Desai Receives Bridge Funding

September 2006 Tejal Desai, UC San Francisco Professor of Physiology and member and alumna of the Bioengineering Graduate Group, was one of two faculty to receive funding through the 2006 Rogers Bridging the Gap Award. The award, offered by the T. Gary and Kathleen Rogers Family Foundation and administered by QB3, is designed to make it easier for scientists to bridge what has been called the “valley of death,” the lack of funding available for a concept between the basic research phase and when it is ready for commercialization. Desai has received $250,000 to develop biomedical microdevices that will enable cancer chemotherapy drugs to be delivered more directly into the bloodstream. In addition, her work aims to diminish the toxicity that many cancer drugs exhibit towards healthy tissue through providing a lower dose that is more effective and selectively targeted. Read more about the award and research at QB3.