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The University of Massachusetts Amherst has announced that seven campus research teams have been named recipients of the annual Translational Seed Awards. These translational awards advance applied R&D efforts from UMass-based faculty research groups toward the development of spin-out/startup companies and the out-licensing of UMass intellectual property. The funded projects are: 

• Prabhani Atukorale, assistant professor of biomedical engineering; Super Vax: Cancer vaccinations with “super adjuvant” nanoparticles
• Caitlyn Butler, professor of civil and environmental engineering; Phos-For-Us: A novel platform to remove excess phosphorus from wastewater
• Lili He, professor of food science; Hertz Innovative Tech: Detecting bacteria on surfaces using a smartphone microscope
• Jungwoo Lee, associate professor of chemical engineering; MetaBone: Human bone organoids to screen for therapeutics
• Lynne McLandsborough, professor of food science; Dry Food Solutions: Oil Sanitizer for “dry cleaning” food preparation plants
• Yubing Sun, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering; Above Nerves: 3D human brain models for drug discovery and toxicology
• Thai Thayumanavan, professor of chemistry and biomedical engineering; Polytacs: “Protein scissors” to treat lung cancer

For 2024, seven projects were selected from a highly competitive group of applicants. Awarded teams will receive seed funding of between $50,000 and $100,000 each to achieve translational milestones with the goal of moving UMass Amherst research, know-how, and scholarly and creative works toward impact through startup ventures, out-licensing of patented or copyrighted work, scalable engagement with external partner organizations, or other vehicles. Translational Seed Awards are funded by the Manning/IALS Innovation Program and the U.S. NSF Accelerating Research Translation Program (#2331351). 

Recipients of previous awards have gone on to secure over $8 million in external grants and investment for ongoing development in UMass Amherst labs and their resulting startup companies. 

“We are grateful to the Manning Family Foundation for its continuing support and their most recent vote of confidence, a gift to support ongoing operations. Their gifts have been instrumental to startup creation and to the campus’s capacity for translational research,” noted Peter Reinhart, founding director of the Institute for Applied Life Sciences.

Alumnus Paul Manning and his wife, Diane, established the Manning Innovation Program through their family foundation in 2018. Their visionary gifts have provided for multiple years of support, advancing a robust and sustainable commercialization pipeline of applied and translational research projects from UMass Amherst.  

Paul Manning, a 1977 graduate of UMass Amherst, is an entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in the health care industry, who most recently founded PBM Capital Group in 2010. Manning was also the anchor investor in Maroon Venture Partners, the first venture-capital fund at UMass Amherst. 

IALS was established in 2014, supported by a total investment of more than $150 million from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and the campus.