Somewhat different in type from the typical SBIR-involved firm, Virtici is a product-development company structured around to improving the quality of life and to save lives with a focus primarily on enabling development of products to improve the ways cancer, autoimmunity, and cardiovascular/metabolic diseases are treated. In that capacity the firm has been awarded by NIH a three year $3.5 M award to support one of anumber of Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence. Virtici will create and operate a Regional Technology Transfer Accelerator Hub in the Western region (the ASCEND Accelerator Hub: NM, AK, ID, HI, MT, NV and WY). Hub will actively collaborate with eleven leading research institutions in the Western region and the other three Hubs in Central, Southeast, and Northeast regions. The defined goal is to educate faculty within the various institutions re. commercialization of their research: startup funding and finding business partners,
