News from our community

Birmingham, AL / September 2022 – Reliant Glycosciences, LLC (Reliant) is pleased to announce that the company has been awarded an Innovate Alabama Supplemental Grant for $247,500. This grant is one of the first of its kind in the state of Alabama and will support the company’s National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Award.

As stated in a press release by Gov. Kay Ivey, “The Innovate Alabama Supplemental Grant Program is the latest way our state is creating an attractive business environment for pioneering ideas that will change our world. Alabamians have the grit, determination, and creativity to make these ideas a reality, and with Innovate Alabama’s supplemental funding, these small businesses will take their ideas from concept to commercialization.”

With a SBIR Phase II Award, Reliant was eligible to apply for matching funds to their award.

Dr. Kathy Nugent, the executive director of the UAB Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, commented in an UAB News Article, “The Innovate Alabama Supplemental Grant Program is a fantastic opportunity for UAB-based start-ups who have already received SBIR and STTR funding to continue to develop their innovative technologies. These technologies have already passed muster with scientific experts, making them strong investments for state funding.”

Reliant was formed with the mission to develop assays for biomarkers of IgA nephropathy with the diagnostic and/or prognostic value that will enable the development and monitoring of future disease-specific therapies. IgA nephropathy is a kidney disease that often leads to kidney failure.

Reliant Co-Founder, Dr. Matthew Renfrow stated “This is a great opportunity for us and the state of Alabama. We are a local spin-off from UAB and we are so grateful to Governor Kay Ivey, Chairman Bill Poole, and all of the members of the Alabama Innovation Corporation Board of Directors for the vision and foresight of a program like Innovate Alabama to promote and support a small business that has the potential to have a big impact in the biotechnology sector.”

https://www.reliantglycosciences.com/

https://innovatealabama.org/

Written by: Tatum Street, MBA

Serina Therapeutics announced that it was recently awarded $250,000 by the State of Alabama’s Innovate Alabama Supplemental Grant.

The funding helps support the development of SER-227, a medication that can be administered in a hospital room by a physician to provide immediate and prolonged pain relief over a period of 3-5 days. The prolonged nature of the medicine is to prevent the need to use potentially addictive opioids such as morphine in the immediate post-op period. 

Dr. Tacey Viegas, Serina’s chief operating officer and project director, said the grant will be used to complete the product development and pre-clinical studies required to support the initiation of clinical trials.

“We’re grateful to Governor Kay Ivey, Chairman Bill Poole and all the members of the Alabama Innovation Corporation Board of Directors”, Viegas said. “The Innovate Alabama Supplemental Grant helps small businesses like us take our ideas from concept to a path for commercialization and ultimately helps improve the quality of life here in Alabama, and we hope, around the world.”

Serina is a Huntsville-based pharmaceutical research and development company that has developed a proprietary drug delivery technology platform. The new grant supplements another grant the company received in 2019 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) through the Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (HEAL) program. 

Higher Orbits will launch its final event of the BRPH Series, Go For Launch! Alabama, next week running July 20-22, thanks to stellar support from their Series Sponsor.

The hands-on flagship program of Higher Orbits spotlights the wonders of spaceflight and space exploration to provide students across the country the opportunity to develop and strengthen their skills in STEM, teamwork, communication, research design, and leadership. While focusing on spaceflight, Go For Launch! students work alongside a featured astronaut at each event to learn and develop important skills that can be applied in any professional field.

Read the full article HERE.

Eurofins Discovery acquired DiscoveryBioMed for its expertise in leveraging primary and immortalized human diseased and normal cells to develop novel, customized bioassays supporting clients from HTS to lead optimization. DiscoveryBioMed achieves this through its focus on biologically relevant cellular models for the renal, skin, taste, ophthalmic, liver, respiratory, oncology, and other therapeutic areas. The addition of DiscoveryBioMed supports Eurofins Discovery's strategy to have the most complete, highest quality portfolio of drug discovery services and products, and further strengthens its ability to support translational biology for drug discovery research and development.

Read full article here.

Good news for our members who work on developing innovative cancer-detection technologies. Rep. Terri Sewell announced on June 23 that the Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act (H.R. 1946) has achieved a significant milestone, earning the support of a bipartisan majority of members in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

The legislation clears the way for coverage of Multi-Cancer Early Detection blood tests, which have the potential to shift how cancer is screened for and detected. 

Many thanks to Rep. Sewell, the legislation’s lead sponsor, for leading the charge on H.R. 1946 and being a champion for innovation!

Check out the full article below.

https://sewell.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-sewell-s-legislation-ensure-access-groundbreaking-cancer-detection

A University of Alabama at Birmingham biotech startup received $1.2 million to continue research toward treating a chronic kidney disease.

Reliant Glycosciences LLC received a National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research Phase II award to continue the development of its IgA nephropathy-related biomarker assays. The award runs through spring 2024.

Read full article HERE.

UAB start-up SunFire Biotechnologies LLC was awarded a grant by the U.S. Department of Defense to continue advancing an assay to support the development of Shigella vaccines.

The Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant is for approximately $1 million over two years, and will assist SunFire researchers in qualifying and validating the assay so that SunFire can function as a contract research organization for other companies that are developing Shigella vaccines.

Read full article HERE.

A local ag tech firm recently raised $5.78 million in seed round funding. 

Chonex will use the funds to expand production capacity and meet rising demand as well as to file patent applications for its proprietary process. Funding was led by undisclosed Alabama finance, manufacturing and engineering leaders.

Read full article HERE.

Astound, a Birmingham-based startup, has successfully secured $1m in seed funding to develop the first marketplace to allow research institutions and universities to easily find corporate sponsors for important scientific research.

Read the full article here.

Reverse pitch event proves big success for BIO Alabama

https://techtransfercentral.com/reprints/uiea/522-reverse-pitch-event-proves-big-success-for-bio-alabama/