$3.4 million awarded for 17 research projects through ADM innovation program

Texas A&M University’s Advancing Discovery to Market (ADM) Innovation Awards program has awarded $3.4 million to 17 research teams in the first stage of its second full year of funding, the Division of Research announced.

The awards support Texas A&M researchers as they translate discoveries into innovations with commercial potential. ADM is open to researchers, faculty, staff and students of Texas A&M University as well as three state agencies: Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

ADM receives funding from Texas A&M’s Office of the President and The Texas A&M University System’s Office of the Chancellor.

“The ADM Innovation Awards are crucial for empowering Texas A&M researchers to transform bold ideas into impactful solutions,” said Dr. Jack G. Baldauf, vice president for research at Texas A&M. “With this funding, the university and the system enable our research community to address pressing challenges, contribute to meaningful advancements and take their innovations and discoveries to the marketplace as useful products.”

Dr. Henry Fadamiro, associate vice president for research, Strategic Initiatives, serves as the program lead and administrator. In addition to Dr. Baldauf, the program’s management team includes Dr. Joe Elabd, vice chancellor for research, the Texas A&M System; Pete O’Neill, chief innovation officer, Texas A&M Innovation; and Blake Petty, executive director, McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship.

ADM proposals undergo a three-stage selection process, with the final stage featuring pitch presentations to an external review panel of entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders.

The program offers two award levels based on a discovery’s maturity.

Type 1 awards present $99,000 or less to research projects that have found an innovation but have yet to identify a specific application. Among recipients, principal investigators are:

• Charles Aubeny, College of Engineering, “Field demonstration of deeply embedded ring anchor for floating offshore wind turbines,” $99,000.
• Moble Benedict, College of Engineering, “Advanced eVTOL aircraft and propulsion concepts for urban air mobility,” with co-principal investigator David Coleman, College of Engineering, $98,692.
• Saurabh Biswas, College of Engineering, “Pneumatos: Personalized airway clearance therapy for chronic respiratory and neuromuscular disorders,” with co-principal investigator John Criscione, College of Engineering, $96,000.
• Amit Dhingra, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Development of gene-edited high-value crops without genetic engineering,” with co-principal investigator Rishikesh Ghogare, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, $99,000.
• Lei Fang, College of Arts and Sciences, “Recovery of lithium and transition metals from produced water sources,” with co-principal investigator Sarbajit Banerjee, College of Arts and Sciences, $99,000.
• Jason Gill, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, “A powerful phage-based technology for therapeutic protein overproduction and delivery,” with co-principal investigator Mei Liu, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, $98,859.
• Lawrence Griffing, College of Arts and Sciences, “Development of an organic, broad-spectrum pre-emergent herbicide,” with co-principal investigators Bob Whitney, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Muthu Bagavathiannan, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, $98,000.
• Seockmo Ku, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, “The next generation of meat preservatives and colorants: Monascus pigments and their derivatives as natural alternatives to sodium nitrite,” with co-principal investigator Wes Osburn, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, $99,000.
• Ying Li, College of Engineering, “Scalable synthesis of purified and functionalized carbon nanotubes,” $99,000.
• David Powers, College of Arts and Sciences, “Targeting aspartate and glutamate residues with n-pyridinium and n-aryl aziridine small molecules,” $98,862.
• Ursula Winzer-Serhan, College of Medicine, “Positive activators of alpha7-nACh receptors for treating seizures and epileptogenesis,” with co-principal investigator Samba Reddy, College of Medicine, $99,000.

Type 2 awards provide between $100,000 and $500,000 for projects that are closer to market readiness, where the concept is established but requires refinement and validation. Among the  recipients, principal investigators are:

• John Cason, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Advancing high oil content cultivars: A revolutionary opportunity for peanut farming and renewable fuel production,” with co-principal investigators Mark Burrow, Waltram Ravelombola, Emi Kimura and Lileen Coulloudon, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, $225,000.
• Richard Gomer, College of Arts and Sciences, “Advancing potential therapeutics for fibrosing diseases to licensing,” with co-principal investigators Thomas Meek, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and James Smith, College of Arts and Sciences, $295,888.
• Jaime Grunlan, College of Engineering, “Durable, environmentally benign, flame-retardant treatment for textiles,” $349,576.
• Jean-Philippe Pellois, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Innovative delivery technology for neuroprotective protein delivery in acute retinal injuries,” $500,000.
• Xiaotong Song, College of Medicine, “Refueled HER2-CAR T cell therapy to cure breast cancer,” $500,000.
• Hamid Toliyat, College of Engineering, “Advancing electric vehicle propulsion: High power rare-earth-free electric motor development,” with co-principal investigator Alan Palazzolo, College of Engineering, $499,800.