Gilhuly Accelerator Fund Invests Over $1M in Duke Inventor Projects in its Inaugural Year
“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.
The Gilhuly Accelerator Fund is the brainchild of Duke alumni and Board of Trustees member Ned Gilhuly, veteran Duke scientist and executive R. Sanders “Sandy” Williams, and Associate VP for Translation & Commercialization Robin Rasor.
Rasor and the Office for Translation & Commercialization recognized that many early stage inventions needed further support to enable them to be attractive to third party investors. Together with Williams, they saw an opportunity to complement the Duke Science and Technology Initiative push to bet big on innovative research and its commercialization with a new translational fund.
The key partner to bring in was an excited donor experienced in the field of helping bring innovations to market. Enter Ned Gilhuly.
Graduating from Duke University Magna Cum Laude in 1982 with a B.A. in History and Economics, Gilhuly went on to receive an M.B.A. in 1986 from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He then joined the investment giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) and moved all the way up to Partner before eventually leaving with some colleagues to start his own investment firm, Sageview Capital.
Sageview has over $1.5 billion in assets under management and provides growth capital to small and mid-sized software and tech-enabled service companies.
Gilhuly had for years been interested in supporting Duke innovations in a unique way and instantly seized on the exciting opportunity of a commercialization-focused, early-stage university technology accelerator program.
“I’m a big believer in fostering an effective entrepreneurial ecosystem that has the potential to pay great dividends in terms of commercialization as well as creating opportunities for Duke graduates,” said Gilhuly, speaking early in FY23 about his family’s $23.75 million gift supporting Duke’s Science and Technology initiative. “I would like to see that ecosystem, where interesting companies are being formed, continue to develop in the Research Triangle. Duke plays a vital role in this as do its partnerships with other research institutions in the region. I want our fund to help fertilize and develop that ecosystem.”
A nascent program with only a year under its belt, the Gilhuly Accelerator Fund has already made a sizeable impact.
“What we were doing in the lab was very small scale,” said Professor of Chemistry Benjamin Wiley, who received a Gilhuly Accelerator Fund award for his research on improving green hydrogen generation. “What we first did with the Gilhuly funds was make a larger scale electrolyzer that allowed us to operate on elevated temperatures and pressures.”
Over $1 million has already been allocated to 14 ongoing projects from across the School of Medicine, the Pratt School of Engineering, and the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. These teams have also gone on to receive significant follow-on funding: over $3 million, a great indicator that these projects, though early-stage, are high potential.
“We had what we thought was a great idea – the question was: ‘Do we have a business?’” said Professor of Pediatrics Sujay Kansagra during his project presentation at the annual meeting. “That’s the exact timing where the funding came through for us,” Kansagra said, emphasizing that the Gilhuly Accelerator Fund award he received helped him not only polish a business case for the product but also build a prototype.
Thanks in part to this investment, Kansagra spun out a smart mattress start-up – Lullabee – which is on track to bring their child sleep-teaching product to the market next year.
Accelerating commercialization by supporting asset development and de-risking activities piqued the interest Jungsang Kim, the Schiciano Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, a professor of physics, and the co-founder of quantum computing start-up IonQ.
Together with his wife, Soyeon Nam, Kim recently donated $1 million to the fund to support his fellow Duke inventors – the first time a faculty member has given back to a DST effort, notes Hutter.
“Whenever there’s an entrepreneurial activity, if the company doesn’t succeed, nobody wins,” said Kim at the time. “We should make sure that we take the risk together, make sure the company is successful, make sure that the limited amount of resources they have is invested in developing the right technology team to make the company successful.”
The added capabilities that the Gilhuly Accelerator Fund brings to OTC, is already demonstrating that it can help jump start some critical innovations that will have a positive impact on society.
“Although the Fund has only been operating for just over a year, we are seeing positive results in terms of follow on funding, spin out formation, and higher quality intellectual property protection for our early-stage technologies,” said Rasor. “We plan to further expand its reach into a broader range of technologies and faculty in the coming years.”
How to get involved
Potential Gilhuly Accelerator Fund projects are evaluated on a monthly basis by an internal review committee of OTC leadership, with the support of external advisors from our Duke network who provide expert opinions.
Potential projects are brought forth to the committee by OTC licensing managers. If you are interested in applying, please submit an invention disclosure form and/or talk to your assigned licensing manager.
Key facts
- Available for all projects with Duke-owned intellection property with commercial potential
- Target range for funding is $10k-$200k, which may be tranched based on milestones
- Funds MAY be used for salary/stipend related to the project and external services like CROs
- Funds MAY NOT be used for F&A, tuition support, purchasing capital equipment
- Funded projects are required to participate in regular team updates and reports
If you have any further questions, reach out to your assigned licensing manager or to otcquestions@duke.edu.