CCF grants support startups, critical early technology testing and market validation efforts

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES, August 3, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) today announced that George Mason University (GMU) has been awarded a Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) grant for $75,000 in support of a commercialization project being conducted by Dr. Mariaelena Pierobon. VIPC’s CCF programs have distributed more than $51 million to Virginia-based startups, entrepreneurs and university-based inventors since 2012.

GMU is a public research university based in Fairfax, Va. Dr. Pierobon is Associate Professor in the School of Systems Biology at GMU. This CCF grant will be used to optimize and commercialize a new piece of software that robustly and automatically processes Reverse Phase Protein Array (RPPA) data. The software is user-friendly and allows the processing of large volumes of complex data in a simple two-step format.

“We are grateful to receive a CCF grant from VIPC,” said Dr. Pierobon. “The RPPA technology is an unparalleled platform for measuring protein expression and activation in biological samples. Robust and automated tools for image processing and analysis are key for generating accurate and reliable data for basic and translational studies and for its use as a clinical assay.”

“We are pleased to award a CCF grant to support Dr. Pierobon’s research at GMU,” said Hina Mehta, VIPC’s Director for University Programs. “VIPC’s CCF higher education grant program plays an important role in getting funding to entrepreneurially-minded university researchers as they work to take innovations from lab to market. We believe that Dr. Pierobon’s RPPA data analysis tool has the potential to be commercialized into a product that will accelerate biomedical research across many different fields.”

About the Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF)
VIPC’s Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) awards grant funding on a rolling basis to Virginia-based high growth startups and university-based innovators. The CCF Higher Education grant program seeks to fund high-potential Virginia-based academic research teams that are developing technologies with strong commercial potential. The grants support early technology and market validation efforts such as customer discovery, market research, business model validation, development of prototypes or a minimum viable product (MVP), customer pilots, intellectual property protection, team development, and more. For more information on funding opportunities and eligibility requirements, or to apply, visit the CCF pages at www.VirginiaIPC.org.

About Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
VIPC: Connecting innovators with opportunities. As the nonprofit operations arm of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA), VIPC is the commercialization and seed stage economic development driver in the Commonwealth that leads funding, infrastructure, and policy initiatives to support Virginia's innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, and market development strategies. VIPC collaborates with local, regional, state, and federal partners to support the expansion and diversification of Virginia’s economy.

Programs include: Virginia Venture Partners (VVP) | VVP Fund of Funds (SSBCI) | Virginia Founders Fund (VFF) |Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) | Petersburg Founders Fund (PFF) | Smart Communities | The Virginia Smart Community Testbed | The Virginia Unmanned Systems Center | Virginia Advanced Air Mobility Alliance (VAAMA) | The Public Safety Innovation Center |Entrepreneurial Ecosystems | Regional Innovation Fund (RIF) | Federal Funding Assistance Program (FFAP) for SBIR & STTR | University Partnerships | Startup Company Mentoring & Engagement. For more information, please visit www.VirginiaIPC.org. Follow VIPC on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Angela Costello, Vice President of Communications
Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
angela.costello@VirginiaIPC.org
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