The IDEA Center at the University of Notre Dame has announced the awardees of this year’s Research Commercialization Grants (RCGs). The RCG is targeted, translational funding designed to accelerate the real-world impact of Notre Dame research by advancing the commercial readiness of the University’s most promising research inventions.
Supported by gifts from the IDEA Center’s Advisory Council, other donors, and funding from the University, the RCG enables researchers to work with industry experts to define and achieve commercially relevant, market-driven milestones that advance their technologies toward real-world impact.
“The innovations pitched by our faculty members this year showcase the depth of talent and translational vision across Notre Dame's research community,” said Karen Deak, executive director of the IDEA Center. “By bridging the gap between breakthroughs and market readiness, these grants allow us to accelerate technologies that address some of the world's most pressing challenges and support our researchers as they embody the University's mission to be a powerful means for doing good in the world.”
The faculty inventions selected for RCG support in this cycle span sustainable materials, cancer therapeutics, and biological nanoparticle manufacturing.
Manufacturing natural, fiber-based materials
Jason Carley, assistant professor of industrial design in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design, has developed a sustainable biocomposite material designed to replace medium density fiberboard (MDF), an engineered wood product that is widely used in residential construction. Carley’s material is made up of recycled cellulose and soy-based adhesives, in contrast with MDF’s composition of virgin timber and formaldehyde-based adhesives, and has proven comparable to MDF in early performance assessments. The RCG will support scaled development and more rigorous mechanical testing of Carley’s novel material, positioning it as a lightweight, commercially viable, domestically sourced alternative that could reduce dependence on imported materials across furniture, cabinetry, RV, and interior panel markets.
Reviving shelved cancer drugs
Many promising cancer drug candidates never reach patients because they damage healthy tissue at the high doses required to eliminate tumors. To address this challenge, Prakash Nallathamby, associate director of the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health, and Aurelie Brownsberger, a doctoral student in the Bioengineering Graduate Program, have invented a magnetoelectric nanoparticle platform designed to selectively deliver these drugs to cancerous tissue.
The delivery platform, called MagSiNs, chemically binds a drug to a nanoparticle that preferentially accumulates in tumor tissue by taking advantage of magnetoelectric differences between healthy and tumor tissue. Once embedded, the release of the drug is triggered by a brief electromagnetic pulse. The RCG will support the integration of MagSiNs with potent anticancer drug candidates developed by Herman Sintim, the Grace-Rupley Professor of Chemical Biology and associate director of the Harper Cancer Research Institute, to target an aggressive, high-mortality subtype of colorectal cancer. It will also support the generation of preclinical efficacy and safety data in colorectal cancer models, potentially enabling the renewed development of cancer therapies previously limited by toxicity.
Scaling production of novel drug delivery agents
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) — naturally occurring, lipid nanoparticles released by virtually all cells to communicate and transport cargo — are an emerging class of therapeutic and drug delivery agents. Current manufacturing approaches, however, are limited by low yield and limited scalability.
To address these limitations, Yichun Wang, the Keating-Crawford Collegiate Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, has developed an EV fabrication platform that increases particle production in cell cultures by up to eight-thousand percent. The platform, which mimics the natural tissues that produce EVs, is a mesh-like web of fibers that generates electricity when bent or stretched. The RCG will accelerate the pilot, optimization, and de-risking of a one-liter reactor for research-grade EV production, with the long term potential to enable cost-effective EV fabrication across the growing sector.
Learn more about research commercialization at Notre Dame by visiting the IDEA Center website. To learn more about the Research Commercialization Grants program, contact Benjamin Sheyko, Technology Development Program Manager.
Contact
Erin Fennessy Lawlor / Writing Program Manager
Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame
erin.lawlor@nd.edu / +1 574-631-8183
research.nd.edu / linkedin.com/company/undresearch
About Notre Dame Research
The University of Notre Dame is a leading global Catholic research university located in South Bend, Indiana (USA). Inspired by its Catholic mission and founder Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C.’s vision for the University to be “one of the most powerful means for doing good” in the world, Notre Dame’s faculty and students pursue globally significant research, scholarship, and creative endeavor that advances discovery, fosters innovation, and drives lasting positive impact. For more information, please visit NDR's website or NDR's LinkedIn. To learn more about the innovation unfolding at the University of Notre Dame, browse available intellectual property. To discuss licensing opportunities, contact Tim Joyce at tjoyce2@nd.edu.
Originally published by at ideacenter.nd.edu on July 23, 2026.