The director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Diabetes Center, who also founded a start-up focused on oral treatments for diabetes, received the Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HIIE)’s highest honor during the institute’s annual Innovation Awards Oct. 11, 2024.
Anath Shalev, M.D., the Nancy R. and Eugene C. Gwaltney Family Endowed Chair in Juvenile Diabetes Research in the UAB Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, was given the 2024 Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship. The start-up Shalev founded, TIXiMED, earlier this year received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Association for its novel Type 1 diabetes drug, TIX100, to proceed to clinical trials.
Shalev was one of a group of innovators who were honored with Innovation Awards, including:
Anath Shalev, M.D. (left) poses with her Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award along with HIIE Director Kathy Nugent, Ph.D. (Photo/Eric Gray)
- ReACT FND Health, Start-up of the Year – ReACT FND Health, founded by UAB Associate Professor of Psychiatry Aaron Fobian, Ph.D., focuses on treating pediatric functional neurological disorder (FND), which afflicts an estimated 300,000 Americans with symptoms such as seizure-like episodes, movement problems, dizziness, speech difficulties and other neurological symptoms.
- Station 41, Community Partner of the Year – Station 41 is a biotechnology commercialization hub at Southern Research that encompasses an accelerator, a venture studio, an incubator and a therapeutics development fund. Four UAB start-ups currently have space in the Station 41 incubator.
- Most Prolific Inventors, all of whom were named on four intellectual property disclosures in fiscal year 2024:
- Maria Grant, M.D., the Eivor and Alston Callahan, M.D., Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.
- Rubin Pillay, Ph.D., the Executive Director of the Marnix Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation and a Professor of Medicine and Assistant Dean for the Heersink School of Medicine.
- Steven Rothenberg, M.D., an Assistant Professor of Diagnostic Radiology in the Department of Radiology.
- Krishna Patel, Most Outstanding Entrepreneurship Student.
“We are thankful for the partnerships we have forged as we all work together to bring new inventions to the marketplace,” said Karen Bernard, Ph.D., senior licensing associate for the HIIE. “Our Innovation Award winners exemplify the best and brightest innovative minds on campus and in our community.”
The HIIE also inducted seven new members into the UAB Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors, which is in its third year of existence. Those new members include:
- Charles Elson, M.D., professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in the Heersink School of Medicine.
- Ho-Wook Jun, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering and the Heersink School of Medicine.
- Vivek Lal, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics in the Heersink School of Medicine.
- Joanne Murphy-Ullrich, Ph.D., retired professor of Molecular and Cellular Pathology in the Department of Pathology in the Heersink School of Medicine.
- Ashita Tolwani, M.D., professor in the Division of Nephrology in the Heersink School of Medicine.
- Anath Shalev, M.D., director of the UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center.
- Sadanandan Velu, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences.
-- Oct. 11, 2024