VIPC Awards Commonwealth Commercialization Fund Grant to ​​UVA for New Vaccine Platform for Infectious Diseases

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES, August 8, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) today announced that the University of Virginia (UVA) has been awarded a Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) grant for $75,000 in support of a commercialization project being conducted by Dr. Steven Zeichner. VIPC’s CCF programs have distributed more than $51 million to Virginia-based startups, entrepreneurs and university-based inventors since 2012.

UVA is a public research university based in Charlottesville, Va. Dr. Zeichner is Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology at the UVA School of Medicine. This CCF grant will assist the development of a new, rapid, ultra-low-cost vaccine platform that can yield new testable vaccines for many infectious diseases in three weeks that cost less than one dollar per dose. A proof-of-concept for initial commercial use will focus on the development of a new vaccine against the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus.

“We are thrilled to receive a CCF grant from VIPC,” said Dr. Zeichner. “This generous funding from CCF further supports the work that I am doing with Professor XJ Meng, University Distinguished Professor of Molecular Virology at Virginia Tech, and will help us obtain critical preliminary data. This has many implications for the future and provides an important example of the synergies that can result when scientists at Virginia’s great universities work together. In biomedicine, there is now an increasing emphasis on a concept called ‘One Health.’ The idea behind One Health is that the health of humans and animals, and the larger environment, cannot be viewed as isolated concerns, but really must all be considered together and that technologies, like vaccines, developed for humans can also benefit animals and vice versa. This is particularly true for infectious diseases, where infectious agents can be transmitted back and forth between animals and humans, and so developing vaccines to protect animals really can also help protect people.”

“We are pleased to award a CCF grant to support Dr. Zeichner’s research at UVA,” said Hina Mehta, VIPC’s Director for University Programs. “VIPC’s CCF higher education grant program plays an important role in getting funding to entrepreneurially-minded university researchers as they work to take innovations from lab to market. The work that Dr. Zeichner’s team is doing holds great promise for improving the lives of people, animals, and the agriculture industry in the Commonwealth and beyond.”

About the Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF)
VIPC’s Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) awards grant funding on a rolling basis to Virginia-based high growth startups and university-based innovators. The CCF Higher Education grant program seeks to fund high-potential Virginia-based academic research teams that are developing technologies with strong commercial potential. The grants support early technology and market validation efforts such as customer discovery, market research, business model validation, development of prototypes or a minimum viable product (MVP), customer pilots, intellectual property protection, team development, and more. For more information on funding opportunities and eligibility requirements, or to apply, visit the CCF pages at www.VirginiaIPC.org.

About Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
VIPC: Connecting innovators with opportunities. As the nonprofit operations arm of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA), VIPC is the commercialization and seed stage economic development driver in the Commonwealth that leads funding, infrastructure, and policy initiatives to support Virginia's innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, and market development strategies. VIPC collaborates with local, regional, state, and federal partners to support the expansion and diversification of Virginia’s economy.

Programs include: Virginia Venture Partners (VVP) | VVP Fund of Funds (SSBCI) | Virginia Founders Fund (VFF) |Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) | Petersburg Founders Fund (PFF) | Smart Communities | The Virginia Smart Community Testbed | The Virginia Unmanned Systems Center | Virginia Advanced Air Mobility Alliance (VAAMA) | The Public Safety Innovation Center |Entrepreneurial Ecosystems | Regional Innovation Fund (RIF) | Federal Funding Assistance Program (FFAP) for SBIR & STTR | University Partnerships | Startup Company Mentoring & Engagement. For more information, please visit www.VirginiaIPC.org. Follow VIPC on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Angela Costello, Vice President of Communications
Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
[email protected]
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