GO Virginia grant boosts biotech in Roanoke, New River Valley

A $4.9 million grant from the commonwealth will allow leaders from the Roanoke and New River valleys to build upon efforts by Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and the Fralin Biomedical Institute at VTC to turn the region into a hub for biomedical research.

“As we build the biotech sector, this statewide grant will help us where we have gaps,” explains Erin Burcham, CEO of the Roanoke Blacksburg Innovation Alliance (RBIA), a regional economic development organization.

The money is a slice of a $14.3 million pie from state economic development initiative GO Virginia to fund the multiregional Project VITAL (Virginia Innovations and Technology Advancements in Life Sciences), an endeavor to make Virginia a biotechnology leader.

With its $4.9 million cut, GO Virginia Region 2, which encompasses a swath of the state stretching southwest from Lynchburg to Pulaski County, plans to expand regional work in medical devices, oncology therapeutic research and neurotechnology. The effort will be spearheaded by leaders from RBIA, Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic.

Virginia Tech plans to increase the number of research teams participating in the university’s proof of concept program, which assists researchers with pursuing commercialization of technologies harnessed in their labs.

VT will also “elevate programming and mentoring” for its Fralin Health Sciences and Technology Commercialization Fellows Program, Burcham says. That program is open to VT researchers who conduct health sciences and technology-related research and who are interested in developing products for commercialization.

Meanwhile, Carilion’s innovation team will develop resources to help inventors and companies in navigating complicated compliance and regulatory processes. Carilion will also make its Human Factors Lab, which explores human capabilities and limitations in the context of workplace processes, available to outside companies.

Virginia Western Community College and the Blue Ridge Partnership for Health Science Careers will apply Project VITAL funding toward efforts to bring biotechnology programming to kindergarten though high school students, an effort to develop the biomedical workforce of tomorrow.

All in all, the GO Virginia Region 2 Project VITAL effort has a goal of creating 1,315 jobs over five years, generating an economic impact of $40.8 million for the region, according to Burcham.