The Commercialization Gap Fund provides opportunities for promising innovations discovered by University of Pittsburgh investigators to advance towards commercialization.
Awards are granted in amounts of up to $75,000 to support key technical and/or market de-risking studies to further develop Pitt technologies with high commercial potential and compelling proof-of-principle or proof-of-concept data. The Commercialization Gap Fund is open to projects in all fields and disciplines.
Administered by the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE), the Commercialization Gap Fund provides:
Funding for key technical/scientific milestones and business development milestones and
Innovation and commercialization support from the Innovation Institute, OIE New Ventures team, and/or the Office of Industry and Economic Partnerships (OIEP).
Funding can be used for a variety of precommercialization activities, including technology de-risking or validation, prototype optimization, market assessments, regulatory or reimbursement consulting, or studies conducted by contract research organizations. Projects must be focused on advancing technologies towards tech transfer events and the use of innovations outside of the academic environment.
The Commercialization Gap Fund does not support basic research, proof-of-principle studies, or initial prototype development.
The Commercialization Gap Fund is a competitive innovation funding program for Pitt technologiesacross all fields and disciplines.
Awards are granted in amounts of up to $75,000for critical technical and/or market derisking and validation studies.
Awardees are required to communicate and engage with OIE regularly to track project progress and to complete business development milestones. Communications include a project kickoff meeting, progress reports, update meetings, working sessions, and a final report.
Funding is released according to a milestone-based plan developed in collaboration with OIE. Each project will have 1-3 quantifiable technical/scientific milestones and 1-2 business development milestones. Examples of business development milestones include customer discovery, entrepreneurial training, market assessments, or outreach to potential industry partners.
Projects are expected to start within one month of the award date (pending any necessary regulatory approvals or purchasing contracts) and should be completed within 12 months of the project start date. Activities conducted before the approved project start date cannot be supported by a Commercialization Gap Fund award.
The Commercialization Gap Fund shouldposition Pitt intellectual property for ready commercialization and enable tech transfer events within 1-3 years.
Desired outcomes of funded projects include:
Option or license of Pitt technology to an external company,
Sponsored research from an external partner with the purpose of developing Pitt intellectual property for the external party to option or license, and/or
Impactful use of Pitt technology outside of the lab.
Commercialization Gap Fund is designed to support key technical and/or market validation studies that de-risk the commercial opportunity of a Pitt technology. The program does not support basic science or hypothesis testing.
Applicants should have demonstrated proof-of-principle or proof-of-concept and have data supporting translation potential. An invention disclosure should be on file with the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) and an intellectual property management plan established with a licensing manager.
The Commercialization Gap Fund is intended to provide financial support that cannot be obtained from traditional sources of funding, including government funding agencies, foundations, or an investigator’s department or school.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to participate in the Regional NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program prior to applying to the Commercialization Gap Fund to collect customer feedback, to better define the commercial opportunity, and to inform project milestones.
Applicants are encouraged to engage with their licensing managers, the New Ventures team, and/or Office of Industry and Economic Partnerships (OIEP) to identify “killer experiments” informed by industry and/or customer feedback that could be supported by the Commercialization Gap Fund.
While not required, applicants with support from an industry partner, venture capital group, entrepreneur, and/or OIE team member will receive priority review.
If you are seeking funding to test a scientific hypothesis which may have high commercial potential, see Pitt.INC.
Letter of Interest Deadline: September 13, 2025
Notification to Advancing Teams: Early October 2025
Full Application Deadline: November 2, 2025
Anticipated Awardee Selection Date: Mid December 2025
Anticipated Project Start Date: January or February 2026
The Commercialization Gap Fund is open to Pitt faculty, postdocs, students, and staff. Postdocs, students, and staff must identify a Pitt faculty member to serve as the PI.
Projects must support the further development or validation of intellectual property assigned to Pitt.
An invention disclosure must be on file with Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) and discussed with a licensing manager prior to submitting a Letter of Interest (LOI). (Submit an invention disclosure)
Under certain circumstances, the Commercialization Gap Fund may be used to support IP co-owned by Pitt and another academic institution. Investigators are encouraged to connect with their licensing manager regarding the ownership of their IP prior to submitting a LOI.
The technology must be unencumbered from obligations that would prevent the University from moving forward with commercialization. The technology should be available for licensing to a Pitt licensed startup company or external third party and not subject to any pre-existing options, licenses, or corporate sponsored research agreements.
Projects with funding from another source to complete the same work are not eligible. Applicants should not propose projects that have already been funded through a grant, contract, or other funding source, including Pitt internal funding mechanisms.
Projects for the Commercialization Gap Fund are solicited through formal requests for proposals (RFP). The RFP process is multi-stage, starting with the submission of Letters of Interest (LOI) on Pitt InfoReady.
Applicants with compelling LOIs that are a fit for the program and Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s (OIE) resources are invited to submit full applications.
Applicants should ensure that timelines are appropriate for the proposed milestones and that they have the resources available to meet the Commercialization Gap Fund requirements and timeline.
LOIs and full applications are reviewed by OIE and an external advisory board. The advisory board consists of industry experts, investors, and experienced entrepreneurs.
Final technical/scientific milestones, business development milestones and budgets are developed in collaboration with OIE and formalized in an award letter.
Award letters are executed, and projects are started in a kickoff meeting with OIE.
The goal of the Commercialization Gap Fund is to accelerate the development of Pitt intellectual property and position technologies for ready translation. Projects are selected for near-term commercialization potential and societal impact using the following criteria.
Eligibility and fit for the Commercialization Gap Fund
Scientific merit and novelty
Status and strength of the intellectual property
Technology stage of development
Market opportunity
Customer and/or industry feedback
Feasibility of the proposed project
Commercialization plan and anticipated outcomes
Team qualifications
Funds from the Commercialization Gap Fund may only be used for the direct costs of the activities outlined in the approved project plan and budget incurred during the term of the award. Non-faculty personnel costs will be considered, but it is preferred that personnel costs are limited.
Eligible expenses include:
Lab supplies, research animals, prototyping supplies, fabrication or manufacturing expenses, and trial costs
Postdoc, student, and technician salaries
Consultants, contract research organizations (CRO), and service providers. All providers are required to assign IP rights to the University prior to beginning work.
With prior approval from OIE, travel costs related directly to meeting an approved milestone.
Ineligible expenses include:
Overhead/indirect costs
Faculty salaries
Tuition
Travel
Computer equipment
Capital equipment
Publication costs
Microgrants from the Commercialization Gap Fund are also available in amounts of $5,000 to $25,000 and require recommendation from an Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) team member.
Projects supported by microgrants must meet the eligibility requirements for a larger award and have the same terms and conditions of awards granted through a request for proposals.
Letters of interest (LOI) for microgrants are accepted on a rolling basis following recommendation from an OIE team member and are reviewed monthly.
Interested applicants should speak to an OIE licensing manager, New Ventures EIR, or Office of Industry and Economic Partnerships team member to see if their project may be eligible for the Commercialization Gap Fund microgrant.
Past Awardees of the Commercialization Gap Fund
“Aneurisk: AI-Based Clinical Management of Aneurysm Patients”
Principal Investigators: Timothy Chung, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Bioengineering David Vorp, Professor of Bioengineering Nathan Liang, Associate Professor of Surgery
Team members: Micah Guffey Brian Jeon Chris Niles
In the United States, abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is the 13th leading cause of death with over 2.5 million people currently diagnosed with AAA and more than 200,000 new diagnoses each year. The rupture of AAA is associated with a 90% mortality rate, and clinicians are tasked with deciding whether a surgical procedure is necessary to prevent a rupture for each of these patients. Aneurisk is working to help clinicians make better, more timely decisions for their patients. Aneurisk uses patented artificial intelligence-based techniques to quickly analyze medical images of AAA and patient-specific clinical information, producing an individualized likelihood of rupture, and forecasting the growth rate of the aneurysm. Chancellor Gap funding will support the commercialization of this tool in three areas: 1) improvement of key user-facing product features, 2) building a strategy for regulatory clearance, and 3) building a roadmap for strategic commercial partnerships.
“Full Thickness Human Skin Perfusion Model for Disease Modeling”
Principal Investigators:
Asim Ejaz, Assistant Professor, Department of Plastic Surgery
Team Members: Shanae Butler Alexa Rivera del Rio Hernandez Ani Ulfot Naresh Mahajan
Translating animal data to clinical scenarios is often compromised due to anatomical and interspecies variations. Pitt innovators are developing a fully automated human skin perfusion bioreactor system from discarded skin tissue from surgical procedures. Funding will be used to perform preliminary wound healing studies to establish the system’s capability and to validate performance against other commonly used assays.
“VINE AI: Bringing Accurate Generative AIO to Intellectual Property Law”
Principal Investigators:
Andrew Bunger, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Team Member: Yunxing Lu
Pitt innovators have developed VineAI, a chat-bot style AI assistant that brings the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) to professionals who require thorough, accurate, perfectly referenced insight from the documents that they define as relevant, valuable, and safe. It achieves this through a first-of-its-kind system called Knowledge Graph-Based Retrieval Augmented Generation (KG-RAG) based on LLMs. In practice, the user defines a set of documents and VineAI automatically creates a knowledge graph that maps all of the information contained in those documents. The user can then interact with them in a chat-bot style input window. This project aims at bringing the first reference case to market in the area of Intellectual Property Law. The Gap Funds will enable the first deployment and beta test of VineAI with lawyers at a local office of a nationally recognized law firm. The team will also participate in the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program to conduct customer discovery interviews to help validate and position their product for success.
“Building a Screening Tool for Age-Related Macular Degeneration”
Principal Investigator:
Jay Chhablani, Professor, Department of Ophthalmology
Team Members: Kiran Vupparaboina Sandeep Bollepalli
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) will impact nearly 300 million people worldwide by 2040. Pitt innovators are developing a deep learning and image processing-based solution for detecting early signs of AMD which will function across device platforms regardless of the clinical care setting. The system can also accurately predict progression to aid clinical decision-making. Funding will be used to conduct detailed market and clinical workflow analyses. The team will also participate in the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program to conduct customer discovery interviews to help achieve these goals.
“Cell Type-Specific for Congenital Hearing Loss”
Principal Investigator:
Christopher Cunningham, Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology
Team Members: ThanosTzounopoulos Alicia Frank Abigail Sanders Julia Lewis Laura Marinos
Hearing loss affects over 1 billion people worldwide, but no FDA-approved biological therapies exist. Pitt innovators are developing gene therapies that target cochlear hair cells for a form of congenital hearing loss, which accounts for up to 9 percent of genetic hearing loss cases. Funding will help conduct preclinical studies and build a comprehensive market landscape.
“Dicarboxylic Acid Therapy for Congenital Lactic Acidosis”
Principal Investigators:
Eric Goetzman, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Pyruvate carboxylase deficiency is a rare genetic disease in which lactate in the blood rises to dangerous levels. The Pitt innovator is developing a therapy around a special class of fatty acid that is rapidly metabolized to provide “quick energy” in many key tissues. The body uses this fatty acid preferentially over other energy sources, such as glucose, and therefore limits the production of lactate, which is a byproduct of glucose metabolism. Funding will be used to develop a mouse model and conduct preclinical testing.
“Real Time Evaluation of Adverse Events”
Principal Investigators:
Parthasarathy Thirumala, Professor, Department of Neurology Syam Visweswaran, Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics Kayhan Batmanghelich, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics Amir Mina, Doctoral Student
Pitt innovators are applying machine learning algorithms to EEG data collected during surgery to develop models for detecting ischemia and stroke during cardiovascular surgery in real time, allowing for appropriate interventions. Funding will be used to conduct a pilot study and develop the regulatory preparatory required for the FDA approval process.
“Polysaccharide-Based Plastic to Help Alleviate Ocean Microplastic Pollution”
Principal Investigators:
Eric Beckman, Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemical Engineering Susan Fullerton-Shirey, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering
Tens of millions of tons of synthetic polymers enter the world’s oceans each year and are transformed into microplastics that are consumed by sea creatures and eventually people. Pitt innovators have created prototype thin films that degrade into benign components in saltwater that could replace non-degradable plastics and reduce microplastic pollution. Funding will be used to further develop this prototype to decrease water permeation to meet standards for applications in the packaging industry.
“Novel Vascular Scaffold for Focal Delivery of Antiplatelet Therapy”
Principal Investigators:
John Pacella, Professor, Department of Cardiology
University of Pittsburgh researchers have developed a novel vascular stent with antiplatelet capabilities. By providing focal anti-platelet therapy, this ticagrelor-coated stent (TCS) could revolutionize post percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) therapy by eliminating the need for blood thinning drugs to prevent stent thrombosis, a serious post-PCI complication. The Chancellor’s Gap Funding will be used to conduct in-vivo preclinical studies.
“Novel Low-Profile Fully Retrievable Foldable Epidural Lead Array (FELLA) System”
Principal Investigators:
Gaurav Chauhan, Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine Trent Emerick, Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine
This project is aimed at developing a new spinal cord stimulation device for controlling chronic pain that eliminates the need for a more invasive surgery to insert the stimulator leads. Current implantation techniques may require a surgery known as a laminectomy and a larger incision that can result in a higher risks of complications including bleeding, nerve damage, and spine instability.
“A Novel Human Full Thickness Ski Perfusion Platform for Disease Modeling and Drug Discovery”
Principal Investigator:
Asim Ejaz, Assistant Professor, Department of Plastic Surgery
There currently is no reliable model system having a physiological and anatomical resemblance to human skin that can be used for studying the mechanism of skin related pathologies (radiation/chemical wound/fibrosis, allergies, aging, UV effects, melanoma and other skin cancers) and test therapeutics. Dr. Ejaz has developed a system that utilizes surgical tissues that can be kept viable for up to three weeks or longer.
“Prosthesis-Compatible Vibration Therapy for Phantom Limb Pain”
Principal Investigator:
Goeran Fiedler, Assosicate Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology
A majority of people with limb loss suffer from phantom limb sensations or even phantom limb pain. Opioids have shown some effectiveness but come with severe side effects. This project introduces vibration therapy to preoccupy the nerve pathways that would transfer the errant pain signals to the brain, thus preventing the broken feedback loop that is believed to play a role in the dynamics of phantom limb pain episodes.
“ScOAPe- A Self-Cleaning Attachment for Nasal Endoscopes”
Principal Investigators:
Rohit Mantena, student, Pitt School of Medicine Kamil Nowicki, resident, Department of Neurological Surgery Adi Mittal, student, Pitt School of Medicine Michael McDowell, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery
A nasal endoscope is a surgical tool with a camera and light at its tip, used during sinus and skull base tumor removal surgeries. During surgery, debris such as blood and mucus accumulates on the lens, blocking the view, which requires removal, cleaning and reinsertion of the lens each time visualization is lost. Dr. Mantena and colleagues are developing, ScOAPe, a self-cleaning endoscope attachment that will decrease surgical time, and therefore money, while reducing surgical errors.
This team is seeking to identify and develop compounds to treat osteoporosis and mineral ion disorders such as hypercalcemia, hyperparathyroidism. The technology has been published in Nature Chemical Biology and has a patent pending. The funding will assist in selecting the best compounds for further development through in vitro pharmacological characterization, efficacy and potency optimization of the selected molecules, and validation of the optimized compound in native cells.
“Small Molecule Inhibitor/Degrader of BCL11a for the Treatment of Sickle Cell Disease”
The team is working to identify a small molecule that inhibits the function of BCL11a, which has been demonstrated to increase production of fetal hemoglobin in people suffering from sickle cell disease leading to a resolution of their symptoms. The funding will be used to validate the affinity of hit molecules for action against BCL11a and to evaluate their characteristics.
“Engineered Fatty Acids for Treating Chronic Liver Disease”
Principal Investigators:
Francisco Schopfer, Associate Professor, Pharmacology & Chemical Biology;
Fei Chang, Research instructor, Pharmacology & Chemical Biology
The PIs are developing structurally engineered fatty acids to treat metabolic disorders and their underlying inflammatory conditions. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), their primary indication, is the leading cause of liver disease with no FDA-approved treatment options. The team’s lead candidate, FA-1101, showed promising anti-NASH effects in rodent models by modulating key enzymes in lipid metabolism. The funding will be used toward conducting proof-of-concept experiments to confirm the biological targets for the lead molecule.
“Development of a Novel Lead for the Chemical Modulation of Kv7 Potassium Channels”
Principal Investigator:
Peter Wipf, Department of Chemistry
Dr. Wipf’s lab is seeking to develop a new class of small molecules for engaging potassium ion channels that have potential therapeutic benefit for a wide variety of diseases, such as epilepsy, diabetes, tinnitus, neurodegeneration, and pain. These would represent an improvement over an initial class of drugs that were approved but eventually removed from the market due to significant side effects. Dr. Wipf plans to focus on early-stage clinical development of a new lead compound for epilepsy, and noise-induced tinnitus in collaboration with the Pitt Hearing Research Center.
“Reusable and Self-sterilizing 3D Printed HEPA Metal Filters”
Markus Chmielus, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Development of a 3D printed porous metal filter that can be reused, sterilizes itself, is easily recyclable, and can be adapted to various filtration needs, from personal protection in masks, to room-based air filtration or large HVAC systems.
“PACE-RTP: Perception-Action Coupling Evaluation for Return To Play”
Chris Connaboy, Assistant Professor, Sports Medicine and Nutrition
Many sports have introduced concussion diagnosis protocols. This project aims to reduce assessment time to between 2-5 minutes from the current period of 15 minutes.
” YouBiotics: Personalized Probiotics for Weight Management
Steven Little, Distinguished Professor, Chemical Engineering
This project seeks to help people manage weight by engineering their own microbiota to consume fat and re-administers the engineered bacteria as a probiotic supplement.
“LiDIA: Listening iDentification and Instant Amplification”
Catherine Palmer, Professor, Communication Science and Disorders
LiDIA directly addresses the main limitations of current hearing screening and amplification techniques. Instead of using an expensive set of calibrated headphones, the screening takes place with a set of inexpensive headphones that can be left on the user for immediate amplification purposes, and the screening may take place in noisy environments.
Vanish Therapeutics, Inc. ‑ Biodegradable Nerve Stimulator
Principal Investigators
Trent Emerick, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine; Tracy Cui, Department of Bioengineering; Raj Kubendran, PhD, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
A biodegradable nerve stimulator to treat acute and chronic pain. The stimulator is an injectable wire that is placed under the skin near the nerve of interest using ultrasound. The device does not require an incision or surgery to be implanted and is considered minimally invasive. The electrical stimulation would produce a soothing vibration in the area of interest. The device degrades over 3-6 months, however ample evidence exists in the medical literature that shows that temporary nerve stimulation can lead to long term pain relief due to brain plasticity and central nervous system changes at the level of the spinal cord.
Currently, many patients with refractory pain who have failed conservative therapies turn to permanent steel surgical stimulators as an option. These devices are costly and have an overall complication rate of 30-40%. These steel stimulators require surgery and an incision, which leads to higher health care costs from surgery/anesthesia, and many other complications that a biodegradable lead avoids. Compliance is also an issue with the surgical devices.
A prototype of the biodegradable device has been developed. The Gap Fund award will be used to develop a pain model to test the biodegradable stimulator versus a control. Additionally, it will be used to develop the conceptual framework and prototype for the external battery pack and circuitry design. A company, Vanish Therapeutics, was spun out of the University.
TVI
Principal Investigators
Michael Schnetz , Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology; Aman Mahajan, Chair, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine
A clinical decision support, software application system for clinicians to more safely manage blood pressure levels during surgery that enhances the quality of care while reducing its cost. More than 70% of all surgical patients are exposed to low blood pressure, increasing the cost of care approximately $2.9 million per 10,000 patients. The TVI algorithm uses individual patient characteristics to generate personalized blood pressure parameters associated with lowest risk of low pressure events. This technology makes it possible for clinicians to identify and therapeutically target the safest blood pressures according to patients’ individual characteristics. The current standard of care is for low blood pressure events to be treated after they happen and have already inflicted damage to vital organ systems.
A prototype TVI software application has been created from more than $100,000 in early investment from the Coulter Program at the Swanson School of Engineering and the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at UPMC. TVI software application has been vetted by UPMC and approved for implementation and clinical testing.
Universal SNAP-CAR T Cell Therapy
Principal Investigators
Primary: Jason Lohmueller, Assistant Professor, Departments of Surgery and Immunology;
Secondary: Alexander Deiters, Professor, Department of Chemistry
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy provides a personalized treatment for cancer that has led to remarkable long-lasting remissions in patients who previously had no other option. The extraordinary successes of CAR T therapy has led to the accelerated FDA approval of two therapies in 2017: Kymirah and Yescarta. To build on this current success the goal of the CAR T field is to treat other cancers using CAR T cells targeting different antigens to treat solid tumor patients, who are the majority of cancer patients.
The investigators have developed the SNAP “universal” CAR T cell platform technology, in which SNAP CAR T cells can be tailored to treat any tumor when combined with tumor-specific antibodies. Instead of directly recognizing a tumor cell, the SNAP CAR T cells have a receptor that binds to the benyzylguanine (BG) tag molecule attached to the co-administered tumor-targeting antibody. For therapy, the SNAP CAR T cells will be co-administered with one or more tagged antibodies targeting patient-specific tumor antigens. SNAP CAR T cells are a platform technology that can be combined with any tagged tumor-specific antibodies to potentially target many different tumor types, including both blood cancers and solid tumors.
The ultimate vision is that clinicians will perform diagnostic tests to determine what antigens are present on a patient’s tumor, and then decide what antibody or antibodies to co-administer along with the SNAP CAR T cells.
