NCBiotech awards $1.2M in grants, loans in recent quarter

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center awarded eight grants and loans totaling more than $1.2 million to universities and life sciences companies in the second quarter of its current fiscal year.

The awards, made in October, November and December 2024, will support life science research, technology commercialization and entrepreneurship throughout North Carolina. The funding will also help universities and companies attract follow-on funding from other sources.

Company loans

Three life sciences companies received Small Business Research Loans totaling $1,050,000 to advance their research, product development and commercial viability.

• OsteoCure Therapeutics of Durham received $350,000 to manufacture an injectable adenosine microgel scaffold and conduct safety and efficacy studies in a large animal model. The product is intended for bone repair and pain reduction.
• Gradient Medical of Raleigh received $350,000 to develop a pulsed electric field generator for the treatment of inoperable tumors.
• BioAesthetics Corp. of Durham received $350,000 to develop next-generation tissue grafts that can deliver drugs at the surgical site to improve healing outcomes for burns, pressure ulcers, hernias and other indications.

Portfolio companies raise $4.2 million

Three life sciences companies that previously received loan support from NCBiotech raised $4.2 million in follow-on funding in the second quarter, according to research by NCBiotech’s Life Science Intelligence staff.

• Perfusio of Greenville received nearly $2.2 million in equity financing. The company has developed a non-invasive imaging technology that helps surgeons monitor blood flow distribution in real time.  
• SonoVascular of Chapel Hill received $1.75 million in equity financing. The company designs and develops therapeutic ultrasound-based medical devices for treating vascular disease.
• Baebies of Durham received $300,000 in federal research funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Institutes of Health agency. The company develops diagnostic tests for diseases using its proprietary digital microfluidics platform.

University grants

Three universities received five FLASH Grants totaling $171,879 to advance bioscience research. The grants support creative ideas that show early indications of commercial potential. 

• North Carolina State University (NC State) received $30,000 to develop a platform that enables faster delivery of genome-editing materials to plants, thereby accelerating the improvement of crops for increased food security and sustainability.
• NC State received $30,000 to explore the potential of two candidate genes to enhance blueberry regeneration and transformation, enabling more efficient development of enhanced blueberry varieties.
• The University of North Carolina Asheville received $36,879 to develop a Smart Soil Organism Detector (Smart SOD) for high-throughput detection and assessment of soil pathogens before they damage plants.
• University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) received $37,500 for studies to determine how PFAS compounds accumulate in waters, soils and plants in a marsh system and whether marsh plants could effectively capture these toxic compounds from water long-term.
• UNCW received $37,500 to grow black sea bass fish and the salt-tolerant plant Slaicornia bigelovii together in a land-based recirculating aquaculture system to determine whether the plants are effective at removing excess nutrients from the system’s wastewater.