Internal Funding Opportunity
Commercial Proof of Principle Grant Competition
Take your invention to the next level.
IP&C’s annual Commercial Proof of Principle (PoP) grant competition helps advance promising SickKids discoveries or inventions towards commercial products, with a view to attract new investment, enable partnerships and create new life science-based companies. Recipients receive project funding and support services to position them for the next step on their path towards commercialization: partnership, licensing or start-up formation.
Applications will be reviewed by the PoP competition committee where top projects will be invited to present a “Dragon’s Den” style pitch.
To learn more about the PoP grant competition, contact the IP&C office at ask.ipc@sickkids.ca.
Applications for the 2024 competition are now closed.
“PoP Funding allowed our team to conduct a clinical study for our orthopaedic medical device, with results demonstrating the device’s efficacy and indicating significant patient demand, With licensing on the horizon, this work has inspired us to continue innovating to bring novel ideas to the orthopaedic device market”
| Year | Award | Principal Investigator | Project Title | Classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | $100,000 | Dr. Charles Deber | Development of novel antimicrobial peptides against bacterial biofilms | Therapeutic |
| 2017 | $100,000 | Dr. Brian Kavanagh | Negative abdominal pressure for injured lungs | Medical Device |
| 2017 | $100,000 | Dr. Roman Melnyk | Advancing the development of a potent RAS-targeted therapeutic | Therapeutic |
| 2018 | $56,000 | Dr. Adrian James | Steerable Endoscopic Ear Surgery Instrument | Medical Device |
| 2018 | $99,680 | Dr. Jason Maynes | Machine Learning Algorithms for Toxicity and Cardiac Health (MATCH) | Therapeutic |
| 2018 | $148,199 | Dr. Jean-Philippe Julien | In vivo evaluation of the multabody platform for cancer immunotherapy | Therapeutic |
| 2019 | $100,000 | Dr. Robert Hamilton | Autoantibodies to Actin, Keratin and Connexin as biomarkers/mechanisms for Brugada Syndrome | Diagnostic |
| 2019 | $99,800 | Dr. Cynthia Hawkins | Clinical development of liquid biopsy for cancer detection and monitoring | Diagnostic |
| 2019 | $100,000 | Dr. Lynne Howell | Bioactive surfaces to prevent microbial biofilms | Medical Device |
| 2021 | $100,000 | Dr. Christine Bear | Developing a small molecule CFTR potentiator as a therapy for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) or bronchitis | Therapeutic |
| 2021 | $100,000 | Dr. Maryse Bouchard | Novel Dynamic Foot Abduction Bar for Clubfoot Brace Treatment | Medical Device |
| 2021 | $100,000 | Dr. Xi Huang | Treating glioblastoma using an ion channel-targeting designer interference peptide | Therapeutic |
| 2022 | $100,000 | Dr. Roman Melnyk | Advancing the development of gut-restricted bile acid derivatives to treat C. difficile disease | Therapeutic |
| 2022 | $100,000 | Dr. Steve Prescott | Automated pain behavior testing in mice | Medical Device |
| 2022 | $100,000 | Dr. Xi Huang | Identifying potassium channel modulators to target brain tumor-initiating cells | Therapeutic |
| 2023 | $100,000 | Dr. Lu-Yang Wang | Innovating Positive Allosteric Modulators of Potassium Channels to Treat Epilepsy | Therapeutic |
| 2023 | $100,000 | Dr. Xi Huang | Identifying Small Molecule Potassium Channel Inhibitors as Novel Cancer Therapeutics | Therapeutic |
| 2023 | $100,000 | Dr. John Parkinson | Smart Capsule for Non-Invasive Targeted Sampling and Delivery in the Gut | Medical Device |
| TOTAL | $1,803,679 |
PoP Grant Recipient 2021, 2022
“The SickKids Proof of Principle grant is the reason that our discovery can move along the preclinical-commercialization-clinical path. With it, we are making significant progress to provide a new therapy for brain cancer patients.”
Dr. Xi Huang
Senior Scientist, Developmental and Stem Cell Biology | Canada Research Chair in Cancer Biophysics
