Inaugural Year of Gilhuly Accelerator Fund Awards $1M+

“This is a big idea coming from a small lab,” said Associate Professor of Surgery Justin Pollara. He was presenting an update on a research project developed with Paul Cray, Senior Lab Research Analyst. A couple years back, they had come up with a novel, non-viral gene therapy platform and sought out internal Duke resources to help accelerate the promising technology with commercial potential. In September 2023, Pollara summarized steady research progress and follow-on funding achieved as part of the inaugural Gilhuly Accelerator Fund annual meeting. “The support we got from the Gilhuly Fund allowed us to hit our first milestone: demonstrate successful proof of concept studies in vitro,” Pollara said. “That key data enabled us to obtain additional support from the award of a Duke CTSI accelerator grant,” and then more support through the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.