains VCU researcher Christopher Ehrhardt, Ph.D., a co-investigator on the project and professor in the Department of Forensic Science at the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences.

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Action Items:

• See a video on this amazing technology right here.

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Minnesota-based company Quench Medical, which has licensed aerosol technologies from two VCU researchers, secured $2 million in federal grants for the continued development of an inhaled therapy for lung cancer.

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Action Items:

• Hindle and Longest also were recently awarded $3.2 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to further their research. Read more.

Perfusion Medical has been accepted at the prestigious MassChallenge U.S. Early Stage Accelerator program. 

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The U.S. Air Force’s venture capital and innovation arm, AFWERX, has awarded two grants to a Herndon and Richmond, Virginia - based startup using technology developed by VCU researchers.

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A VCU startup exploring virtual reality to treat mental health in kids who are at risk of behavioral disorders received $275,000 this spring from the National Institute of Mental Health.

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Action Items:

• Explore more about ArcheVR
• Check out the ArcheVR website
• 'A windowless room with colorful views' — see how TechTransfer and Ventures licensing manager Brent Fagg is working with Thomson to bring the researcher's laboratory to life, care of Batman, Mario, and other characters.