Four UNC startup companies are getting an $80,000 boost thanks to a federal grant.
The money is coming from Carolina KickStart, which is a program within the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute (NC TraCS), a medical research center funded by the National Institutes of Health that distributes grants.
“We help research go faster, be less expensive and more efficient,” said Michelle Maclay, spokeswoman for NC TraCS.
Carolina KickStart assists startup biomedical companies at UNC and works for the commercialization of new technologies. In addition to providing funding for new companies, it also hosts educational programs and networking events.
The program awarded money to four of the 12 companies that applied: Augment Medical, Meryx Pharmaceuticals, Glycan Therapeutics and Spirovation.
Of the total money awarded, Augment Medical received $30,000 to further the development of its project.
Augment Medical began with a small group of graduate students in a class in UNC’s biomedical engineering program, which is joint with N.C. State University’s.
The students surveyed the WakeMed hospital in Raleigh and discovered that disabled patients without motor control were unable to call the nurse using the remote control button.
The company, which is developing a wireless communication platform for disabled patients, previously received $7,000 from Carolina KickStart. Augment Medical used the money to develop a prototype.
