BISMARCK – Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring announced that grants totaling $4.4 million have been awarded to foster the growth of the bioscience industry in North Dakota in the area of coronavirus research.
“The grants will help companies’ partner, assist and develop technologies to benefit coronavirus research, virus screening technologies, antibody therapies, immunotherapies and sanitation technologies,” Goehring said.
The state Emergency Commission approved $5 million in funding from the coronavirus relief bill for coronavirus research.
Organizations receiving grants are:
- SafetySpect, Inc. - $1.5 million for contamination inspection and disinfection management of COVID-19 impact on North Dakota industrial, institutional and school facilities
- ImmunoPrecise Antibodies (USA) Ltd. and its subsidiary Talem Therapeutics LLC - $1.5 million for development of antibody therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2
- BiomedProtection, LLC – $1,422,200 for electronic biology based computational platform to monitor coronavirus evolution and design immunotherapies and vaccines
Grant applications were reviewed and scored by a committee made up of Goehring, a representative from the bioscience association of North Dakota and a representative from the North Dakota Department of Commerce.