Eileen White (left), Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry with postdoctoral fellow Akshada Sawant at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Photo: Robert Essel
Rutgers is among five sites around the country designated as a National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (REACH) to speed up the commercialization of biomedical discoveries into viable diagnostics, devices, and therapeutics, improve patient care, and enhance health.
The new Rutgers Optimizes Innovation (ROI) Program, supported by $4 million over four years, will integrate the university’s strengths in the biomedical/bioengineering sciences and the solid expertise of its Research Commercialization team within the Office of Research and Economic Development to swiftly uncover, develop and seamlessly guide innovators through the commercialization process with financial and regulatory, IP protection, mentoring, management, and educational resources.
“This award creates a platform to springboard discoveries made at Rutgers to initiate new products to improve health and cure disease. This is in alignment with Governor Phil Murphy’s mission to be a state that promotes innovation,” said Reynold A. Panettieri, vice chancellor for translational medicine and science and director of Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science (RITMS).
The ROI Program brings together Rutgers-New Brunswick’s schools of engineering and arts and sciences, and the university’s medical schools, nursing programs, dental program, public health, and research institutes and centers with industries, incubators, funders and policymakers.
“Rutgers University has strong and robust science and clinical components. As such, it is imperative to provide a comprehensive, yet rapid, pathway to further advance biomedical innovations that contribute to the betterment of public health,” said Rutgers Cancer Institute director Steven K. Libutti, who is also vice chancellor of cancer programs, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, and principal investigator on the grant.
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The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, RITMS, and the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials (NJCBM) will work together to identify innovative health-related technologies for possible commercialization, especially precision medicine therapy.
Through educational programs embedded in the ROI Program, innovators at the university will have access to hands-on training in product development and experts, including previous inventors at Rutgers, who have commercialized products, understand how to build a business model, and can help faculty researchers take their discoveries to the next level.
Leaders from the Office of Research and Economic Development, Rutgers–New Brunswick and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences have committed a combined $760,000 in annual matching funds for the next four years to support the goals of the ROI program and enhance its sustainability efforts.
Each hub through the REACH program scouts for biomedical projects, which are reviewed by product development experts to determine if they are promising and should be funded.
The new REACH awardees join a national network of proof-of-concept centers that includes three REACH hubs funded in 2015 and three NIH Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) that were launched in 2013. In less than five years, the NCAI and REACH have supported 269 research and development projects, provided entrepreneurial training for more than 2,200 scientists, and facilitated formation of 59 spin-out small businesses to solve some of society’s most pressing health care needs.
The Rutgers Optimizes Innovation (ROI) Program is being supported by the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U01HL150852.