About-Manning/IALS Innovation Grants

Manning/IALS Innovation Grants

The Manning/IALS Seed Grants are part of the Manning/IALS Innovation Program. These translational grants are designed to advance applied R&D efforts from UMass-based faculty research groups through the development of spin-out/startup companies and the out-licensing of UMass intellectual property.

Alumnus Paul Manning and his wife, Diane, committed $1 million through their family foundation to establish the Manning Innovation Program. The gift provides three years of support in advancing a robust and sustainable commercialization pipeline of applied and translational research projects from UMass Amherst.

2022 Award Winners

Hasentech – Barbara Osborne and Lisa Minter, veterinary and animal sciences, College of Natural Sciences, A Novel Cell-Based Therapy for Graft-versus-Host Disease
ISight – Murugappan Muthukumar, polymer science and engineering, College of Natural Sciences, Curing and Preventing Cataracts and Presbyopia Without Surgery
Latde – Sloan Siegrist, microbiology, College of Natural Sciences, Rapid, Low-cost Diagnostic for Bloodborne Bacterial Infections
Marieb-IV – Karen Giuliano and Juan Jimenez, Elaine Marieb College of Nursing, mechanical and industrial engineering, College of Engineering, A Novel IV Pole to Improve the Safety of IV Medication Administration During Acute Care Hospitalization
NaturaFloc – Chul Park, civil and environmental engineering, College of Engineering, Low Cost, Enhanced Auto-Clarification in Wastewater Treatment
Optical Waters – Mariana Lopes, civil and environmental engineering, College of Engineering, Germicidal Optical Fibers to Prevent Disease-causing Biofilms in Endoscopes

2021 Award Winners

3Daughters: Carlos Gradil, Veterinary & Animal Sciences. A Women’s Healthcare startup developing a new ergonomic, pain-free, magnetic intrauterine device (IUD).
E2-PATH: Karen Dunphy/Joe Jerry, Veterinary & Animal Sciences. A diagnostic personalized medicine screening platform for selecting optimized breast cancer treatments.
OPG Wastewater Treatment: Chul Park, Civil & Environmental Engineering. Developing technology that enables aeration-free and energy efficient wastewater treatment.
Optical Waters: Mariana Lopes, Civil & Environmental Engineering. Germicidal Optical Fibers to Prevent Disease Causing Biofilms in Medical Devices
RNA4Therapeutics: Craig Martin, Chemistry. A novel manufacturing technology for the synthesis of high purity, low-cost, and large scale RNA manufacturing for therapeutic use.
Volvox Sciences: Ashish Kulkarni, Chemical Engineering. Developing a novel supramolecular nano-therapeutic (CSF-SNT) that can efficiently remove cancer tumor cells.

2020 Award Winners

Barbara Osborne, Veterinary and Animal Sciences, “Developing Novel Therapeutics to Treat Inflammatory Bowel Disease by a Bacterial Exopolysaccharides”.
David Julian McClements, Food Sciences, “Nutriply – a start-up developing probiotics in gummy form, making them easier to use”.
Sloan Siegrist, Microbiology, for “Developing a diagnostic for detecting blood-borne pathogenic bacteria (sepsis)”
Neil Forbes, Chemical Engineering, to “Demonstrate efficacy of a novel bacterial therapeutic - EBT-302 - for treatment of liver cancer” for start-up Ernest Pharmaceuticals.
Amir Arbabi, Electrical and Computer Engineering, to develop “Metasurface-enabled miniature LIDAR systems” for robotics, automatic guided vehicles, and integration into smartphones.
James Allan, Computer Sciences, to develop software tools aimed at “Explaining contradictory claims in the biomedical/healthcare domain”.

2019 Award Winners

Derek Lovley, microbiology, “Fabricating Protein Nanowires for Unique Sensing Capabilities”
Jeanne Hardy, chemistry, “Development of Potent Zika Virus Protease Inhibitors”
S. “Thai” Thayumanavan, chemistry, and Steve Faraci, “Pre-Clinical efficacy evaluation of liver-targeted, thyromimetic-encapsulated IntelliGels for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)”
Neil St. John Forbes, chemical engineering, “Bacterial delivery of therapeutic peptides to treat advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)"
Shelly Peyton, chemical engineering, “GelTech” to enable tissue-specific drug discovery and help eliminate potential false-positive hits from screening"
Madalina Fiterau Brostean, computer science, “4Thought: Unlocking Insights into Your Mental Health”