Maryland Technology Development Corp. has doled out $6.6 million in funding awards to companies and researchers working on stem cell products and medical therapies.
The funds were awarded to 24 separate projects through the state’s Stem Cell Research Fund. The fund has a budget of $8.2 million in the 2019 fiscal year. This is the second round of stem cell funding awarded this year.
Maryland’s Stem Cell Research Fund was established by the governor and lawmakers through legislation passed in 2006. The fund, administered through state-backed tech organization TEDCO, is intended to help accelerate research and commercialization of stem cell therapies that could be beneficial to patients.
To date, more than $155 million has been committed to over 460 research projects in the state through the fund. All fund-sponsored projects must be conducted in Maryland and involve human stem cells.
Here are the projects receiving funding this round:
- Three “commercialization” awards, totaling $899,990, are going to RoosterBio Inc. and Theradaptive Inc., both based in Frederick and Baltimore’s Domicell Inc. These awards assist with the creation of startup companies, or support new stem cell-related technologies developed by Maryland companies.
- Fourteen “discovery” awards, totaling $4,812,685, are going to Mohamed Farah, Dr. David Hackam, Dr. Aaron James, Dr. Miroslaw Janowski, Chulan Kwon, Xiaobo Mao, Dr. Nicholas Maragakis and Jamie Spangler, all from Johns Hopkins University; as well as to Seth Ament, Ola Awad, Dr. Charles Hong and Marta Lipinski from University of Maryland, Baltimore; Erin Lavik from University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and Kimberly Stroke from University of Maryland, College Park. These awards are intended to fund new and innovative research in the stem cell field.
- Seven post-doctoral fellowship awards, totaling $910,000, will support candidates who wish to conduct stem cell research in academia or industry in Maryland. Each fellowship will be worth up to $65,000 per year, for up to two years. The fellowships will go to Chengyan Chu, Dong Won (Thomas) Kim, Senquan Liu, Kathryn Moss, Rahel Schnellmann, Arens Taga and Renjun Zhu, all from Johns Hopkins University.
Source: TEDCO awards $6.6M in stem cell funding to 24 researchers, startups – Baltimore Business Journal
