Dr. Steven WrennCongratulations to Dr. Steven Wrenn on the award of a second tranche of funding in the second year of his project, Electrophysiologically-Activated Intravenous Ultrasound Contrast Agent for Imaging the Heart.
Project Team: Steven Wrenn, PhD (Chemical and Biological Engineering), Andrew Kohut, MD (Division of Cardiology), Aaron Fafarman, PhD (Chemical and Biological Engineering), Brett Angel, MD (Division of Cardiology)
The mission of the Coulter-Drexel Translational Research Partnership is to partner with Drexel University faculty to develop products that will save, extend, and improve the lives of patients suffering from any disease or condition. Since inception of the program in 2005 nearly 50 projects have received a total of $7.6 million in support.
The 6-month proposal process focusses on understanding of the market need and commercial viability of the project, resulting in research aims that will derisk a project toward commercial success. In addition, the projects selected receive enhanced technology transfer services from Drexel’s Office of Technology Commercialization. The Coulter program also partners with faculty in the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship for a series of commercialization seminars during which applicants learn about topics including market analysis, company formation, and intellectual property. Teams progress through two rounds of oral presentations, responding to detailed feedback at each step in the proposal development process.
Projects were selected based on the following criteria.
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Significant unmet or underserved clinical need
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Scientific merit, and substantial improvement over current solutions or standard clinical practice
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Strength and nature of the clinical collaboration
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Reasonable and achievable milestones
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Intellectual property position
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High probability of attracting follow-on funding, within 2-3 years of the Coulter award