Purdue researchers land Trask Innovation Fund grants
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Advances in agricultural biotechnology, cancer treatment and fiber optic communications are the goals of three Purdue University researchers who have each received cash awards from the Trask Innovation Fund.
The fund, administered by the Purdue Innovates Incubator, helps bridge the financial gap between the creation of an innovation and its adoption in the marketplace, a news release announcing the awards said. “Sometimes it takes years for an innovation to garner industry attention,” said Matt Dressler, funds manager for Purdue Innovates Incubator.
In total, the amount of the awards is nearly $125,000.
Stanton Gelvin, a biological sciences professor, received $50,000 for a pair of agricultural biotechnology initiatives. One is the development of an improved technology to detect genome-edited plants. The other technology is the means to transfer DNA to plants, say for improved drought resistance or other traits, without actually integrating the DNA into the plant’s genome.
Both applications are viewed as useful amid government regulations over genetically modified plants and public concerns about introducing new genetic material into the food supply.
“Transgene-free genome editing is one of the Holy Grails of modern plant biotechnology,” Gelvin said in the news release. “Our combined technologies will allow agricultural biotechnology companies to generate and identify transgene-free edited plants quickly and efficiently.”
Chen-Lung Hung, associate professor of physics and astronomy, received $24,984 for fiber optic communications. He is working on an improved circuit interface between fiber optics and microchips for applications involving lidar, biosensors, quantum communication and quantum communicating.
“Achieving an efficient, near-perfect optical fiber interface for nanophotonic circuits is extremely important for such demanding applications,” Hung said in the news release.
“We plan to build the ‘USB connector’ between the optical fiber internet and optical circuits.”
Sandro Matosevic, associate professor of industrial and molecular pharmaceutics, received $50,000 toward the development of a new immunotherapy treatment for glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma is a brain tumor for which chemotherapy surgery and most immunotherapies don’t work, the news release said.
Dressler of the Purdue Innovates Incubator said such funding awards help address challenges research face, such as technology obsolescence and frustration due to lack of progress, amid the “valley of death,” that gap between innovation and the marketplace.