Eight projects tapped for inaugural Spectrum grant program

Eight pilot projects that could result in novel medical technologies, pharmaceuticals or diagnostic products have received a total of $250,000 through Stanford’s Spectrum grant program.

The funding for the pilot studies comes from Stanford’s Clinical and Translational Science Award, which is designed to help select academic medical centers speed up the process of turning lab discoveries into therapies and treatments. Spectrum is the organization that administers Stanford’s CTSA.

Ari Chaney, MBA, Spectrum’s program manager in the area of medical technology development, said he was pleased with the inaugural year for the pilot funding. There was a total of 82 proposals from graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty from across the university.

”We cast a wide net for proposals to address underserved conditions and markets, and were happy with the response,” Chaney said. The eight projects and investigator teams receiving funds include:

• Clearance knife: An endoscopic knife to remove Barrett’s high-grade dysplasia—Vijaykumar Rajasekhar, Tonya Kaltenbach, Roy Soetikno and Lorenzo Deveza.
• Stereotactic radiotherapy for renal sympathetic ablation—Robert Chin and Matt Wheeler.
• A low-cost portable electron paramagnetic resonance oximetry system for clinical applications—Thomas Lee and Periannan Kuppusamy.
• Fast miRNA purification, PCR-free profiling and quantification on a benchtop system using isotachophoresis and molecular beacons for monitoring cancer progress—Juan Santiago and Calvin Kuo.
• Development of a prototype microfluidic detector enabling newborn screening for severe combined immunodeficiency—Manish Butte.
• Itraconazole clinical study to treat basal cell carcinoma and basal cell nevus syndrome—Jean Tang.
• Study of early changes in serum ammonia level to prevent encephalopathy in chemotherapy patients—Gil Chu.
• Wnt3a liposomes for burn healing—Nick Evans