08/10/2006

Dreyer’s CEO gives bridge funding

Government science support tends to favor basic research, and the money available to translate that research into benefit for society is hard to find. T. Gary Rogers, best known as CEO of Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, wants to make it easier for scientists to bridge what has been called the “valley of death,” the lack of funding that often prevents researchers from advancing promising work to a point where a decision can be made about its usefulness.

To achieve this goal, Rogers enlisted the assistance of QB3, whose mission is to strengthen California life science industries by catalyzing the translation of scientific discoveries to practical benefit. Together with the support of the T. Gary and Kathleen Rogers Family Foundation, QB3 issued a call for proposals in June, inviting its 150 faculty affiliates to submit proposals for the Rogers Bridging the Gap Award. Making the final cut are Tejal Desai and Michael Marletta, who will each receive an award of $250,000 to help bring their research to market.

“What impressed me most about all the applications was the exceptionally high quality of the science and the remarkable potential for doing good,” said QB3 Executive Director Regis Kelly. “I feel strongly motivated to seek additional funding for those projects that didn’t make it this time.”

Tejal Desai, UC San Francisco professor of physiology, will develop biomedical microdevices that will enable cancer chemotherapy drugs to be delivered more directly into the bloodstream. In addition, her work aims to diminish the toxicity that many cancer drugs exhibit towards healthy tissue through providing a lower dose that is more effective and selectively targeted.

UC Berkeley professor of chemistry (and chair of his department) Michael Marletta will work on a refrigeration-free blood substitute that is capable of transporting oxygen. His work , which is founded upon a newly discovered protein family that he is engineering for therapeutic delivery of oxygen and nitric oxide, would address a vital medical need in developing nations.

The Rogers family expected only four or five applications after the call for proposals went out; but received 20. Furthermore, the family was planning to make just one award, but was so impressed by the quality of the proposals that it decided to award two grants.

Other proposals included projects that targeted multiple causes of tumor growth with a single drug, developed new drugs to fight tuberculosis, and created automated surgical microdevices for nerve repair.

To qualify for the award, a researcher had to be a QB3 faculty member with novel research of practical benefit to society that could be ready for commercialization in three to five years. It also had to be research that could not easily obtain federal funding.