AR Health Ventures Accelerator Announces 2025 Cohort 

BioVentures LLC is pleased to announce selection of the 2025 cohort for the AR Health Ventures Accelerator (ARHVA): John Arthur, M.D., Ph.D., UAMS Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Nephrology; Marie Burdine, Ph.D., UAMS Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Zachary Waldrip, Ph.D., UAMS Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Research.  

ARHVA helps UAMS employees turn scientific discoveries into new drugs, diagnostics and devices with the goal of advancing biomedical research at UAMS and streamlining the translation of innovations to improve health for the public. 

The 2025 cohort is developing innovations related to predicting the likelihood a kidney injury will progress into severe acute kidney injury, reducing the likelihood of donor kidney rejection after transplants, and treating gastrointestinal conditions caused by bacterial infections with a new bioengineered treatment. 

Each ARHVA cohort member receives $50,000 to support their research and discovery development as well as individualized administrative support and guidance from ARHVA’s board of directors and BioVentures staff. 

“There were many high-quality proposals submitted by this year’s applicants. Everyone at UAMS can be proud of the incredible research advances that are happening here,” ARHVA Director John D. Imig, Ph.D., said. “With programs at BioVentures like ARHVA, we aim to take these innovations beyond the walls of UAMS – and to the public – making new drugs, therapeutics, clinical innovations and health tech accessible on an accelerated timeline.” 

Read more about the innovative pursuits of this year’s ARHVA cohort: 

  • Arthur is developing a lab test to predict whether a patient with a kidney injury is likely to develop severe acute kidney injury (AKI), a more serious and often life-threatening condition, by detecting the presence of specific proteins in a urine sample. This technology, for which he has already filed a patent, would be an improvement on current tools that do not predict AKI outcomes and would provide clinicians with better information for assessing treatment options. This work is also supported by a federal grant from the Small Business Technology Transfer program. 
  • Burdine is working to address a significant issue in kidney transplantation, delayed graft function, which affects 30% of patients and can result in the body rejecting the new kidney. Burdine has identified a particular gene that in some patients can be overactive and lead to a chain reaction of post-surgery complications resulting in delayed graft function. Burdine has developed a new drug, patent pending, that blocks the negative effects of this gene. Co-inventors include Lyle Burdine, M.D., Ph.D., Surgical Director of the UAMS Solid Organ Transplant Program; and Brendan Frett, Ph.D., Department of Pharmaceutical Science. 
  • Waldrip aims to address gastrointestinal conditions caused by bacterial infections, which are common in parts of the world without adequate access to clean drinking water or medical care. Once in the body, these bacteria secrete toxic proteins that damage the GI tract. Waldrip is targeting these proteins with a probiotic yeast carrying an antibody that neutralizes their damaging toxic effects. 
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