News

03/21/2024

Innovation board promises $100,000 grant for rural regions

Rural Southwest and Southside Virginia are in line for a new six-figure grant for entrepreneurship, the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation has announced. The innovation partnership, which held its board meeting Wednesday at the New College Institute in Martinsville, gave word at a Tuesday night dinner that it will commit $100,000. That’s the latest grant in

03/11/2024

Tagatose Becomes First Sweetener and Ingredient to Earn NutraStrong™ Prebiotic Verified Certification

Tagatose, a monosaccharide that has gained popularity for its ability to meet calorie-reduction targets without compromising taste, texture or function, is now the first sweetener to attain the NutraStrong™ Prebiotic Verified certification. Bonumose, Inc., a producer of tagatose, and ASR Group, its distributor, are proud to announce that tagatose is also the first ingredient to earn

03/11/2024

U.S. Army funds development of a blood test for PTSD

James Grinias, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the College of Science & Mathematics, at Rowan University has received $356,993 in Small Business Technology Transfer funding from the U.S. Army to develop a portable system for detecting evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within the blood of service members. Grinias

03/07/2024

VCU’s new Startup Accelerator will propel university research that has market potential

After years of supporting startups that license inventions created by university researchers, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation has launched its first formal Startup Accelerator program. “Our accelerator will fast-track our VCU-borne companies, giving them more personalized coaching and advisory services from our lineup of entrepreneur experts-in-residence,” said P. Srirama Rao,

03/07/2024

With NIH grant, Springbok Analytics takes on rotator cuff injuries

Springbok Analytics, a Charlottesville medical data company that creates 3D models from X-rays and MRIs, has received a $1.7 million government grant to develop a commercially viable algorithm that can detect and diagnose shoulder injuriesThe grant, announced Tuesday, comes from the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research grant program. It follows a $51,409 grant

03/06/2024

Mason receives $4.85 million gift to increase intimate partner violence detection and reporting

The funding will help develop new tools in imaging technology using a light source that is five times better than white light for identifying and visualizing bruising across all skin tones for use by forensic nurses, social service providers, and law enforcement. “This single largest gift to support research in the College of Public Health’s

03/06/2024

Alliance for Building Better Medicine Earns NSF Engines Development Award by the U.S. National Science Foundation

The U.S. National Science Foundation has announced that the public and private sector stakeholders in the Richmond-Petersburg region, working together as the Alliance for Building Better Medicine, will receive one of the first-ever NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) Development Awards including $1M in funding. NSF Engines represent one of the single largest broad investments

03/05/2024

Quoin Pharmaceuticals Announces Pricing of $6.5 Million Public Offering

Quoin Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (NASDAQ: QNRX) (the “Company” or “Quoin”), a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on rare and orphan diseases, announced the pricing of its “reasonable best efforts” public offering of 4,062,500 ordinary shares represented by 4,062,500 American Depositary Shares (or pre-funded warrants in lieu thereof), Series D warrants to purchase an aggregate of up to

03/04/2024

VIPC’s Virginia Venture Partners Invests in The Tiny Cargo Company to Scale and Protect Novel Drug Delivery Platform

The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) today announced that Virginia Venture Partners (VVP), its equity investment program, has invested in The Tiny Cargo Company. The Roanoke, Va.-based spinout from Virginia Tech is developing a patent-pending drug delivery platform that utilizes milk-derived exosomes and is positioned to be the B2B global leader in supply and application

03/01/2024

ivWatch Partners with National Infusion Center Association (NICA)

ivWatch, LLC, the IV safety company, today announced that it has partnered with the National Infusion Center Association (NICA), an independent, nonprofit trade association and accrediting body dedicated to representing ambulatory outpatient care settings where provider-administered biologics and specialty medications are prepared and administered. In alignment, ivWatch and NICA are partnering with an emphasis on

02/29/2024

VCU Health leads clinical trial for new treatment to help people with bowel control problems

A research team at VCU Health is leading a clinical trial to assess a novel treatment for fecal incontinence or sudden loss of control over bowel movements. The therapy involves implanting a bioengineered sphincter derived from the patient’s native cells to help them regain control of their bowels. The implantation surgery for the clinical trial

02/22/2024

Don’t Miss These Spring Talent Events

We’ve compiled a calendar of events happening this spring aimed at connecting talented people in the biosciences. Feb. 27: Internship Support for Employers: V-TOP Staffing Agency + Matching Funds | Virtual Employers can tune in to learn more internship support through V-TOP’s partnership with iQuasar, the statewide staffing agency and how to utilize their matching funds

02/21/2024

SRI selected as spoke for both ARPA-H Customer Experience Hub and Investor Catalyst Hub

SRI has been selected by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to serve as a spoke within the Customer Experience Hub (CX Hub) and the Investor Catalyst Hub (IC Hub), as part of ARPANET-H, a nationwide health innovation network launched in September 2023. “Hundreds of organizations have been selected to join each network.

02/21/2024

ReAlta Life Sciences Announces Dosing of First Patient in Phase 2 Trial of RLS-0071 for Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

ReAlta Life Sciences, Inc. (“ReAlta” or the “Company”), a mid-stage clinical biotech company dedicated to saving lives by rebalancing the inflammatory response to address life-threatening diseases, announced enrollment of the first patient in a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of RLS-0071, an investigational new drug based on ReAlta’s novel EPICC peptide

02/19/2024

Artificially capping drug prices will only stifle access, innovation

Alleviating high health care costs remains a top priority for Virginia lawmakers this legislative session. While addressing medication affordability and access concerns should remain a priority for everyone, any policy solution to do so must strike a balance between addressing affordability, preserving patient access to critical treatments and protecting Virginia’s leading life sciences innovation ecosystem.

02/14/2024

Call for Judges for Science Fair and BioGENEius Challenge

Each year, Virginia Bio recruits volunteer judges from the membership to attend the Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair to select the top three winners in the field of biosciences. The time commitment is limited to a pre-event online review of the submissions to select the finalists and then a few hours onsite at the

02/12/2024

CEL-SCI Announces Pricing of $7.75 Million Public Offering of Common Stock

CEL-SCI Corporation (“CEL-SCI” or the “Company”) (NYSE American: CVM), a Phase 3 cancer immunotherapy company, today announced the pricing of an offering of 3,875,000 shares of its common stock at an offering price of $2.00 per share, for gross proceeds of $7.75 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and offering expenses. All of the shares of

02/08/2024

Quoin Pharmaceuticals Files U.S. and International Patent Applications for Novel Netherton Syndrome Combination Product

Quoin Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (NASDAQ: QNRX) (the “Company” or “Quoin”), a specialty pharmaceutical company exclusively focused on the development and commercialization of innovative therapies that treat rare and orphan diseases, today announced it has filed U.S. and International patent applications for a novel combination product as a potential treatment of Netherton Syndrome. This new product combines

02/05/2024

Serpin Pharma Secures $900,000 BIRD Foundation Grant for Clinical Trial in AMI Treatment

Serpin Pharma, a pioneering clinical-stage pharmaceutical company headquartered in Virginia, has been awarded a competitive $900,000 grant by the Bi-national Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation. The BIRD Foundation promotes collaborations between U.S. and Israeli companies in various technological sectors for joint product development This grant is designated for the advancement of a randomized controlled

01/30/2024

Virginia Bio-Connect – The Success of Virginia’s First Statewide Collaborative Life Sciences Initiative

The end of 2023 marked the completion of Virginia’s first statewide life sciences initiative, Virginia Bio-Connect, which started in April 2021. This comprehensive industry cluster strengthening project, supported by Virginia Growth and Opportunity Foundation funding and led by the Virginia Biotechnology Association, engaged thousands of life sciences professionals and hundreds of organizations and companies within

01/30/2024

Cerillo® Announces Partnership with Opentrons to Deliver Automated Microbiome Research Solutions

Cerillo®, a technology company developing advanced research platforms for microbiome studies, today announced a partnership with Opentrons Labworks, Inc., a leading force in lab automation. The collaboration not only grants researchers access to entry-level lab automation but also extends the reach of Cerillo’s comprehensive suite of microbiome research tools, fostering standardization and efficiency in laboratory

01/24/2024

Virginia Companies Expand into Global Markets through Commonwealth’s Trade Accelerator Program

Governor Glenn Youngkin today announced that 16 companies across the Commonwealth have graduated from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s (VEDP) Virginia Leaders in Export Trade (VALET) program and 13 companies have joined the two-year program. VALET, which now has 391 graduated companies, assists Virginia exporters that have firmly established domestic operations and are committed to

01/18/2024

Children’s National Novel AI platform matches cardiologists in detecting rheumatic heart disease

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to detect rheumatic heart disease (RHD) with the same accuracy as a cardiologist, according to new research demonstrating how sophisticated deep learning technology can be applied to this disease of inequity. The work could prevent hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths around the world annually. Developed at Children’s National

01/18/2024

Adial Announces Appointment of Tony Goodman as Chief Operating Officer

Adial Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADIL; ADILW) (“Adial” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for the treatment and prevention of addiction and related disorders, today announced the appointment of Tony Goodman as Chief Operating Officer. A highly accomplished pharmaceutical industry executive and member of Adial’s Board of Directors since 2017, Mr.