{"id":106992,"date":"2026-02-06T13:34:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/106992\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:34:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:34:05","slug":"genentech-awards-300k-to-philadelphias-university-science-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/106992\/","title":{"rendered":"Genentech awards $300k to Philadelphia\u2019s University Science Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

Money Moves<\/a>\u00a0is a recurring series where we chart the raises, grants, contracts, mergers and other funding news of tech companies across our regions. Have a tip? Email us at\u00a0philly@technical.ly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia life sciences sector continues to dominate regional investment this year, with both private and public funds sustaining growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The University City Science Center received $300,000 from biotech giant Genentech, supporting an initiative to identify gaps in the region\u2019s life sciences sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The City of Philadelphia also distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars in matching grants to local life sciences companies. Plus, a local medical device company closed out 2025 with a $158 million raise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Get all the details and more money moves below.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Science Center secures $300k from Genentech\u00a0<\/p>\n

Global biotech company and Roche subsidiary Genentech is giving the University City Science Center<\/a> a $300,000 grant to support the org\u2019s Translation Project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Publicly launched last summer<\/a>, the Translation Project helps Philly\u2019s life sciences ecosystem identify gaps to hopefully bring more companies\u2019 products to market, Tiffany Wilson, president and CEO of the Science Center, told Technical.ly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve talked with Genentech for a long time, and I think they shared in this shared frustration of how long it takes for proven innovations, amazing science, to actually reach patients,\u201d Wilson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The funding will create a Healthcare Innovation Translation Council to identify goals for the region and connect stakeholders. The group will be made up of leaders from local institutions like the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University and Independence Blue Cross, along with representatives from industry stakeholders like Genentech.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Science Center will also put together an academic paper that outlines the state of the ecosystem and how companies can get their product ideas to commercialization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This news follows a wave of big announcements for the region\u2019s life sciences sector, including two recent investments from global biopharma company Eli Lilly<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These are signals of momentum for companies from the early to the late stage, Wilson said. But it\u2019s also important to step back and see how all of these resources fit together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m zooming out and saying, at the end of the day, if we want to continue to catalyze entrepreneurship in life sciences and healthcare technology in Greater Philadelphia,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cWhere are there opportunities to do that in unique ways by leveraging the assets of our ecosystem?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

City program matches SBIR and STTR grants for life science startups<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Department of Commerce awarded $450,000 in matching grants<\/a> to local life sciences companies in January. The funds will match the amount companies have received from federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards in 2022 or later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city is also working with the University City Science Center to offer additional resources and help each awardee with its commercialization goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Philly, we focus on collaboration and solutions,\u201d Rebecca Grant, senior director of life sciences and innovation for the city, wrote on LinkedIn<\/a>. \u201cBased on the success of our SBIR\/STTR matching grant pilot, we anticipate reopening the program later this year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Currently, the SBIR\/STTR program is frozen<\/a>, as Congress hasn\u2019t moved to allocate more funding since it dried up in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Impulse Dynamics raises $158M<\/p>\n

Medical device company Impulse Dynamics raised $158 million<\/a> at the end of 2025, contributing to the region\u2019s top deals last quarter<\/a>. PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association\u2019s quarterly Venture Monitor report listed the raise as $242 million. Impulse Dynamics did not immediately respond to Technical.ly\u2019s request for comment.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The South Jersey-based company is focused on developing treatments for people with heart failure. This funding will support commercialization, development of new products and clinical trials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cImpulse Dynamics is uniquely positioned to fill a critical gap in [heart failure] care: providing symptom relief for patients who have limited treatment options beyond medications,\u201d Guido Neels, chairman of the company\u2019s board of directors, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More money moves:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Behavioral health platform Ritten announced a $35 million Series B<\/a> at the end of 2025. The funding supports the company\u2019s work with mental health and addiction treatment providers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Montgomery County-based Third Arc Bio brought in a $52 million Series A extension<\/a>, with contributions from a16z as a new investor. The biotech company\u2019s lead product is a treatment for cancer patients with tumors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority awarded $6.2 million<\/a> total to three tech companies through the New Jersey Innovation Evergreen Fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Wistar Institute\u2019s Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center received an \u201cexceptional\u201d rating<\/a> from the National Cancer Institute during the renewal process of its Cancer Center Support Grant. This grant will provide $16.3 million to the research center over the next five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recent SEC filings:<\/p>\n

This story is made possible thanks to support from\u00a0Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania<\/a>, a nonprofit that leads the Philadelphia region\u2019s equitable economic growth by nurturing and investing in innovative, early-stage companies, and through purposeful involvement in regional and national initiatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Money Moves\u00a0is a recurring series where we chart the raises, grants, contracts, mergers and other funding news of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[676,25707,4774,69,71,70,5399],"class_list":{"0":"post-106992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-funding","9":"tag-life-sciences","10":"tag-municipal-government","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","13":"tag-philadelphia-news","14":"tag-startups"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}