The Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust (PRSTRT) Technology Transfer Office (TTO) and Research Grants Program, in cooperation with Columbia University’s Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research Life Science Accelerator Lab to Market Boot Camp, launched the EnTRUST Life Science Accelerator to provide specialized frameworks and essential tools to investigator teams (clinicians, engineers, scientists) for translation of their innovations from the lab to the clinic. EnTRUST is a special program of the NIH NIGMS Southeast XLerator Network, with the mission to engage, educate, advance, and provide critical funding for a select number of life science discoveries and innovations, particularly for researchers from our university partners in Puerto Rico.
The EnTRUST Life Science Accelerator offered a 12-week boot camp for researchers in the life sciences and their specific research projects with potential for technology transfer and commercialization. The goal is to accelerate research projects in Puerto Rican universities by leveraging internal and external resources to bring them closer to the market readiness.
Since its launch in 2021, EnTRUST has awarded sixteen (16) grants of $75,000 each, totaling $1,200,000 in funding. This year’s cohort consisted of 17 research teams, comprising 27 investigators from four universities and one startup.
The 2024 cohort’s funded teams were led by Dr. Eduardo J. Juan, Dr. Cornelis Vlaar, Dr. Michelle Martinez Montemayor, Dr. Caroline Appleyard, and Dr. Maribella Domenech. The teams were selected based on several criteria, including unmet clinical need, innovation, experimental plan, intellectual property, and regulatory strategy, with each team receiving $75,000 in funding.
Dr. David Gulley, Executive Director of the PRSTRT Technology Transfer Office, stated: “The Trust TTO’s mission is to identify, assess, protect, market, and transfer the most promising research discoveries from Puerto Rico’s universities, institutions, and research institutes to the private sector for commercialization and to benefit the public. With this fourth cohort of the Lab to Market session, we are facilitating our scientist’s path to innovation, helping retain talent, and supporting Puerto Rico’s scientific and economic growth.”
Eng. Lucy Crespo, PRSTRT’s CEO, expressed: “Our mission at the Trust is to invest, facilitate and develop the capabilities necessary to continuously advance Puerto Rico’s economy and the well-being of its citizens through innovation-based enterprises, science, technology, research and public health. Helping researchers find new routes for their inventions is a vital task that we are very pleased to do, as it yields significant returns on investment and generates new intellectual property for the science and the economy.”
This cohort participants worked on projects in the strategic areas such as therapeutics, cancer, and medical devices. Participant researchers shared their experiences and the impact on their careers in research and development. Dr. Michelle Montemayor said, “Participating in EnTRUST increased our entrepreneurship knowledge, mindset, and skill set. EnTRUST allowed us to propose our basic science research ideas from a business perspective. In EnTRUST there is also a possibility of securing funding to execute the crucial experiments needed to avance our project to the next level.”
Dr. Jorge L. Castro Torres added, “Participating in the EnTRUST Life Science Accelerator has been an incredible learning process. The feedback from the organizers, fellow participants, and expert panel provided invaluable guidance to advance our project. As someone who has participated in other entrepreneurial programs, I found EnTRUST particularly impactful, offering new perspectives and skills to thrive in a rapidly evolving sector.”
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EnTRUST 2024 RESEARCHERS, UNIVERSITIES, and PROJECTS
1. Dr. Dalice M. Piñero-Cruz
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus
Project: Development of ammonia and CO2 integrated breath analyzers for medical applications in the diagnosis and monitoring of chronic diseases
2. Dr. Jorge L. Castro Torres, Dr. Eduardo Juan, and Dr. Madeline Torres-Lugo
University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus
Project: Handheld induction heaters for biomedical applications
3. Dr. Cornelis P. Vlaar and Dr. Faye M. Johnson
University of Puerto Rico: School of Pharmacy and MD Anderson Cancer Center
Project: Development of TRIP13 inhibitors for cancer therapy
4. Dr. Michelle Martinez Montemayor and Dr. Fatima Rivas
Universidad Central del Caribe and Louisiana State University
Project: Secondary Ganoderma lucidum metabolites against triple negative breast cancer
5. Dr. Caroline Appleyard, Dr. Annelyn Torres-Reveron, and Dr. Clara Finch
Ponce Health Sciences University and Sur 180 Therapeutics
Project: Use of a corticotropin releasing hormone receptor antagonist for reduction of post-surgical peritoneal damage and adhesions
6. Dr. Maribella Domenech
University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus
Project: Bioink innovation for tumor mimicry: Improving 3D bioprinting for enhanced cancer research applications
7. Dr. Demetrio Sierra-Mercado
University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus
Project: Effects of antibiotics on the neurobiology of threat interpretation and anxiety-like behaviors in rodents
8. Dr. Samuel P. Hernandez-Rivera and Dr. Jose A. Centeno-Ortiz
University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus
Project: Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy sensor coupled with multivariate analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence for fast and accurate basic metabolic panel
9. Dr. Nataliya Chorna and Dr. Filipa Godoy-Vitorino
University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus
Project: Mind boosters: Exploring psychobiotics as therapeutics for mental wellness
10. Dr. Keven J. Laboy-Juarez
University of Puerto Rico, Molecular Sciences Research Center
Project: A high-throughput behavioral phenotyping system for psychiatric treatment and drug screening
11. Dr. Sabzali Javadov
University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus
Project: Developing novel mitochondria-targeted neuroprotective agents for traumatic brain injury
12. Dr. Pablo E. Vivas-Mejia
University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus
Project: Gold-liposomal nanoparticle conjugates for drug delivery into the brain
13. Dr. Lilia Kucheryavykh and Dr. Miguel Mayor del Valle
Universidad Central del Caribe and University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus
Project: Florbetapir F18 as a promising PET imaging agent for the diagnostic assessment of recurrent glioblastoma
14. Dr. Christian Bravo-Rivera
University of Puerto Rico, School of Medicine
Project: Advancing treatment modalities: Utilizing optogenetic stimulation as a replacement for electric deep brain stimulation in treating mental disorders
15. Dr. Eduardo Alvarez-Rivera
Universidad Central del Caribe
Project: Polysaccharide peptide inhibits HIV-1 entry through pre-production of interferons and interferon-induced proteins in the adaptive immunity
16. Dr. Juan Lopez-Garriga and Dr. Cacimar Ramos
University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus
Project: Advances in sulfhemoglobinemia detection, uncovering, and diagnosis
17. Dr. Luz Silva Torres
University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus
Project: Determination of xylazine abuse and its cardiotoxic impact in the Puerto Rico drug users populatio
