UArizona Startup, Researcher to Receive AzBio Awards
The Arizona Bioindustry Association announced two University of Arizona honorees who will receive awards at this year’s AZBio awards ceremony on Sept. 27. One of three Fast Lane awards will go to startup Reglagene, Inc., and the Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement will go to Dr. John Galgiani, director of the Valley Fever Center for Excellence at the College of Medicine – Tucson.
Fast Lane Award: Reglagene, Inc.
UArizona startup Reglagene is being honored with a Fast Lane award, presented to companies that have achieved outstanding milestones in the past 18 months. With help from the university’s commercialization arm Tech Launch Arizona, Reglagene was founded to bring to market transformative brain cancer treatment innovations developed by Dr. Laurence Hurley, professor emeritus of medicinal chemistry, and Vijay Gokhale, senior research scientist at the BIO5 Institute.
In 2023, Reglagene reached a transformative point in its brain cancer program. After meticulous testing of over 800 drug prototypes, they identified RGN6024 as their clinical development candidate. Harnessing the most well-validated mechanism in cancer therapy history, RGN6024 is poised to enter the clinic in 2024, marking a significant step forward in the fight against brain cancers.
Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement: Dr. John Galgiani
Renowned Valley fever researcher Dr. John Galgiani, professor and director of the Valley Fever Center for Excellence at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, is the 2023 recipient of the AZBio Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement.
The Pioneer Award is the highest honor awarded by Arizona’s bioscience community and is extended to an Arizonan whose body of work has made life better for people at home and around the world. Galgiani’s four decades of Valley fever research, education and patient care earned him the accolade.
Galgiani is an accomplished inventor with three issued patents bearing his name, all related to the development of an immunization for the fungal infection that causes Valley Fever.
Pictured above from left – Dr. Laurence Hurley, Vijay Gokhale, and Richard Austin of Reglagene, Inc.
