05/05/2014
Congratulations to Team PathoVax: Pathobiology Graduate Program Students (From right: Alyssa Walker, Michael Ayars, Weijie Poh and Joshua Wang) receiving the Local Medical Product Award from Dr. Chuck Montague, Director of Business Development at JHU Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
Congratulations to Team PathoVax: Pathobiology Graduate Program Students (From right: Alyssa Walker, Michael Ayars, Weijie Poh and Joshua Wang) receiving the Local Medical Product Award from Dr. Chuck Montague, Director of Business Development at JHU Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
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A team consisting of Pathobiology Graduate Program Students (Alyssa Walker, Michael Ayars, Weijie Poh, and Joshua Wang) won the Local Medical Product category at the ‘A Call for Innovation’ competition, the final event of the 2014 JHU Entrepreneurship week co-organized by Medical and Education Perspectives (MEP), BME EDGE and Innovation Factory. Over 20 teams presented their medical prototypes and ideas to CEOs, professors and investors with vast experience in commercializing biomedical research. The team PathoVax were awarded a $1000 cash prize, in addition to financial support of up to $5000 and mentorship from MEP to develop and commercialize their idea.
The winning invention pitched by PathoVax was a HPV (Human Papillomavirus) vaccine named RG-1 VLP. This is a second generation HPV prophylactic vaccine that can overcome recognized limitations of current HPV vaccines such as high manufacturing costs and type-restricted protection. RG-1 VLP was co-invented by Professor Richard Roden, a faculty member in the Pathobiology Graduate Program and Dr Reinhard Kirnbauer from the University of Vienna.
Ayars explained that the strong emphasis on translational research as well as the close knitted relationships of students in the Pathobiology program greatly facilitated the formation of the successful team. The ease of approaching program faculty to discuss the utility of their research beyond science exploration was also critical in helping the team identify the winning RG-1 VLP technology.
When asked about the future outlook for the team after winning the award, Poh added: “We are currently looking into the process of forming a start-Up (PathoVax LLC) based on the RG1-VLP technology for further pre-clinical development with Dr Roden and Dr Kirnbauer as our scientific consultants.”
