UNandUP landed a $1,523,833 grant to commercialize their method of treating blood clots that prompt acute ischemic stroke — something that hits more than 700,000 Americans a year. Their method, called ‘Low-Dose Magneto-Thrombolysis’, uses robot guided magnetic fields to deliver low-dose nanoparticles to the clot.
Francis “Duke” Creighton, UNandUP CEO
“Right now, only one out of 10 people who have a stroke get any intervention at all… nine out of 10 get palliative care,” CEO Francis ‘Duke’ Creighton told bizblip. “We think that our technology could take that potentially to 100%”
This is the third Phase II grant this startup has landed, each bringing more than a million dollars, and more may be in its pipeline. UNandUP has seven Phase I grants under its belt. With this most recent grant it tops $6 million in NIH funding since its launch in February, 2018.
“We’ve had 16 awards… we have been transitioning from our Phase I SBIR work to our Phase II work in the last few years,” CEO Francis ‘Duke’ Creighton told bizblip. “Six (of the awards) are diversity supplements for people who are underrepresented in the sciences… three of those (people) have turned into full-time hires.”
Supported, in part, by BioSTL/BioGenerator, UNandUP is also partnered with two national laboratories: the Ames National Laboratory and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.”
With (now) seven full time employees, mostly scientists and engineers, in 2022 the startup moved from the CIC in downtown St. Louis to a 3000 square foot space in Midtown, near Wells Fargo. Creighton says they’ve got five very active summer interns on staff, as well as four part time workers who are experts in their fields.
Links:
