Kentucky plans to use a $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for Kentucky to move medical research into the commercial market more quickly.
The announcement Thursday in Frankfort paves the way for advancing new med-tech and health related companies.
The University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, the Commonwealth Commercialization Center, and the state economic development cabinet will spearhead the effort. The Commonwealth Commercialization Center is a science and technology non-profit aimed at accelerating invention and entrepreneurship across Kentucky. UK President Eli Capilouto said there are only so many dollars invested in new ideas.
“Those early dollars before a private entity that may want to invest, to take to a fuller market is the gap that can be bridged by this support. This is a little area that is usually absent of investment,” said Capilouto.
The grant will help fund a public-private consortium, the Kentucky Network for Innovation and Commercialization. That new organization will use NIH funding to further promising biomedical research innovations from the state’s eight public universities and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. Dr. Kent Murphy, who is regarded as a leader in transitioning science into products, participated in the capitol announcement.
“So, it’s all about taking that research and moving it all the way out into commercial products. So, not just research for research sake, which this country has done a lot of in the past, and publish a paper and it sits on a shelf. This is about doing the research and getting it all the way out to the community and creating jobs and economic growth for the state.” noted Murphy.
University of Louisville President Neeli Bendapudi added the acquisition of Jewish Hospital and other KentuckyOne Health properties increases opportunities to recruit patients for clinical trials.
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