Industry

Researchers at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and Indivior hope the extended Recovery Study may also provide further information to health care systems and policy-makers on how successful treatment and long-term recovery can reduce the economic burden of opioid use disorder. The scope and duration of these assessments may also lead to important new insights into theoretical models of recovery and allow researchers, clinicians, and patients to more accurately characterize the process of recovery, identify factors that promote or hinder success, and develop new and personalized treatment strategies.

• News Release: Virginia Tech, Indivior announce new collaboration to study long-term recovery pathways in people with opioid use disorder
• News Release: Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute awarded a Virginia Catalyst grant to curtail opioid overdoses

Virginia Tech and AngioDynamics recently strengthened a licensing relationship recognizing the value of key Virginia Tech intellectual property in the field of irreversible electroporation (IRE) and its use in stimulating a cancer-fighting immune response. This specialized IRE technology has been developed in Dr. Rafael Davalos’ laboratory. 

Bruker is enabling scientists to make breakthrough discoveries and develop new applications that improve the quality of human life. Within their new lines of technologies, the new Bruker PET Insert Si 103 for the BioSpec® 9.4/20 ultra-high field MRI scanner and the Bruker PET/CT Si78 are nuclear molecular imaging systems for preclinical research. Bruker has partnered with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute to validate and develop technologies of the future using the new PET Insert Si 102 and the PET/CT Si78. Virginia Tech researchers hope to unlock discoveries related to diseases leading to high death rates and suffering including cardiovascular, neurological and oncological diseases.

CELLINK® provided a CELLCYTE X^TM live-cell imaging system through their university beta program. The unit will be placed in the newly renovated Artis Lab in the College of Biomedical Engineering (BEAM).

Ontera, a nanopore technology company in Santa Cruz, CA has partnered with Virginia Tech and agreed to fund sponsored research over the next fiscal year. Co-developments are also being discussed with the Nanomapper^TM and Nonocounter^TM assays. The VTC Innovation Fund also received an unanimous decision to invest in the west coast startup.

Veralox Therapeutics has partnered with Virginia Tech to initiate a sponsored research project. Project to include the establishment of metabolite profiles of mouse and human 12/15-LOX enzymes. New experimental designs are in the pipeline for calendar year 2021.

Carilion Clinic is a non-profit integrated healthcare organization that owns and operates seven hospitals in western Virginia. Carilion Clinic is a Level 1 Trauma Center that employs more than 13,000 people, including 700 physicians in more than 70 specialties. They provide care to 1.5 million residents across Virginia and West Virginia and are the largest employer in the Roanoke Valley.

The VTC Partnership: On January 3, 2007, Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger, then Carilion Clinic President and CEO Edward G. Murphy, and the governor of Virginia joined to announce the creation of a public-private partnership in the form of a new medical school and research institute, the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute. In 2019 the research institute was renamed to Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC. The partnership has infused more than $500 million into the local economy.

• News Release: Regional government forum reveals 'limitless potential' from Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic partnership

The Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and Virginia Tech are expanding research operations on the Children's National Research & Innovation Campus in Washington, D.C. The new laboratories in D.C., anticipated to open in 2021, will be home to a team of Virginia Tech scientists who will work alongside researchers and clinicians at Children's National and JLabs to develop new diagnostics and therapeutics to treat pediatric nervous system cancers. 

In March, 2019, the integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia (iTHRIV) was awarded a five-year grant of nearly $23 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance innovative ideas from the point of discovery to implementation in clinical practice and population health. iTHRIV includes the University of Virginia, Inova Health System, Virginia Tech, and Carilion Clinic as partners, with the Center for Open Science and UVA’s Licensing & Ventures Group as affiliates. The focus of iTHRIV is “using data to improve health” and leverages the data science expertise across the state.  

Virginia Tech licensed key IP to enable the launch of an aptly-named startup known as Tiny Cargo, in partnership with Dr. Robert Gourdie.  Dr. Gourdie’s research at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute seeks to use small highly-targeted packages to bring therapies to bear in individual cells.

• News Release: New Virginia Tech startup seeks to use nano-capsules derived from milk to deliver heart drug

Acomhal Research Inc. is a biotech startup founded by Dr. Samy Lamouille and Dr. Robert Gourdie. Acomhal Research is developing novel treatments targeting cancer cells that are resistant to therapy in order to prevent tumor recurrence and metastasis.

• News Release: Fralin Biomedical Research Institute biotech spin-off seeks potential breast cancer treatment

Virginia Tech enabled a new startup, BEAM Diagnostics, with a license to technology developed at the Fralin Biomedical Institute.  BEAM integrates cutting-edge research in Behavioral Economics with advanced technology to improve the lives of individuals suffering from alcohol addiction and other substance use problems.

• Read more about BEAM Diagnostics: Fralin Biomedical Research Institute spinoff company partnering with UVA Health to improve screening for opioid use disorder

Tissue engineer Jennifer Munson studies how fluid flows through human tissue in health and disease with an eye for using fluid flow to create better therapies for diseases such as the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma. She and her lab team launched Cairina to bring to the marketplace technology based on 10 years of research to help physicians predict where tumors are most likely to progress. 

• Read more about Cairina: Fralin Biomedical Research Institute spinoff Cairina Inc. translates science into improved cancer treatments