UW Bioengineering faculty have been awarded major new grant funding by the Washington Research Foundation (WRF). Of the six UW teams awarded the grant, four are from UW Bioengineering.
These teams are tasked with developing detailed plans for projects that could significantly advance Washington state’s life-science ecosystem and improve lives. Over the next 12 to 18 months, each team will utilize their planning grant to develop a proposal for a large-scale initiative to submit to WRF and other funding agencies.
The WRF award emphasizes potential collaborations between institutions, the creation of diverse and inclusive innovation ecosystems, and exploring commercialization paths for new technologies to address unmet public needs in the region. Specifically, the grants awarded to UW Bioengineering faculty will support comprehensive planning for the following projects:
- Jennifer Davis, PhD, associate professor: Leading the Platforms of Human Aging and Disease in a Dish (PHADD) Technical Hub at UW
- Elizabeth Nance, PhD, associate professor: Heading the Pipeline for Novel Engineered Neurotherapeutics in Newborns at UW
- Shelly Sakiyama-Elbert, PhD, professor and vice dean of research and graduate education at the UW School of Medicine: Directing the Washington Initiative for Neuroscience (WIN) at UW
- Kelly Stevens, PhD, associate professor: Overseeing the Volumetric Imaging and Spatial Tissue Analysis (VISTA) at UW
These initiatives are poised to make substantial contributions to the field of bioengineering and the broader scientific community in Washington state.