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DUB Biologics, a research team at SUNY Upstate Medical University, won $50,000 in the FuzeHub Commercialization Competition for developing a therapeutic that helps to reduce fibrosis — commonly known as scarring — during the NYS Innovation Summit earlier this month.

With the funding, DUB Biologics co-founders Audrey Bernstein, Ph.D., and Tere Williams hope to progress their research forward to minimize fibrosis’ impacts and eventually release a medical product.

The team competed against 12 other tech startups as part of the NYS Innovation Summit. FuzeHub is a nonprofit organization that works to connect small manufacturing companies to necessary resources. Its competition aims to fund the commercialization of these companies.

“Until (businesses) actually are attractive enough to get further investments there is a gap of funding,” said Patty Rechberger, innovation fund manager for FuzeHub. “That’s the gap that we aim to fulfill.”

Bernstein and Williams co-founded DUB Biologics in March 2022. Bernstein is a professor in SUNY Upstate Medical University’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and a research scientist for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Bernstein said she recruited Williams to the project because of her scientific background as a immunologist and her business experience, which includes founding the health and science consulting firm SIMON|PETRk Co., Bernstein said.

Though their research currently focuses on scarring in the eye and improving wound closures, Bernstein said she and Williams have a long-term goal of treating internal fibrotic diseases.

The research team’s therapeutic is a topically-delivered medication that can help prevent scarring and inflammation in the cornea. It aims to address the impacts of fibrosis, which is the body tissue’s reparative response to damage. The scarring causes excess connective tissue buildup, affecting organ functions.

If highly developed, fibrosis can lead to organ malfunction and in some cases death, according to the American Lung Association. A February study from the International Journal of Molecular Sciences found that up to 45% of all fatalities in the industrialized world are caused by fibrosis, according to The National Library of Medicine.

Bernstein said she has a passion for improving people’s quality of life and specifically wants to help prevent loss of sight with her work.

“How can we make this better for aging people? When they lose their eyesight, it’s just really a terrible, terrible loss, and can we prevent that?” Bernstein said.

Williams said a childhood interest in immunology is what drives her work. Though she left her program early to join Bernstein, she is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Pathology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.

Williams said the past year has proven successful for the research group, as they also previously won $50,000 in August at the SUNY Start Up Summer School Demo Day and received a grant.

As the team moves forward with this funding in hand, Williams said DUB Biologics remains in the first steps of commercialization. The prize money from FuzeHub will aid the group in its next step to release a pilot product, Bernstein said.

Bernstein said moving forward will require testing to understand the safety of the therapeutic and how effective it is in the human body.

“It’s very hard to do what we’re doing in terms of becoming financially successful. We hope that we’re on our way,” Bernstein said.

Published on November 1, 2023 at 12:12 am

Contact Delia: dsrangel@syr.edu