CBSA Commends the State of Colorado For Granting $3.135 Million To Advance Bioscience Research from Bench to Marketplace

Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) commends the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) for awarding $3.135 Million in Commercialization Infrastructure grants under the Bioscience Discovery Evaluation Grant Program (BDEGP) last week. April Giles, CBSA President and CEO, says "CBSA appreciates the OEDIT for its ongoing commitment to the state’s bioscience industry through the Bioscience Discovery Evaluation Grant Program, which was created in 2006 by the Colorado General Assembly. These key commercialization infrastructure grants funded last week are critical to advancing bioscience research from the bench into the marketplace."

Commercial Infrastructure grantees announced by the OEDIT include:

* The Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and Diagnostic Development (CID4): $1,350,000 
CID4 is managing life science discoveries from Colorado research institutions and Colorado start-ups and early-stage businesses with the goal of creating bioscience jobs in Colorado. Grant funds support operations and the development and management of life-science discoveries. The CID4 has seven early-stage companies under its guidance supporting their operational development and attracting additional investment to meet their needs. Visit: http://cid4.com

* Colorado Center for Drug Discovery (C2D2): $750,000 
Based at Colorado State University, C2D2 is a resource to faculty at Colorado research universities, bringing biology and chemistry faculty together to use chemical libraries, computational resources, bioinformatics, cheminformatics, database support, virtual high throughput screening, and Computer Aided Drug Design to pharmacologically validate drug candidates with patent-protected chemical matter and innovative therapeutics for unmet medical needs. C2D2 supports several inter-institutional projects with funding and resources. Further, C2D2 offers compounds to investigators through its screening library and medicinal chemistry services that are critical in the drug discovery process. Visit: http://c2d2.org

* The Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Colorado: $410,248 
The University of Colorado Skagg's School of Pharmacy at Anschutz developed an HTS/HCS (high throughput/content screening) Core Facility for drug discovery. This resource has been utilized by more than 100 researchers and companies advancing the science and helping to secure intellectual property. http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/pharmacy/Pages/SchoolofPharmacy.aspx

* The BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado: $624,752
The BioFrontiers Institute is a state-of-the art research and education facility that links the basic sciences, engineering, clinical practice, and industry at the University of Colorado's Boulder campus to support breakthrough developments in areas such as engineering human tissues, RNA enzyme and aptamer-based pharmaceutical, biorefining, and genetics. Grant funds support equipment, resources and personnel costs to develop the core facilities of the institute. With grant support, the institute has developed one of the largest repositories of shRNAs in the world at the Functional Genomics Facility. Colorado companies partner with the institute to improve their products. Ventria, a Fort Collins based pharma-biologics company, has used mass spectrometry services to detect oxidation in recombinant protein samples manufactures for human terapeutics. OPX Biotechnologies based in Boulder utilizes mass spectrometry to detect levels of intracellular metabolytes in biofuel molecule samples. Longmont-based Avery Brewing Co. has partnered with the Next-Generation DNA Sequencing Facility to develop an early-detection test for yeast cross-contamination to reduce waste and inefficiencies in their production process. Visit: http://biofrontiers.colorado.edu

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