This summer, two Hopkins faculty members and two Hopkins startups will receive funding from the Maryland Innovation Initiative (“MII”) to commercialize promising technologies.
MII is a partnership between the state of Maryland and five of the state’s academic research institutions to promote the commercialization of research and is operated by TEDCO. The program fosters the transition of technologies having significant commercial potential from participating universities, including The Johns Hopkins University, to the commercial sector by funding technology validation, market assessment and the creation of start-up companies in Maryland.
Funding decisions are made every two months, and teams can apply for projects in the Technology Assessment phase or the Company Formation phase.
In this cycle, Dr. Peter Searson, Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering, and Dr. Harry Larman, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, have received Technology Assessment awards of $115,000 each. Searson is developing a high-efficiency sensor for cystic fibrosis monitoring that can diagnose electrolyte imbalance in real time.
Larman’s technology will address a critical unmet need for multiplexed 3 molecular analysis of the tumor microenvironment, which they expect will translate into improved implementation of precision immuno-oncology.
Sonoval LLC and Renalert LLC will both receive Company Formation awards of $150,000 each. Sonoval is developing a breakthrough anti-cancer biologic drug therapy for the treatment of a variety of T cell lymphomas and major solid tumors.
Renalert is developing the Renalert System to provide early detection of the onset of acute kidney injury through novel analysis of a patient’s urine output, blood pressure and oxygenation status.