Invenergy<\/a> has provided support specifically for clean energy research.<\/p>\nSince its inception, the Catalyst Grant program\u00a0<\/strong>has provided $6 million for projects that have led to 18 UWM startup companies. In addition to the Bradley Foundation support, other donors over the years include the Rockwell Automation Charitable Corporation, the Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation, GE HealthCare and Clarios.<\/p>\nThe investment has yielded 66 issued patents, 50 pending patents, 30 license\/option agreements and more than $40.7 million in follow-on funding to date.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s grants:<\/p>\n
Identifying breast cancer-fighting proteins from healthy cells<\/h3>\n
Qingsu Cheng, biomedical engineering<\/p>\n
Cheng is investigating proteins naturally secreted by human cells that inhibit the growth of triple-negative breast cancer cells. Using organoids derived from real patient tumors, he aims to identify proteins that can be developed into small-molecule drugs, offering a cost-effective treatment for this aggressive cancer.<\/p>\n
Developing low-cost materials for better solar panels<\/h3>\n
Nikolai Kouklin, materials science & engineering, and Konstantin Sobolev, civil & environmental engineering<\/p>\n
The researchers aim to develop a cost-effective and scalable alternative material for solar cells and other optoelectronic devices. They are using zinc oxide phosphate films to enhance efficiency and environmental sustainability, overcoming the challenges of the current material.<\/p>\n
Improving cybersecurity for advanced manufacturing<\/h3>\n
Zhen Zeng, computer science<\/p>\n
Zeng plans to create a threat-modeling system to enhance cybersecurity in complex advanced manufacturing systems. By automating repetitive tasks and integrating threat intelligence, this large language model-assisted tool seeks to significantly reduce the time and effort required for threat modeling.<\/p>\n
A device to safely test anchors in concrete structures<\/h3>\n
Jian Zhao, civil & environmental engineering, and Nathan Salowitz, mechanical engineering<\/p>\n
Joining a steel structure with concrete requires drilling a hole in the hardened concrete and inserting a metal anchor with an adhesive that forms a chemical bond with the surfaces. But improper installation or aging can lead to defects in the adhesive-concrete interface. This research team is developing a \u201csmart cap nut\u201d that generates and measures micro-vibrations to detect such defects that often are not visible.<\/p>\n
Advanced computer modeling to find new treatments for skin disease and leukemia<\/h3>\n
Arjun Saha, chemistry<\/p>\n
Abnormal protein-protein interactions (PPIs) in the body are behind many diseases. Saha aims to target these abnormalities by developing new computational methods to simulate them. His novel strategy combines machine-learning algorithms with quantum chemistry and molecular dynamics. This comprehensive software solution for examining PPIs could pave the way for novel therapeutics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Catalyst Grant program is designed to seed-fund research in areas where UWM has the greatest potential to impact the regional economy through commercialization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":836,"featured_media":136314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[122,126],"display_categories":[352,116],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[149,158],"class_list":["post-136190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","section-campus-community","section-campus-news","display_categories-top-story-tertiary","display_categories-top-story-section","uwmnews-feed-engineering-applied-science","uwmnews-feed-letters-science"],"yoast_head":"\n
UWM Research Foundation awards $250,000 in Catalyst Grants<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Catalyst Grant program is designed to seed-fund research in areas where UWM has the greatest potential to impact the regional economy through commercialization.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UWM Research Foundation awards $250,000 in Catalyst Grants\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Catalyst Grant program is designed to seed-fund research in areas where UWM has the greatest potential to impact the regional economy through commercialization.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UWM REPORT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-08-28T17:30:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-06T18:10:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2024\/08\/20240827_TCF_CEAS_7653-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laura L Otto\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UWMNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UWMNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laura L Otto\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Laura L Otto\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2f360a26f3df4ff8f31b58e43d772565\"},\"headline\":\"UWM Research Foundation awards $250,000 in Catalyst Grants\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-08-28T17:30:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-06T18:10:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":486,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/20240827_TCF_CEAS_7653-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\\\/\",\"name\":\"UWM Research Foundation awards $250,000 in Catalyst Grants\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/20240827_TCF_CEAS_7653-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-08-28T17:30:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-06T18:10:43+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Catalyst Grant program is designed to seed-fund research in areas where UWM has the greatest potential to impact the regional economy through commercialization.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/20240827_TCF_CEAS_7653-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/20240827_TCF_CEAS_7653-1.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":500,\"caption\":\"Zhen Zeng, assistant professor of computer science, spent the summer working at Rockwell Automation to become familiar with the cybersecurity concerns in the manufacturing sector. With her catalyst grant, she is developing a tool that makes cyber-threat modeling in manufacturing much easier. (UWM Photo\\\/Troye Fox)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UWM Research Foundation awards $250,000 in Catalyst Grants\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"UWM REPORT\",\"description\":\"News from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/uwm-seo-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/uwm-seo-logo.jpg\",\"width\":225,\"height\":224,\"caption\":\"University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/UWMNews\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2f360a26f3df4ff8f31b58e43d772565\",\"name\":\"Laura L Otto\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/llhuntuwm-edu\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UWM Research Foundation awards $250,000 in Catalyst Grants","description":"The Catalyst Grant program is designed to seed-fund research in areas where UWM has the greatest potential to impact the regional economy through commercialization.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UWM Research Foundation awards $250,000 in Catalyst Grants","og_description":"The Catalyst Grant program is designed to seed-fund research in areas where UWM has the greatest potential to impact the regional economy through commercialization.","og_url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/","og_site_name":"UWM REPORT","article_published_time":"2024-08-28T17:30:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-09-06T18:10:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2024\/08\/20240827_TCF_CEAS_7653-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Laura L Otto","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UWMNews","twitter_site":"@UWMNews","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Laura L Otto","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/"},"author":{"name":"Laura L Otto","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/2f360a26f3df4ff8f31b58e43d772565"},"headline":"UWM Research Foundation awards $250,000 in Catalyst Grants","datePublished":"2024-08-28T17:30:01+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-06T18:10:43+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/"},"wordCount":486,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2024\/08\/20240827_TCF_CEAS_7653-1.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/","name":"UWM Research Foundation awards $250,000 in Catalyst Grants","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2024\/08\/20240827_TCF_CEAS_7653-1.jpg","datePublished":"2024-08-28T17:30:01+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-06T18:10:43+00:00","description":"The Catalyst Grant program is designed to seed-fund research in areas where UWM has the greatest potential to impact the regional economy through commercialization.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2024\/08\/20240827_TCF_CEAS_7653-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2024\/08\/20240827_TCF_CEAS_7653-1.jpg","width":750,"height":500,"caption":"Zhen Zeng, assistant professor of computer science, spent the summer working at Rockwell Automation to become familiar with the cybersecurity concerns in the manufacturing sector. With her catalyst grant, she is developing a tool that makes cyber-threat modeling in manufacturing much easier. (UWM Photo\/Troye Fox)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-research-foundation-awards-250000-in-catalyst-grants\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UWM Research Foundation awards $250,000 in Catalyst Grants"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/","name":"UWM REPORT","description":"News from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2017\/02\/uwm-seo-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2017\/02\/uwm-seo-logo.jpg","width":225,"height":224,"caption":"University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/UWMNews"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/2f360a26f3df4ff8f31b58e43d772565","name":"Laura L Otto","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/author\/llhuntuwm-edu\/"}]}},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 07:20:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/836"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136190"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136196,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136190\/revisions\/136196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136190"},{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=136190"},{"taxonomy":"display_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_categories?post=136190"},{"taxonomy":"related-coverage","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/related-coverage?post=136190"},{"taxonomy":"uwmnews-feed","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/uwmnews-feed?post=136190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}