Yale Ventures has announced the winners of the 2023 Blavatnik awards – 11 faculty-led projects will receive $2.5 million in funding.
The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation, founded by the Blavatnik family, supports projects developing digital health and therapeutic technology. Recipients will be honored at the Yale Innovation Summit on June 1.
“These new therapeutics, digital health and platform technologies have been selected for their potential to impact unmet medical needs. I am deeply grateful for the continued generosity and partnership from the Blavatnik Family Foundation for their commitment to supporting Yale’s impact through innovation,” said Michael C. Crair, vice provost for research at Yale University.
The goals of completed projects include licensing to existing companies, start-ups and research agreements.
The 2023 Blavatnik Award winners include:
Farida Ahangari, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary): Targeting Profibrotic Macrophages Using Mir-33 Inhibitors, a Novel Therapeutic Approach for Pulmonary Fibrosis
Anton Bennett, PhD, Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Pharmacology and Professor of Comparative Medicine; Interim Chair, Pharmacology; Director, Yale Center for Molecular and Systems Metabolism; Director, BBS Minority Affairs: Allagium Therapeutics – Driving change to better health
Vicente Diaz, MD, MBA, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science; Chief of Ophthalmology, Yale Health; Chief of Ophthalmology, Bridgeport Hospital, Ophthalmology & Visual Science: Extended Release Latanoprost Wafer for the Treatment of Glaucoma
Lynn Fiellin, MD, Professor of Medicine (General Medicine), Yale Child Study Center, and Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences); Firm Chief, Quality & Safety, Internal Medicine; Director, Yale Center for Health & Learning Games, Internal Medicine; Director, play2PREVENT Lab at Yale, Internal Medicine; Instructor, Investigative Medicine Program; Director, ForAGirl Program, Yale School of Medicine, Internal Medicine: Playbl: Harness the power of play to enable healthier and better lives for adolescents
Michael Girardi, MD, Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Scientific Innovation, Evans Professor of Dermatology; Director, Residency Program, Dermatology; Co-Director, T32 Research Fellowship Program, Dermatology: Immunotherapeutics to Treat T Cell Leukemias and Lymphoma
Peter Glazer, MD, PhD, Robert E. Hunter Professor of Therapeutic Radiology and Professor of Genetics; Chair, Therapeutic Radiology: Hybridex Biosciences: Enabling the next generation of safe gene editing therapeutics
Rohan Khera, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine) and of Biostatistics (Health Informatics); Clinical Director, Center for Health Informatics and Analytics, YNHH/Yale Center for Outcomes Research & Evaluation (CORE): ENSIGHT-AI
Anthony Koleske, PhD, Ensign Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and of Neuroscience; Deputy Dean for Research, (Basic Science): A screen for small molecule regulators of target X activity: A novel treatment for schizophrenia
Ruslan Medzhitov, PhD, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute: To identify a new class of therapeutics for inflammatory diseases
Richard Flavell, PhD, FRS, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Ian Odell, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Dermatology; Dermatology Director, Adult Primary Care Center: Epiregulin Inhibition to Treat Scleroderma Skin and Lung Fibrosis
David Spiegel, MD, PhD, Professor of Chemistry: Transmembrane Anchoring Bifunctional Molecules for Immunotherapy
