HealthAdvance Fund®

HealthAdvance Fund® is sponsored by Rutgers University. Provides commercialization funding to assist the development of early-stage life sciences technologies.

HealthAdvance Fund | Rutgers Research Advancing Biomedical Innovations Advancing Biomedical Innovations As part of the Rutgers Optimizes Innovation initiative, HealthAdvance Fund ® provides commercialization funding to assist the development of early-stage life sciences technologies and make them more attractive for continued follow-on investments from industry partners and external investors.

Read an article about why the National Institutes of Health (NIH) asked Rutgers associate director of commercialization funding Pragati Sharma, executive director of New Ventures Vince Smeraglia, senior vice president for research Michael E. Zwick, and vice chancellor of translational medicine and science at Rutgers Health Reynold A.

Panettieri Jr., to write a paper that now appears in Nature Biotechnology, explaining their self-sustaining funding system for others to follow. About the Rutgers HealthAdvance Fund ® HealthAdvance Fund ® is the funding platform of Rutgers Optimizes Innovation (ROI) program established with a $4 million grant received under the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Evaluation And Commercialization Hub ( REACH ).

The program aims to energize the innovation culture across all university campuses to speed up the translation of biomedical discoveries into commercially viable diagnostics, devices, therapeutics, and tools to improve health and patient care and train the next generation of innovators.

Pre-Qualification Guidelines & Form Find out more about eligibility and application requirements for pre-qualification and the application process and timeline.

Pre-Qualification and Application Process Meet the Mentors-in-Residence Our Mentors-in-Residence (MIRs) are individually matched to the Innovator teams that have been invited to submit a full application to the program and collaborate with their matched Innovators to craft compelling proposals for a commercially viable product or solution, with a strong focus on improving human health.

Associate Director, Commercialization Funding pragati. sharma@rutgers. edu Senior Program Coordinator, New Ventures kate.

woodside@rutgers. edu Executive Director, New Ventures vincent. smeraglia@rutgers.

edu An Adeno-associated Virus Based Gene Therapy to Prevent and Reduce Oxidative Damage Induced Hearing Loss The project uses an AAV based antioxidative gene therapy to prevent occupational noise induced hearing loss in subjects utilizing ear protection and to prevent progressive hearing loss in subjects with established increases in auditory threshold.

A Biomedical Test to Transform Clinical Care of Septic Patients in Emergency Settings of Hospital This project will develop a biomedical technology called Immuno-Dx, whose value proposition lies in its ability to provide vital information about patients’ immune response to infections, and to fulfill unmet need for personalized diagnostics of septic patients in emergency department (ED) settings.

Electrotherapy (Titanium Implant Repassivation Device) Our project aims to revolutionize peri-implantitis treatment by developing an innovative electrotherapy device designed to restore the passivation layer of titanium implants. By targeting the root cause of implant degradation and associated inflammation, we seek to enhance the longevity and success of dental implants and improve patient outcomes.

Surgical Artificial Intelligence Ureteral Injury Prevention System for Robotic and Laparscopic Surgery Rutgers researchers have developed an AI-based system to prevent iatrogenic ureteral injury in gynecologic and colorectal surgeries. The technology continuously tracks surgical instruments, providing real-time alerts or movement halts near the ureter.

Platform-independent, it enhances intraoperative safety and surgeon control, reducing complications in complex cases with distorted anatomy. Development of Maturation-defective Attenuated Chlamydia Vaccines Chlamydiae are common and important human pathogens. This HealthAdvance grant will apply a novel technology to develop a safe and effective life attenuated Chlamydia vaccine.

Our vaccines will drastically reduce health and socioeconomic burdens of chlamydial diseases in women and men. Gsx1 Gene Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury We have developed a novel, first-in-class GSX1 gene therapy that promotes the regeneration of spinal cord tissue, resulting in dramatic functional recovery in an animal model of spinal cord injury (SCI).

Antibacterial Drug Lead Development Many bacterial diseases are becoming more deadly as bacteria develop resistance to treatment with antibiotics. The proposed work describes an innovative path to identifying novel antibiotics. Quantum Click: Next-gen Virtual Screening for Drug Discovery Quantum Click is a software capable of formulating new drug candidates by screening billions of compounds virtually.

Due to the exceptionally high accuracy, Quantum Click provides robust predictions of drug candidate-protein target interactions. A Novel Method of Generating Live-Attenuated, Replication-Defective DNA Viruses for Vaccine Development The long-term goal of this project is to develop a vaccine using centanamycin for DNA viruses where no drug or vaccine is available.

Our study offers an attractive opportunity to develop chemically-attenuated live viruses as vaccines for the prevention and treatment of DNA viral infections.