The University of Washington is launching a new center intended to match biomedical discoveries and technologies with the resources needed to bring innovative products to the market and improve public health.
- The Washington Entrepreneurial Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (WE-REACH) has received a $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, according to the UW. The center will partner with the entrepreneurial community and local and national organizations to mentor and support biomedical entrepreneurs as well as provide project funding for four to six biomedical startups a year at up to $200,000 each.
- Projects will include innovative disease treatments, new drugs, diagnostics, genetic testing and health technologies. WE-REACH Executive Director Rodney Ho, a professor in the UW School of Pharmacy, said the center will support innovation steps not typically supported by research grants, such as human clinical trials or the development of and access to products.
- The new center will be located in the South Campus Center on the UW’s Seattle campus and at the Institute of Translational Health Sciences in UW Medicine South Lake Union, where Ho will formally launch the center on Friday. That event, at the ITHS quarterly all-hands meeting, takes place beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Orin Smith Auditorium at 850 Republican St.
