Innovation happening around the SHARPhub region

Q2 2021

SHARPhub Stories

How one company is getting out front of flu mutations in both humans and livestock.

Brian Brandt, head of Pirenzia, Inc., is leading an effort to employ DNA shuffling to develop a vaccine designed to trigger an antibody response to flu viruses without the need to be incubated in an egg solution. It is a technique with no corollary in modern vaccines, and it’s applicable across multiple H1N1 strains.

This company is developing a far less invasive treatment for specific eye diseases.

Dr. Henry Shin, Ph.D. at Excitant Therapeutics, uses a growing body of evidence indicating that pharmacological activation of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-α (PPAR-α) can ameliorate symptoms of diabetic retinopathy (DR) to optimize drug designs for non-invasive systemic treatment.

SHARPhub News

SHARPhub program participants attending BIO Digital

SHARPhub is sending affiliated companies to the BIO Digital Conference, a virtual gathering of the global biotech industry. Company founders will be able to learn about innovations and take advantage of access to key industry players who can help them develop partnerships and future collaborations.

Companies receiving scholarships:

Sam Al-Murranil, Prommune Inc., Nebraska

Gary Madsen, ProTransit Nanotherapy, Nebraska

Michael Beat, Global Laparoscopy Solutions, Inc., Nebraska

Brian Brant, Pirenzia, Inc., South Dakota

Peter A. Petillo, Design-Zyme LLC , Kansas

Sunti Wathanacharoen, Pulmonaer Analytics, Kansas

SHARPhub Region Updates

NORTH DAKOTA

Sandeep Singhal identifies novel biomarker

for cancer

Sandeep Singhal, assistant professor in the School of Medicine & Health Sciences Department of Pathology, recently published a paper in Communications Biology – Nature, one of the world’s leading journals in the natural sciences, on a potential novel biomarker for cancer.

SOUTH DAKOTA

Research developed at South Dakota Mines could lead to a cure for osteoarthritis.

A South Dakota Mines research team has developed technology – and established a startup company called CellField – that could be a key to finding a cure for osteoarthritis. The team feels the technology could be a gamechanger in osteoarthritis research.

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KANSAS

Ariadne Software, Intelligence Software Developer, locates in Lawrence, KS, and secures a Small Business loan.

Born out of the need to address inefficiencies resulting from volumes of data to be analyzed in extremely tight timeframes and with limited guidance, Ariadne built software to analyze testing data generated during drug development.

NEBRASKA

Translational Hearing Center awarded largest NIH grant in Creighton history

Creighton University’s Translational Hearing Center has been awarded a $10.8 million grant to fund a working partnership between the Translational Hearing Center, Boys Town National Research Center, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center as the three institutions seek to translate basic hearing loss research into practical therapies.

OKLAHOMA

OSU-CHS neuroanatomy faculty earns national recognition

In only five years at OSU Center for Health Sciences, Haley O’Brien, Ph.D., has won OSU’s App Competition for the development of a clinical neuroanatomy educational app with a group of medical students, has recently been recognized with the Basmajian Award from the American Association of Anatomy, and much more.

SBIR/STTR News

SBIR/STTR Annual Report now available

These SBA reports provide detailed coverage of several important metrics, including total aggregate funding across all agencies and individual states, additional metrics for outreach activities, award selection rates, and how long it takes for companies to receive funding. The full report is on the SBIR/STTR Annual Reports page on SBIR.gov.

SHARPhub Training

ABC of SBIR/STTR Funding

Find out whether your research is a candidate for SBIR/STTR federal R&D funding and learn SBIR/STTR program basics, including program purpose, eligibility, and sources of funding. This presentation will provide ample information to help you determine if you should seriously pursue proposal development and tools to help begin the process.

June 9

8:30 am to 10:00 am CST

Identifying SBIR/STTR funding opportunities and

developing the Aims page for your project

Are you considering applying for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs? Are you planning to reach out to SBIR/STTR program managers to gauge interest in your project? This is the right training for you.

June 14

11:00 am to 12:30 pm CST

SBIR/STTR Proposal Prep for NIH

Discover the differences between SBIR and STTR, review how to navigate the NIH’s SBIR website to research awarded projects, learn how to prepare an SBIR proposal,

and find out how to avoid common pitfalls.

June 21

8:30 am to 1:00 pm CST

Entrepreneur Workshop Series: Licensing and Partnering agreements

Join the next session in this workshop series, hosted by NIA OSBR and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Small Business Program. The workshop includes breakout rooms on startup and university license agreements, partnerships

and collaboration agreements and negotiation tips.

June 22

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm CST

Taking Human Health Innovation to a new level

Through SBIR/STTR grants

Learn how to use SBIR funding for new medical technologies, write successful grant applications and avoid the most common mistakes in writing a human health SBIR/STTR grant application.

June 25

11:45 am to 1:00 pm CST

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About SHARPhub — an initiative of BBCetc

SHARPhub is the result of a 2018 FastTrack STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) grant awarded to BBC Entrepreneurial Training & Consulting (BBCetc) by the National Institutes of Health. A significant part of SHARPhub’s focus is helping startups develop competitive SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) and STTR grant applications to provide seed capital to fund Research and Development at startup companies.