New Haven-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals and UConn recently announced a joint fund<\/a> to develop life-saving therapies for patients with rare and devastating diseases.<\/p>\nThe new fund expands upon existing research collaborations between \u00a0faculty and Alexion. David Goldhamer, a professor of molecular and cell biology, for instance, identified the cell type responsible for a group of rare and disabling disorders, and has developed disease models that can be used to test new potential therapies.<\/p>\n
Collaborations between UConn and industry have led to innovations in several fields, including precision medicine, sustainable technology, diagnostics, advanced materials and additive manufacturing, software, polymers and composites, bioinformatics, drug development and delivery, biomedical devices, nanotechnology, and cybersecurity.<\/p>\n
New UConn startups and external technology ventures can also find the physical space and business support they need in UConn\u2019s Technology Incubation Program (TIP), which has two major locations, in Storrs and at UConn Health in Farmington.<\/p>\n
\u201cA critical part of UConn\u2019s research mission is to support the development of innovative technologies coming out of University labs that could benefit Connecticut\u2019s citizens and grow the state\u2019s economy,\u201d said Jeffrey Seemann, UConn\u2019s vice president for research. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen very positive growth in the area of technology commercialization over the past several years, and we\u2019re confident the trend will continue, as UConn supports University startups and fosters new and existing relationships with our industry partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the Eversource partnership, researchers are working in the air as well as on the ground. Scientists from the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment are using\u00a0laser technology images from planes to create 3-D computer models of a neighborhood trees and phone, cable, and power lines. The outcome: a snapshot of tree growth rates that can impact utilities.<\/p>\n
Leveraging the expertise of UConn\u2019s faculty, post-doctoral and graduate researchers, and industry partners, experts are building the electric grid of the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe grid of the future will be unlike anything we\u2019ve encountered, with smart homes, smart cities, and an intelligent, interactive, automated grid,\u201d said Ken Bowes, vice president of transmission performance at Eversource Energy. \u201cWith our partnership with UConn, our vision for the Eversource Energy Center as a scientific, research, and operational hub is a reality. Our Center is ready to lead these important conversations, driving the innovations and advances that will create the grid of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fiscal 2016 was a record year for the UConn Foundation\u2019s fundraising for research, with the total more than double that of the previous record year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":123078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-122922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-uconn-storrs"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 22:26:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122922"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123215,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122922\/revisions\/123215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/123078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122922"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=122922"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=122922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a>The $9 million grant from Eversource, which will be spread out over five years, contributed to a record year in fiscal 2016 for the UConn Foundation<\/a>\u2019s fundraising for research, more than doubling its prior record year. Over the past three years, gifts and grants for research have grown dramatically from $7.1 million in 2014 and $9.6 million in 2015, to $25.3 million in 2016.<\/p>\n