NEW YORK – New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said this week that the state has selected research groups at Rover Diagnostics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Columbia University, and Niagara University as the third round of awardees for the New York State Biodefense Commercialization Fund.
The four awardees will be granted combined funding of more than $3 million, upon approval by the Empire State Development board of directors, to help develop and commercialize their diagnostic, surveillance, and therapeutic tools for infectious disease threats.
"To protect the health of New Yorkers and future generations, we are ensuring New York state is a leader in cutting edge infectious disease discovery," Hochul said in a statement. "These awards will continue to attract significant jobs and investments so we can continue building the strongest life science ecosystem in the nation."
As part of the award, New York City-based Rover Diagnostics will receive $1.8 million to develop a real-time nucleic acid amplification test platform for rapid diagnostic development, response, and surveillance.
Mount Sinai professor Gang Fang's lab will be granted $498,365 to further demonstrate the scalability and robustness of their antibiotic resistance surveillance assay.
Ian Lipkin's team at Columbia will receive $500,000 to develop CapSeq, a sensitive tool for rapid diagnosis of infectious disease and detection of antimicrobial resistance elements that combines two diagnostic assays, VirCapSeq-VERT and BacCapSeq.
Lastly, Niagara University’s Mary McCourt and her team will be awarded $261,488 to develop general antiviral therapeutics using cholestosome technology and demonstrate that cholestosome-encapsulated zinc has the ability to positively impact patient outcomes in response to pathogen infections and increase preparedness for future viral outbreaks or pandemics.
Currently on its third round of applications, the Biodefense Commercialization Fund has awarded 11 startups and 16 academic institutions in New York state since its inception in September 2021. The fund is guided by an executive committee that includes representatives from the New York State Department of Health, Columbia University, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and two venture funds, according to Hochul's office.
Startups developing diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, and other innovations to prevent, treat, or mitigate serious infectious disease threats were invited to apply for grants of up to $4 million. Meanwhile, New York's academic research institutions can apply for grants of up to $500,000 to help advance their intellectual property in life sciences, the governor’s office said.