Four researchers to receive bioscience grants

University of Colorado Boulder researchers who are developing next-generation vaccines, drugs to protect against cardiac diseases and other research have been selected to receive grants from the Colorado Bioscience Discovery Evaluation Grant Program.

The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade established the grant program in 2007. The four CU research projects that have received or will soon receive funding in the 2011-12 round are:

Christopher Bowman, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, CU-Boulder, for inexpensive, highly efficient synthetic nucleic acids for use in nanoassembly, biodetection and other biofunctional applications.

Robert Garcea, BioFrontiers Institute, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, CU-Boulder, for a next-generation vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV).

Leslie Leinwand, BioFrontiers Institute, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, CU-Boulder, for novel drugs to offer protection from cardiac disease.

Hang (Hubert) Yin, BioFrontiers Institute, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, CU-Boulder, for more sensitive biomarkers for metastatic cancers and other diseases in body fluids.

"The BDEG program provides a powerful catalyst to get these ideas out of their academic institutions and into the marketplace," said professor Tom Cech, director of CU's BioFrontiers Institute. The grants include "proof-of-concept" grants to move promising biotechnologies closer to market readiness and early stage matching "seed" grants to enable the development and commercial validation of technologies that are licensed from Colorado research institutions by Colorado based start-up companies.