Submitted by sws139 on
Office for Innovation

Lab Bench to Commercialization (LB2C) Grant Program

Program Summary

The Eberly College of Science is committed to supporting our researchers in translating their research for society. Translation is an early part of technology transfer where scientific discoveries are aligned to tangible solutions addressing societal challenges. The Eberly’s Lab Bench to Commercialization Program (LB2C) is a competitive seed grant program designed to support early translational research ideas. Awarded projects will receive structured guidance and financial support to pursue their proposed technology, which may include $30K to $70K in direct expenses and/or assistantship support for a graduate student project champion. The intent of the program is to support a culture of ideation and translational research, provide hands-on training to participants, identify adoption paths for technologies, and grow a pipeline of inventions that may lead to technology transfer.

 

Please see the 2026 Call for Proposals for details.

 

Deadline

Proposals are due April 4, 2025, with award notices being made as soon as possible thereafter. 

 

Funding Period

The 2025-2026 funding period will run July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026. 

Past Recipients of the LB2C Grant

  • Marco Archetti (BIO) & John Liechty (Smeal): With contributions from the Smeal College of Business, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, and Eberly College of Science, their project will focus on advancing their COVID-19 antiviral biotechnology through critical pre-clinical studies.  
  • Ken Keiler (BMB): His project will use structure-aided design to generate improved compounds that target a ribosome rescue pathway and will result in a lead optimization campaign for a novel gram-negative antibiotic. Fund contributions came from both the Eberly College of Science and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.
  • Xiaojun (Lance) Lian (BIO): His project will focus on reprogramming in vivo neutrophils into CAR-Neutrophils using exosome-mediated modRNA vectors to effectively reduce tumor growth and increase survival rates in mice with glioblastoma. Fund contributions came from Eberly College of Science.
  • Sally Mackenzie (BIO) : Her project will focus on the use of a cloud-based methylome analysis platform to support an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) early diagnostic assay and various deliverables that will bridge the gap to venture capital investments. Fund contributions came from both the Eberly College of Science and Smeal College of Business.
  • Ken Keiler (BMB): His project will focus on developing an anticancer therapeutic targeting a mitochondrial ribosome rescue pathway.  
  • Scott Selleck (BMB): His project will focus on neurological degeneration prevention by inhibition of the heparin sulfate modifying enzyme, NDST1. 
  • Joyce Jose (BMMB) and colleagues: Her project will focus on developing a rapid, cost-effective, and adaptable assay for screening antiviral drug candidates.
  • Sally Mackenzie (BIO) and colleagues: Her project will focus on establishing a technology proof of concept for increasing crop plants’ yield by altering their epigenetics.
  • Lauren Zarzar (CHEM) and colleagues: Developing a method for producing new kinds of color-shifting materials based on a recently discovered optical effect that uses reflective structures at the microscale to generate iridescent structural color. Invent Penn State IP Navigator.
  • Ganesh Anand (CHEM) and colleagues: Investigating vulnerabilities on a virus that could be tapped to design targeted antibodies for use in antiviral therapies.
  • Joseph Cotruvo (CHEM) and colleagues: Developed a method for using a biological protein to detect and selectively capture rare earth elements (lanthanides) for industrial use. Find out more from the Invent Penn State IP Navigator.
  • Paul Cremer (CHEM) and colleagues: Developed a method utilizing temperature gradients to assess protein phase behavior, which enables high-throughput testing and accurate predictions of colloidal stability for therapeutic protein formulations. Find out more from the Invent Penn State IP Navigator.
  • Kenneth Keiler (BMB), John Alumasa (BMB), Sarah Ades (BMB), and colleagues: Developed novel antibiotic compounds by exploring inhibitors of a new transcription factor target.
  • Benjamin Lear (CHEM) and colleagues: Developed a method to use thermally cured thermoset compounds (e.g., silicone, rubbers, epoxies) in additive manufacturing. Find out more from the Invent Penn State IP Navigator and research video.
  • Xin Zhang (CHEM) and colleagues: Developed novel fluorescent protein tags to facilitate the detection of misfolded proteins and insoluble protein aggregates. Find out more from the Invent Penn State IP Navigator.
  • John Asbury (CHEM) and colleagues: Developed a novel type of transient absorption spectrometer that produces a higher signal-to-noise ratio, is easier to operate, requires less physical space, and can be manufactured/sold at a lower price point compared to current state-of-the-art spectrometers. Find out more from the Invent Penn State IP Navigator.
  • James Marden (BIOL), Scott Medina (BME), and colleagues: Developed novel recombinant lectins from environmental sources for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Find out more from the Invent Penn State IP Navigator.
  • Yu Zhang (STAT) and colleagues: Created a software computational tool that uses functional maps of the human genome to predict disease-specific cell types and genes underlying disease association. Find out more from the Invent Penn State IP Navigator and research video.
  • Susan Hafenstein (BMB) and Scott Lindner (BMB): developed versatile display scaffolds for CryoEM approaches. Invent Penn State IP Navigator
  • Suvrath Mahadevan (ASTRO) and colleagues: Developed a ball lens microscope for external use with a cell phone.
  • Sarah Assmann (BIOL), Philip Bevilacqua (CHEM), and colleagues: Developed a kit to determine the 3D structure of RNAs inside the cell. Find out more from the Invent Penn State IP Navigator.
  • Frank Pugh (BMB) and colleagues: Optimized a technology that characterizes epigenetic modifications on a genome-wide scale. Find out more from the Invent Penn State IP Navigator.
  • Mauricio Terrones (CHEM/PHYS), Siyang Zheng (BME), and colleagues: Developed a diagnostic device that uses a specially tuned carbon nanotube filter to capture and enrich viruses. Find out more from the research video.
  • Yanming Wang (BMB), Gong Chen (BIOL), and colleagues: Characterized a potential pharmaceutical therapeutic that allows the body to naturally fight cancer cell growth and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
  • Greg Ferry (BMB), Thomas Wood (CHE), Costas Marana (CHE), and colleagues: Refined a biological process by which methane could be cleanly converted to several products including a precursor to plastic or clean fuel.
  • Scott Phillips (CHEM) and colleagues: Developed an inexpensive, easy to use, microfluidic device composed of paper useful for diagnosing a wide variety of contaminants, such as detecting lead in water or pesticides on fruit.
  • Mauricio Terrones (CHEM/PHYS) and colleagues: Developed a thin graphene film that can be woven into fabrics or chemically altered to provide a wide range of properties. Find out more from the Invent Penn State IP Navigator.
  • Stephen Benkovic (CHEM), James Marden (BIOL), and colleagues: Developed a screen for new boron compounds displaying anti-fungal activity useful in agriculture and environmental settings.