Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC)

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Mission

The mission of the Chicago Biomedical Consortium is to stimulate collaboration among scientists at Northwestern University, The University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago and others to accelerate discovery that will transform biomedical research and improve the health of humankind.  The CBC will:

  • Stimulate research and education that bridge institutional boundaries.
  • Enable collaborative and interdisciplinary research that is beyond the range of a single institution.
  • Mentor and develop a strong cadre of biomedical leaders, researchers, and entrepreneurs in Chicago.
  • Enhance and promote the development of the biomedical ecosystem in Chicago.
  • Facilitate the development of therapeutics that will, over the long term, improve health of citizens of Chicago and beyond.

Visit the Chicago Biomedical Consortium to see a list of awards, previous winners and applications.

Accelerator Award Program

Goal: The Accelerator Award program supports translational reserach and provides university researrchers with “early commercial guidance.”  These awards are to be used to support the earliest, and therefore, highest-risk stage of commercially directed research focuseed on the development of a therapeutic or an associated biomarker or diagnostic.

Level of Funding: Up to $100,000 for one year and projects that meet proposed milestones will be invited to apply for $150,000 for an additional year.

Requirements: Applicants must be tenured or tenure-track faculty or faculty with full-time clinical track appointments with research programs at one of the three CBC instiutionsl.  All applicants must have their own designated laboratory space.

 

Catalyst Award Program

Goal: The Catalyst Award program supports new inter-institurional cutting-edge biological/biomedical projects that are high-risk/high-reward, innovative and transformative.  Catalysts are one0time incentive awards and not intended to support incremental progress, obvious next steps, or NIH-ready projects.

Level of Funding: Up to $250,000 for up to 2 years of funding.

Requirements: Applicants must be tenured or tenure-track faculty with research programs at the CBC universities who will initiate a new collaborative research project.  Research proposals must have Co-Principal Investigators from at least two of the CBC universities.

 

Year Name of Awardee & Project

2021
  • Richard Minshall, Development of Small Molecule Inhibitors of Gα12/ Alpha-SNAP-dependent vWF Secretion

2020
  • N/A

2019
  • Shiva Shahrara, Establishing a novel Therapy for Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients
  • Terry Vanden Hoek, Novel PHLPP Peptide for Asystole/Pulseless Electrical Activity (PEA) Resuscitation
  • Gregory Thatcher, A Novel BET Inhibitor for Breast Cancer Combination Therapy

2018
  • Arnon Lavie, Increasing the invivo stability of L-asparaginase through Interactions with HSA
  • Yulia Komarova, Development of Novel Treatment for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
  • Brian Layden, Novel FFA3 Antagonist Development for Type 2 Diabetes
Year Name of Awardee & Project

2021
  • Carole Ober (UChicago) and Yu (Tom) Gao (UIC), Elucidating the Function of the Non-classical HLA-DQα2/HLA-DQβ2 in Asthma
  • Neil Kelleher (NU) and Brian Murphy (UIC), Establishing Two New Bacterial Phyla to Produce the Next Generation of Biomedical Drug Leads

2020
  • Xincheng Yao (UIC) and Tiffany Schmidt (NU), Functional Optophysiological Mapping of Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells
  • Lee Alkureishi (UIC) and Russell Reid (UChicago), Bending the Bone – Developing 21st Century Tools for Bony Manipulation in the Operating Room

2019
  • Leslyn Hanakahi (UIC) and Stephen Kron (UChicago), Leveraging DNA Repair to Enhance CRISPR Genome Editing

2018
  • Alenandra Naba (UIC) and John Varga (NU), Quantitative Matrisomics: A Novel Approach to Decipher Fibrosis
  • Zackery Bulman (UIC) and Alan Hauser (NU), Carbapenem-Resistance K. Pneumoniae Genomic Biomarkers that Predict Poor Outcomes
  • Xiaojing Yang (UIC) and Minglei Zhao (UChicago), Observing Protien Allostery Dynamics by Single-Particle Imaging

2017
  • Ernesto Bongarzone and Steve Roth (UIC), and Joshua Leonard (NU), Targeted Delivery of Biomolecules to the CNS via Extracellular Vesicles
  • Laura Sanchez (UIC) and Mark Mandel (NU), Capturing Host-Microbiome Chemical Communication
  • Keith Tyo (NU) and Scott Franzblau (UIC), A Novel Antibiotic Strategy Exploiting Metabolite Self-Toxicity
  • Jae-Won Shin (UIC) and William Miller (NU), Single-cell Level Biophysical Control of Platelet Production from Megakaryocytes

2016
  • Ankur Saxena (UIC) and Victoria E. Prince (UChicago), In Vivo Multicellular Dynamics of Neural Crest Stem Cell Migration
  • Hyunyoung Jeong (UIC) and Eugene Chang (UChicago), Role of Gut Microbiota in Determining Drug Efficacy and Toxicity
  • Raymond Roos (UChicago) and Brian Kay (UIC), Darpins: A New Generation of Protein Therapeutics in Neurodegenerative Diseases

2015
  • Michael Caffrey and Arnon Lavie (UIC), and Balaji Manicassamy (UChicago), Role of Dynamics in the Structure and Function of Intrinsically Metastable Proteins
  • Jonna Frasor and Terry Moore (UIC), and Geoffrey Greene (UChicago), Photoaffinity-based Protein Profiling Approach to Discover Estrogen Receptor/ Coactivator Inhibitors
  • Michael Walsh (UIC) and Aliya Husain (UChicago), Label-free Chemical Imaging: Early Detection of Heart Transplant Rejection
  • Brian Murphy and Rachel Poretsky (UIC), and George Wells (NU), Co-occurance and Implications of Antibiotic Production and Resistance Genes in the Environment

2014
  • Zhijian Qian (UIC) and Wei Du (UChicago), Control of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Expansion by Inhibition of Axin Polymerization
  • Mark Mandel (NU) and Nancy Freitag (UIC), Klebsiella Pneumoniae Pathogenesis in Immunocompetent and Immunosuppressed Hosts
  • Michael J. Federle (UIC) and Matthew Tirrell (UChicago), Immunotherapy-Mediated Interference of Bacterial Quorum Sensing

2013
  • Stephen J. Kron (UChicago) and Preston T. Snee (UIC), Radiation-guided delivery of quantum dot theranostic nanoparticles
  • Andrei Karginov (UIC) and Michael Glotzer (UChicago), An “And-Gate” for Optogenetic Control Of Protein Kinases
  • Robert Daum (UChicago) and Michael E. Johnson (UIC), A Novel Antimicrobial Strategy Against Methicillin-Resistant S Aureus (MRSA)
  • Jie Liang and Amy Kenter (UIC), and John Marko (NU), Characterizing in Vivo Chromatin Folding Landscape of IgH locus on Chromosome 12
  • Tian Wang (UIC) and Hans-Georg Simon (NU), Proteomic Characterization of Epicardial-Myocardial Signaling and Regenerative Activity
  • Primal de Lanerolle (UIC) and Steven T. Kosak (NU), Nuclear Actin and Genome Organization