UW researchers receive $390,000 from 5 organizations dedicated to fostering technology

A product development team at the University of Washington (UW) will receive $390,000 from five organizations dedicated to fostering technology commercialization in Washington.

The grant will support refinement and clinical testing of a handheld device to improve treatment of trauma, which is the leading cause of death for people under age 45. Trauma patients often die from excessive bleeding; blood loss can be worsened by a hard-to-diagnose condition called trauma-induced coagulopathy (TIC). A team led by Nathan Sniadecki in the UW Department of Mechanical Engineering and Nathan White in the UW Department of Medicine, Division of Emergency Medicine, is developing a tool to rapidly detect TIC and thus permit immediate and appropriate treatment of this life-threatening condition. The device will measure the ability of the blood to clot during trauma, which can take up to half an hour to detect with current technology. The team has also formed a company, Stasys, to license the technology and bring the product to market.

This grant is funded by the Coulter Translational Research Partnership Program at UW, the Life Sciences Discovery Fund (LSDF), the Institute of Translational Health Sciences, the UW Center for Commercialization (C4C), and the Washington Research Foundation.

"Each of our organizations actively funds research and development in Washington to help move promising technologies from the academic into the commercial environment," explained Patrick Shelby, director of New Ventures at C4C.

"There has been substantial overlap in the projects that we support, with several projects receiving funding from all five programs serially for different work plans. This grant is based on our belief that joint funding for a single work plan will drive faster and more efficient commercial development than serial funding."

The TIC detection device project was reviewed by external experts for scientific and technical merit, commercial potential, and possible health and economic benefits.

Shelby expressed his desire that based on the success of this initial award, the funding organizations would consider collaborating in funding future grants. John DesRosier, executive director of LSDF, further noted that this was the first time LSDF had partnered with other granting entities and stated that he hoped that this model could be replicated with other Washington universities and institutions.