The goal of the Translational Science Incubator is to advance early stage projects by leveraging both drug discovery resources and funding. The major activities of the Translational Science Incubator are outlined below.
- Provide funding for early proof-of-concept activities (e.g., assay development, in vivo efficacy studies in relevant animal models, validation studies with clinical samples) to render projects more mature for licensing or progression to the Virtual Accelerator [1]
- Facilitate target validation work to further dissect mechanisms of disease and biomarkers to support translation of these discoveries into new therapeutics
- Help establish and guide small working groups of basic and clinical investigators with complementary interests, directed to discovery and development of new therapeutics, with the expectation for development of collaborative federal/nonprofit grants and industry-academic partnerships