With the arrival of the new year comes a new round of funding and commercialization support from the Biolocity program, which also is welcoming a new managing director.

Innovation leader Courtney Law joined the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering Nov. 30 to lead Biolocity, where she will help all Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology faculty develop new biomedical innovations with commercial potential.

“I am passionate about supporting early stage innovations with the potential to impact human health,” said Law, who earned her Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and spent nearly a decade as a researcher in drug discovery, focusing on asthma, anticoagulation, and Type 2 diabetes. “As a part of the Biolocity team, I am able to assist these innovations as faculty navigate the commercialization pathway by providing critical resources —funding, consulting, networking and mentorship.”

Biolocity provides a combination of funding, project management, and consulting resources to new technologies, therapies, and diagnostics from Emory or Georgia Tech that address unmet clinical needs and have compelling commercial potential. Since 2015, the program has awarded more than $7 million across 50 projects, generating 10 times that much follow-on investment.

Law’s career has revolved around just that kind of work in innovation and entrepreneurship, first in the Southeast and then in the Pacific Northwest.

“With her breadth and depth of experience, Dr. Courtney Law is the perfect person to lead Biolocity into the future,” said Susan Margulies, Wallace H. Coulter Chair of the Coulter Department. “Courtney will help us drive Biolocity’s exciting expansion to support the growth in biomedical innovation at Emory and Tech.”

Law comes to Atlanta from Seattle, where she was inaugural director of Gonzaga University’s regional health partnership with the University of Washington School of Medicine. Before that, she worked at Life Science Washington, developing the Washington Innovation Network for Life Sciences Entrepreneur Mentoring Program as well as an initiative to expose graduate students to entrepreneurship. She has served as a consultant for the University of Washington CoMotion program to promote research commercialization. She also worked with entrepreneurs and early stage companies at the Office of Technology Transfer at North Carolina State University.

Already, Law has jumped into the next Biolocity funding cycle, with a new call for proposals opening in January and more than $1.5 million in support available. It’s the first step in a multi-stage application process where participants receive the pitch coaching, market assessments, and competitive analysis necessary for commercial success.

Law also is helping launch the Emory Catalyst Fund, and she arrives at an opportune time for Biolocity.

In 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority selected Biolocity as one of 13 sites nationwide in the Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe) accelerator network. Biolocity is charged with identifying inventors and connecting them with DRIVe’s technical and financial resources to bolster the nation’s preparedness for, detection of, and response to health security threats.

“It’s exciting to be a part of such a supportive ecosystem,” Law said. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to work with members of both the Emory and Georgia Tech communities and beyond.”