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July

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced the opportunity for SBIR Phase II awardees to apply for this year's SBIR Commercialization Assistance Program (CAP). The invitation that was placed in the NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts is available at http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-081.html and a detailed program description at http://www.larta.org/nihcap/NIHCAP-ProgramDescription.pdf.

The program is in its third year and is designed to help SBIR awardees transition their SBIR-developed products into the marketplace.

Applications are due July 31, 2006.

To entice and encourage you to investigate this opportunity a bit further, here are samples of what previous participants have said about the program:

• "There is no question that we have a better understanding of how to approach the market and how to present our product to potential partners as a result of our participation in the CAP."

• "The program has had a positive impact in that it helped us establish a business plan and allowed us to receive feedback on our product and our positioning with respect to intellectual property and investor interests."

• "The program gave me enough exposure to the business way of thinking and an understanding of what needs to be in a presentation so that I am now acting more like a CEO than a scientist."

• "Although we were very comfortable with our technology and overall potential market, we had been struggling with how best to penetrate the market and what strategies would work best, what potential problems to avoid. Our advisor did an excellent job of guiding us just enough to point us in the right direction."

• "CAP made it possible for me to visualize the road to commercialization and start traveling it. I would not have made this change without the CAP program."

• "Going through the NIH-CAP process was a key element in our strategic planning. It enabled us to detail how we could further push our science out into consumer health markets, and how we could raise money to make that happen."

• "The program forced me to focus on the strategy and tactics, rather than technology innovation, incremental product improvements and the next unit sale."

General inquiries about the CAP may be addressed to:

Ms. Ketaki Sood
Larta Institute
714 West Olympic Blvd., Ste. 750
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Telephone: (213) 765-4824
Email: ksood@larta.org

Or

Ms. Kay Etzler
NIH SBIR/STTR Program
Office of Extramural Programs
National Institutes of Health
6705 Rockledge Drive, Suite 360
Bethesda, MD 20892
Telephone: (301) 435-2713
FAX: (301) 480-0146
Email: sbir@od.nih.gov

Edward C. Nagy 1949-2006

The NIBIB mourns the passing of Edward C. Nagy, Executive Director of the Academy of Radiology Research. He died suddenly at his home in Clifton, VA, on Saturday, July 29.

Ed received a B.A. from Holy Cross College in 1971 and an M.A. from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1977. His career began on Capitol Hill as Press Secretary and Legislative Assistant to Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA). Later he spent 10 years as Chief of Staff to Representative Tim Valentine (D-NC). Since 1995, Ed served as the Executive Director of the Academy of Radiology Research (AcadRad). During his tenure at AcadRad, he was instrumental in the enactment of legislation to create the NIBIB and was a tireless, uncommonly effective advocate for radiology research. To honor Ed and his commitment to biomedical research, the NIBIB will re-name its awards for new investigators to the "Edward C. Nagy New Investigator Award."

Ed was a dedicated colleague, but more importantly, he was our dear friend and will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

August

The National Institutes of Health [National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB); National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI); National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS); National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD); National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD); and National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)], the National Institute of Standards and Technology [Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory (CSTL) and Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory (MSEL)], and the National Science Foundation [Division of Bioengineering and Environmental Systems (BES)], have issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to solicit design- or hypothesis-driven research applications to promote the development of innovative technologies, tools, methods, and devices that will enable tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The overall goal is to engineer functional tissues in vitro for implantation in vivo or to foster tissue regeneration directly in vivo, with the purpose of replacing, repairing, preserving, or enhancing organ function lost due to disease, injury, or aging, or for use as 3-dimensional (3D) tissue model systems for drug development. The intent of this FOA is to encourage applications whose primary focus is on developing enabling technologies for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, with the ultimate goal of improving human quality of life. This may include reproductive as well as somatic tissues. While full validation of new technologies may depend upon demonstration of effectiveness toward a specific medical challenge, the NIBIB and NSF preferences will be given to approaches with general utility across a wide spectrum of applications. The NHLBI, NIAMS, NICHD, NIDCD, NIDCR, and NIST interests are given under the Research Objectives. The funding agencies particularly encourage investigators from the engineering, physical, and computational sciences to collaborate with those in the life sciences or vice versa to submit an application to this FOA. Specific scientific interests for this FOA include the following research areas:

• Predictive computational models for engineering functional 3D tissues.
• 3D fabrication technologies for tissue engineering.
• Novel bioreactors to precisely control the chemical and mechanical environment for functional 3D tissue growth or to rapidly expand functional stem cells and robust evaluation methods to determine environmental requirements.
• Quantitative, non-invasive tools to monitor structure, composition, and function of engineered tissues in real time.
• Technologies for manufacturing of tissue engineered products including preservation, sterilization, packaging, and transport, and methods for quantitatively evaluating cell and tissue health and phenotypic stability throughout the process.

The full program announcement is available at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-06-504.html.

Dr. Yihua (Bruce) Yu is an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemisty at the University of Utah. His research involves peptide engineering with an emphasis on peptide-based drug delivery vehicles and biomaterials for biomedical applications.

The Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PRECASE) is the nation's higest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. Fifty-six researchers were honored on July 26, 2006, in a White House ceremony presided over by John H. Marburger III, Science Advisor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

September

The NIBIB will hold a regional Grantsmanship Seminar on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at the University of Houston Hilton in Houston, Texas. This event will be hosted by the University of Houston and The Methodist Hospital Research Institute.

The Grantsmanship Seminar is intended to provide an overview of NIBIB funding opportunities and the NIH application, review, and grant-making processes and policies. We invite faculty, researchers, students, and others interested in research opportunities in bioengineering, biomedical imaging, and research training opportunities at the NIH to attend.

The one-day program includes presentations by Institute staff on overviews of the NIBIB and the NIH, NIBIB research and training programs and opportunities, the NIH peer review process, and a mock review.

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