Midwest Biomedical Accelerator Consortium: MBArC

Summary: The NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative underpins the US national effort to developaccurate, rapid, user-friendly, and accessible testing for COVID-19 infection. The Midwest BiomedicalAccelerator Consortium (MBArC) is one of five national Research Evaluation And Commercialization Hub(REACH) centers funded by NIH to support the translation of novel scientific discoveries into business products that diagnose, prevent, and treat high-burden diseases affecting the US population. The purpose of thisadministrative supplement request is to leverage the highly aligned goals of the RADx and REACH programsby supporting three promising scientific teams that will develop novel and innovative technologies into point-of-care devices for diagnosing COVID-19 infection. Each scientific team will receive funding to perform proof-of-concept and product definition studies. The leadership of the MBArC hub will work closely with each team toassist them in achieving their milestones and de-risking their technologies. MBArC leadership will connectfunded teams to the academic and educational resources of the MBArC hub and REACH network. MBArCleadership will also work closely with NIH staff to promote the success of the funded teams and the RADxinitiative.