Dr. Barr wins WVU Innovation Award
Taura and her team – Richard Giersch, Associate Director of Venture Development; Connie Tennant, a research nurse in the Barr Lab; and Ashley Petrone, a Neuroscience graduate student in the Barr Lab – were awarded the “2015 Early Career Innovator Award” during the second annual WVU Innovation Award ceremony on September 22. In February 2014, Barr, Giersch and third partner Valerie Gionis, co-founded CereDx, a startup company that is working to bring this groundbreaking technology to market. When asked about how she felt about winning the award, Dr. Barr said, “Being recognized by this award from my colleagues that our work is relevant, innovative and worthy of continued investment is a genuine gift, and definitely one that we are very proud of in the Barr Lab!”
Stroke is the third leading cause of death in West Virginia, behind heart disease and cancer. The tool that Barr and her team developed will allow medical personnel to detect and diagnose stroke using a simple blood test. The test can be quick and accurate, and works by measuring the presence of RNA and protein biomarkers to determine if a person is having a stroke, and when it began.
Currently, the gold standard for determining whether a person is having a stroke is either advanced imaging, MRI or CT, or Neurologist assessment, which are expensive and time consuming. The test that Dr. Barr and her team are developing would allow medical personnel to quickly determine whether someone is having a stroke and if they are within the time window for treatment. Access to this point-of-care tool would allow hospitals in rural areas to provide better, faster, and more efficient care to their stroke patients, changing the way stroke is treated in remote areas. “This test would transform the way we approach stroke care and treatment in our state. It would allow patients to be transferred to advanced stroke treatment facilities faster and start treatment quicker, ultimately allowing for improved outcomes for our stroke patients.”
The Early Career Innovator Award honors a WVU faculty member who has been with the university for six years or less, and “whose work exemplifies the spirit of innovation, commercialization, and/or entrepreneurship.” Sole judging is based on the recognition of excellence in applied innovation, using four specific judging criteria: the quality and status of the project’s development; the impact on society; the contribution to university innovation, commercialization, or entrepreneurship; and the use of WVU resources. Barr and her team were chosen based on their research’s potential to produce jobs, advance the medical field, and be a strong ROI for WVU, the community, and the world. CereDx is hoping to make this groundbreaking diagnostic test available in five years.
For more information on Dr. Barr’s Innovation Award and research, visit one of the links below:
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WVU researcher honored for stroke indicator
WVU announces Innovation Award winners