Two UNC Startups Land $100K in Carolina KickStart Awards
CHAPEL HILL – Dualogics LLC and Joe Startup Technologies have received a total of $100,000 in commercialization awards from Carolina KickStart, a joint program of the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute and the Office of Commercialization & Economic Development (OCED).
The Carolina KickStart Award Program promotes entrepreneurship on the UNC campus by supporting the commercialization of innovations in the life science, biomedical and pharmaceutical fields. KickStart is expanding to areas beyond life science. The awards help UNC startup companies meet commercial milestones by providing funding and expertise for technology validation, product and business development. To date, Carolina KickStart has awarded funding to 34 companies, totaling $1,273,351.00.
“Technological innovations in the life sciences are stronger than ever at UNC. Our scientists are applying their expertise to a wide variety of issues related to human health and disease, as clearly reflected in the different approaches taken by the current awardees,” said Don Rose, PhD, director of the program.
Dualogics, LLC is an RTP-based biologics research and development company that specializes in engineering new antibody therapeutics, diagnostics, and research tools. Their proprietary platform, OrthoMab, enables the creation of bispecific antibody products with superior properties compared to alternative methods. The company is led by Ryan Hallett, PhD (Co-Founder, Scientist); Tim Jacobs (Co-Founder, Scientist); Brian Kuhlman, PhD (Scientific Advisor); Andrew Leaver-Fay, PhD (Scientific Advisor); and Don Rose, PhD (Director).
Joe Startup Technologies is developing an app that moves assessment and diagnosis of common behavioral health issues like anxiety, depression, or substance abuse from paper to smartphone. The technology is revolutionary because it can dramatically increase evidence-based assessment and provide daily metrics so patient, clinician and administrators can track any changes due to treatment. The team is led by Christopher Mumford (Co-Founder) and Eric Youngstrom, PhD (Co-Founder).
About NC TraCS
The NC TraCS Institute is home to the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program at UNC. The CTSA program is led by the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).
NC TraCS combines the research strengths, resources, and opportunities of UNC, its new partner RTI International (RTI) and planning partner North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T) to accelerate clinical and translational research from health science discovery to dissemination to patients and communities.
About OCED
The Vice Chancellor’s Office of Commercialization & Economic Development works with faculty, staff, and students to help them convert their ideas into social and economic value.
