Blavatnik Awardees
The fund’s areas of support reflect the diverse innovations taking place at Yale, as well as the areas of greatest need in medicine today. These new therapeutics and platform technologies have the potential to change the paradigm of treatment in many medical fields.
Links to historical 5-minute pitches are provided below. For an up-to-date non-confidential deck please contact either Morag Grassie (morag.grassie@yale.edu) or Jennifer Beecham (jennifer.beecham@yale.edu).
2025 Awardees
Carrie Lucas, PhD, Associate Professor of Immunobiology
Resetting the immune system for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases
Christopher Bunick, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Dermatology
Novel treatment for hypertrophic and keloidal scarring
Craig Crews, PhD, John C. Malone Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; Professor of Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Management
BioLong: Extending serum half-lives of therapeutics
Demetrios Braddock, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology
Targeting genetically associated obesity
John Elefteriades, MD, William W.L. Glenn Professor of Surgery (Cardiac)
AI-powered risk assessment tool for aortic aneurysms: Enhancing clinical decision-making for aortic-repair surgery
Jung Han, PhD, William A. Norton Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Optical sensing solution for an accessible, non-invasive continuous blood glucose monitor (NIGM)
Markus Müschen, MD-PhD, Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Professor of Medicine (Hematology) and Professor of Immunobiology
A new class of selective GSK3B-inhibitors for refractory lymphoid malignancies and autoimmunity
Martin Schwartz, PhD, Robert W. Berliner Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Professor of Biomedical Engineering and of Cell Biology
Therapeutic targeting of protocadherin gamma A9 (Pcdhga9)
Mohini Ranganathan, MBBS, Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Simulated Psychedelic Healthcare Intervention (Si-PHI)
Qingyu Chen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science
Multimodal AI Copilot for eye doctors
Richard Kibbey, MD, PhD, Ensign Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology and Metabolism), and Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology
Small molecule incretin hormone amplifier for the treatment of obesity and diabetes
Samit Shah, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiology)
Angiomedix: revolutionizing the diagnosis of heart disease
Seth Herzon, PhD, Milton Harris '29 PhD Professor of Chemistry
DNA Self-Activating Warheads (SAWs)
Stephen Waxman, MD, PhD, Bridget Flaherty Professor of Neurology and of Neuroscience and Pharmacology and Chuan-Ju Liu, PhD, Charles W. Ohse Professor of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation
Preventing the progression of osteoarthritis by preventing joint degeneration
Yingqun Huang, MD, PhD, Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences
Inflammation & Immunology Breakthrough: Molecular glues for the selective elimination of pathogenic macrophages
2024 Awardees
Berna Sozen, PhD,* Assistant Professor of Genetics
ExoMetri: Unlocking human embryo implantation and reproductive success through synthetic embryology
Christopher Bunick, MD, PhD,* Associate Professor of Dermatology
Small Molecule Vimentin Inhibitor
Madhav Menon, MBBS, MD,* Associate Professor
Urine-Based Liquid Biopsy for progressive kidney diseases
Markus Müschen, MD-PhD,* Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Professor of Medicine (Hematology) and Professor of Immunobiology
Selective GSK3B Inhibitors for Refractory B-Cell Malignancies
Mohini Ranganathan, MBBS,* Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Simulated Psychedelic Immersive Experience: Healthcare Intervention for Depression (Si-PHI)
Richa Sharma, MD, MPH,* Assistant Professor
StrokeClassifier
Richard Kibbey, MD, PhD,* Ensign Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology and Metabolism), and Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology
Biolamp Therapeutics: Small Molecule Incretin Amplifiers
Seth Herzon, PhD,* Milton Harris '29 PhD Professor of Chemistry
DNA SAWs
Frank Buono, PhD, Associate Research Scientist in Psychiatry
Dynamic 3D Morphometric Analysis
Craig M Crews, PhD, John C. Malone Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Professor of Chemistry, of Pharmacology, and of Management; Executive Director, Yale Center for Molecular Discovery
Fimmti Therapeutics
Antonio Giraldez, PhD, Fergus F. Wallace Professor of Genetics
RESA Therapeutics: Engineering Therapeutic mRNAs
Peter M. Glazer, MD, PhD, Robert E. Hunter Professor of Therapeutic Radiology and Professor of Genetics; Chair, Therapeutic Radiology
Altera Therapeutics
Raymond Johnson, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbial Pathogenesis; Director ID/Rheum Research Conference, Internal Medicine
Biotherapeutic for Systemic Sclerosis
Daryl Klein, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pharmacology
Asteryks Therapeutics: Developing the First ROS1 Biologics for Cancer
Emily Lee, MD, Assistant Professor Adjunct and Jose Cortes-Briones, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Non-Invasive Fetal Electroencephalogram (EEG)
Alicia Little, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Dermatology, Director of Yale Vulvar Dermatology Clinic
Novel Mechanism for Treating Cutaneous Lupus: Topical Non-Steroid Treatment
Peggy Myung, MD, PhD, Vice Chair of Research; Associate Professor of Dermatology and of Pathology
NuFoll: Programming Skin Cells to Regrow Natural Hair
Steven Reilly, PhD, Assistant Professor of Genetics
CODA – Bringing Specificity to Gene Therapy
Jason Sheltzer, PhD, Assistant Professor of Surgery (Oncology) and of Genetics
Expanding the Universe of Cancer Therapies by Targeting Aneuploidy
Prashanth Vallabhajosyula, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Surgery (Cardiac); Surgical Director of the Aortic Institute, Cardiac Surgery; Associate Program Director Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency, Surgery
Trexome: A Novel Non-Invasive Biomarker Platform for Heart Transplant Rejection Monitoring
*Accelerator Awardees
2023 Awardees
Farida Ahangari: Targeting Profibrotic Macrophages Using Mir-33 Inhibitors, a Novel Therapeutic Approach for Pulmonary Fibrosis
Anton Bennett: Allagium Therapeutics - Driving change to better health
Amber Childs*: M-Select - Mental health data that connects the dots
Jose Cortes-Briones & Emily Lee*: Non-invasive fetal brain monitoring
Vicente Diaz: Extended Release Latanoprost Wafer for the Treatment of Glaucoma
Lynn Fiellin: Playbl: Harness the power of play to enable healthier and better lives for adolescents
Michael Girardi and Jingjing Ren: Immunotherapeutics to Treat T Cell Leukemias and Lymphoma
Peter Glazer: Enabling the next generation of safe gene editing therapeutics
Yingqun Huang*: Treating cancer-associated cachexia using a first-in-class molecule
Rohan Khera: ENSIGHT-AI
Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio*: StretchTex
Anthony Koleske: A novel treatment for schizophrenia
Ruslan Medzhitov: To identify a new class of therapeutics for inflammatory diseases
Peggy Myung*: Programming dermal cells to stimulate hair regeneration
Ian Odell & Richard Flavell: Epiregulin Inhibition to Treat Scleroderma Skin and Lung Fibrosis
David Spiegel: Transmembrane Anchoring Bifunctional Molecules for Immunotherapy
Thuy Tran*: Bispecific MIF - D-DT Targeting to Enhance Immunotherapy Responses
*Accelerator Awardees
2022 Awardees
Alan Anticevic: Manifest Technologies
Angélique Bordey: Treating epilepsy in a genetically defined disorder, tuberous sclerosis complex
Jean-Ju Chung: The CatSper Male Contraceptive
John Deacon: Improving Small Molecule Therapy Through Targeted Drug Delivery to Solid Tumors
Anne Eichmann: Monoclonal Antibody Mediated Blood-Brain Barrier Opening
Mark Fields: Development of Novel Therapeutics for the Treatment of Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Lynn Fiellin: Building a Data/Risk Analytics Dashboard to Identify At-Risk Teens Through Videogame Play
Jaime Grutzendler: Reversing Axonal Spheroids and Conduction Defects in Alzheimer’s Disease
Gloria Huang: De Novo Pyrimidine Synthesis Inhibition for the treatment of ARID1A-Mutated Ovarian Cancers and other Solid Tumors
Akiko Iwasaki: Pan-Antiviral Antibodies
Smita Krishnaswamy: MoirAI: An Artificial Intelligence Enabled Integrative Omics Drug Discovery Platform
Bruce Wexler: Next-Gen Treatment for CNS Disorders: Digital Neurotherapy from C8 Sciences
Qin Yan: Epigenetic Immunotherapy
2021 Awardees
Choukri Ben Mamoun: Novel Therapy for Pantothenate Kinase-Associated Neurodegeneration
Demetrios Braddock: Targeting NETs in Human Disease
Joseph Contessa: Developing Therapeutic OST inhibitors
Anjelica Gonzalez: Aero Therapeutics, Inc
Mustafa Khokha: Small molecule regulation of β-catenin nuclear transport: new targets against cancer
Nikhil Malvankar: Faster, Reliable & Scalable DNA Sequencing using Biomolecular Electronics
Anna Pyle: Intron Therapeutics: Targeting the unique features of fungal metabolism to build a new generation of nontoxic drugs
Faye Rogers: Direct Targeting of Amplified Cancer Driver Genes as a Therapeutic Strategy
2020 Awardees
Kumar Ashtekar / Mark Lemmon: Drugging Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva
Jeffrey Bender: Target Site Blocker (TSB) of the IL-17A-miR466l-3p Interaction Prevents Progressive and Relapsing Remitting EAE
Choukri Ben Mamoun: EliV5: First-in-Class Antifungal Drugs
Ranjit Bindra: Athena Therapeutics - Targeting cancer at its core
Jonathan Bogan: Combatting obesity through a novel mechanism 2020
Sidi Chen: MAEGI Medicine - New Paradigm of Immune Gene Therapy
John Deacon: he Tumor Activated Permeability Platform: Targeting tumor acidity to enhance efficacy of known small molecule cancer therapeutics.
Barbara Ehrlich: NCS1-A New Target Enabled Therapeutic Approach for Wolfram Syndrome
Peter Glazer: Antibody-mediated gene editing
Ya Ha / Jonathan Ellman: Lkit Therapeutics: Exploiting synthetic lethality to target p53 mutant cancers
Akiko Iwasaki: CynAxis: Traversing the Blood Brain Barrier
Andrew Miranker: Breaking toxin propagation in multiple system atrophy
2019 Awardees
Sidi Chen: EvolveImmune: First in class cancer vaccines
John Deacon: Cytosolix: Improving small molecule therapy through targeted drug delivery to solid tumors
Naftali Kaminski: Sobetirome Clinical Trial for COVID-19 ARDS & Vittix Therapeutics: Curing Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis with Thyroid Hormone Mimetics
Andrew Miranker: ADM THERAPEUTICS, LLC
Anna Pyle: Intronistat Therapeutics: Targeting the unique features of fungal metabolism for a new generation of nontoxic drugs
Aaron Ring: Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Inflammation and Cell Death in Sepsis
David Spiegel: MODA Pharmaceuticals
Paul Turner: Paci-PHI: Evolution-proof therapy against MDR bacterial pathogens
2018 Awardees
Jeffrey Bender: Target Site Blocker (TSB) of the IL-17A-miR466l-3p Interaction Prevents Progressive and Relapsing Remitting EAE
Anna Pyle / Akiko Iwasaki: Activating Immunity: RIG-I agonists as next-gen immunotherapies
Aaron Ring: Engineered IL-18 immunotherapy: An untapped cytokine pathway
Alanna Schepartz: Cell permeable miniature proteins
Paul Turner: Paci-PHI: Evolution-proof therapy against MDR bacterial pathogens
2017 Awardees
Anton Bennett: Targeting fibrosis by inhibition of phosphatases
Elliott Brown: A Novel Bone Marrow Aspiration Device
Andrew Miranker: TetraQ Therapeutics
Anna Pyle: Selective RNA vaccines for cancer
Mark Saltzman & Michael Girardi: StraDEFY Biodegradable Micro-Encapsulated Sunscreen
Alanna Schepartz: An Improved Strategy to Traffic Proteins into Cells
Stephen Strittmatter: Dual Fyn Pyk2 Kinase Inhibition for Alzheimer's Disease
Andrew Xiao: Rarebase Therapeutics