Zaas and Colleagues Receive Wallace H. Coulter Translational Partners Grant

Durham, N.C. (April 2009) — Aimee Zaas, MD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine; Geoff Ginsburg, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and of Pathology and Director of the Center for Genomic Medicine in the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy; Christopher Woods, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases; Tuan VoDinh, PhD, R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Chemistry, and Director of The Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics; and John Perfect, MD, Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Director, Duke University Mycology Research Unit (DUMRU), and Interim Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases have received the Wallace H. Coulter Translational Partners Grant. The Duke team’s grant is entitled, “Development of Point of Care Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases: Detection of Disease-Specific Whole Blood mRNA Using Molecular Sentinel Nanoprobe Technology.”

The grant was designed to support collaborative translational research projects that involve co-investigators in Biomedical Engineering and clinical departments in the School of Medicine. The goal of this program is to support collaborative research that addresses unmet clinical needs and leads to improvements in patient care and the development of innovative commercial products. Examples of desirable outcomes include inventions, patents, improved diagnosis and treatment of disease, follow-on funding (e.g. grants, SBIR, angel investment) commercial products, licenses, commercial partnerships and start-up companies.