Award & Investment Overview
Indiana University’s Innovation and Commercialization Office has awarded three researchers with Gap Fund grants totaling $69,000 to support early-stage commercialization activities. The awards — including one at $19,000 from the core Gap Fund and two at $25,000 each from the Lawrence Blatt Endowed Fund for Translational Research — aim to help promising innovations advance from laboratory insights toward market validation and external partnerships.
These targeted investments support validation and feasibility work that strengthens the foundation of each project, making them more attractive for follow-on funding, licensing or industry collaboration.
Approach & Ecosystem Context
The Gap Fund and endowed translational awards reflect IU’s structured approach to closing the research-to-market gap, providing capital at a stage where data generation, prototype refinement, and early use-case definition can materially de-risk technologies. By funding multiple projects simultaneously, IU supports a broader portfolio of translational research moving toward real-world impact.
The Innovation and Commercialization Office also provides mentorship, commercialization planning and ecosystem connections to position awardees for external investment or commercialization partnerships.
Innovation & Technology
This funding round supports three distinct technologies with applications in respiratory therapeutics, antibacterial resistance mitigation, and assistive hearing solutions — all addressing significant unmet needs in health and human performance.
Each project is rooted in academic discovery and is advancing toward demonstrable proof-of-concept data or feasibility insights critical for translating research into products or partnerships.
Potential Market Applications (Project-Level Detail)
• Respiratory therapeutics for primary ciliary dyskinesia, Professor Ben Gaston (IU School of Medicine): Using a treatment originally developed for asthma to reduce airway inflammation and infections in patients with a rare respiratory disorder, with potential clinical application in specialty care.
• Antibacterial resistance inhibitors, Assistant Professor Cristina Landeta (College of Arts and Sciences): Optimizing small molecule inhibitors that block bacterial resistance mechanisms, offering a potential alternative strategy to enhance antibiotic effectiveness.
• Affordable assistive hearing device and companion app, Assistant Professor Dana Urbanski (College of Arts and Sciences): Prototyping a low-cost hearing aid solution tailored for older adults with dementia, with feasibility testing in nursing home settings to inform design and usability improvements.
Read the Full Story:
https://today.iu.edu/live/news/48550-3-iu-researchers-awarded-funding-to-commercialize
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Related Topics:
university gap fund programs, technology commercialization, health innovation, translational research, antibiotic resistance, assistive technologies
