Antia’s scientific and academic leadership experience will strengthen Foundation’s goal of supporting innovative research in the state

SEATTLE, WA, USA, February 24, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Meher Antia, Ph.D., has joined Washington Research Foundation (WRF) as the director of grant programs following a highly competitive national search. She leads WRF's philanthropic activities, which have to date provided more than $112 million to support innovation at the state's top research institutions.

WRF’s goal is to accelerate the development of technologies with significant potential to improve the lives of people in Washington state and beyond. It does this by focusing its grants on local research that addresses important needs in healthcare and other critical areas. In addition to leading the review of all incoming grant proposals, Antia will provide strategic guidance by evaluating current programs and exploring new opportunities to ensure that WRF's grant-making remains efficiently aligned with its mission.

Antia joins WRF from the University of Washington (UW), where she was the assistant director of the Population Health Initiative. She led a number of projects, programs and partnerships to help implement the Initiative's vision of improving population health by leveraging the capabilities of UW and its collaborators. Prior to that, she developed programs at UW's Institute of Translational Health Sciences to accelerate early-stage biomedical research toward clinical impact.

Earlier in her career, Antia was responsible for a broad portfolio of funded biomedical research and translational projects in structural biology, microscopy, medical devices and drug development at the grant-making and advocacy foundation Wellcome Trust in the U.K. She has written for publications including Science and The Economist.

Antia earned a doctorate in bioengineering at UW, where she later completed postdoctoral research. She holds master's and undergraduate degrees in physics from Brown University and Clark University, respectively.

"All of us at WRF welcome Meher and are looking forward to our work together. Her varied academic, scientific and grant-making experience will inform and enhance WRF’s support of the life sciences at Washington research institutions," said Jeff Eby, WRF’s CFO.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to join WRF and work with this outstanding team to continue to grow the life science innovation ecosystem in the region,” said Antia.


About Washington Research Foundation:

Washington Research Foundation (WRF) supports research and scholarship in Washington state, with a focus on life sciences and enabling technologies.

WRF was founded in 1981 to assist universities and other nonprofit research institutions in Washington with the commercialization and licensing of their technologies. WRF is one of the foremost technology transfer and grant-making organizations in the nation, having earned more than $445 million in licensing revenue for the University of Washington and providing over $112 million in grants to the state's research institutions to date.

WRF Capital, the Foundation’s venture investment arm, has funded 108 local startups since 1994. Returns from these investments support grant-making activities at WRF.

For additional information, please visit www.wrfseattle.org.

Dale Wadman
Communications Manager
+1 206-336-5600
dale@wrfseattle.org
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