Category: People

Four HSIE scholars won the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Arkansas Seed Funding Pitch Competition, which took place in October. First place went to Gene MassID, whose team members included Megan Reed and Julia Tobacyk, both UAMS HSIE Postdoctoral Fellows. They won a $2,000 prize for future research and development of a diagnostic tool that will personalize the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive brain cancer. Among the 10 teams that received funding in the fall edition of the competition, there was also SiloLink, with the participation of HSIE scholars Kindann Fawcett, Postdoctoral Fellow, and Tiffany Miles, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences Department at UAMS. SiloLink, which won a $1,000 prize, is developing a tool that will gather behavioral data to develop health interventions for rural residents affected by food insecurity. This interdisciplinary team plans to use its funding to test the software it has created. Health Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HSIE) Training Program for Postdoctoral Fellows is an initiative that aims to help the next generation of health scientists transform their discoveries into benefits for health care, cosponsored by TRI and Bioventures. Without the HSIE program, we would not have made the necessary connections to bring our team’s elaborate and diverse skillset into the transnational research space, which is a career aspiration for most of us in this program. Kindann Fawcett, Postdoctoral Fellow at UAMS. You can read more about the pitch competition and the other teams in this post.