New technology being created by University of Virginia professor Kevin R. Lynch has received a $100,000 award from the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation to continue its development.

The technology, Spinster Homolog 2 (Spns2) Inhibitors for Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, was approved via a Commonwealth Commercialization Fund application on Dec. 8.

“The Commonwealth looks forward to exciting contributions in technology and economic development from UVA and Kevin R. Lynch,” said VIPC Interim CEO Joseph Benevento in the award letter.

Lynch, who serves as UVA’s vice chair of pharmacology, and Virginia Tech professor Webster Santos discovered agonists and antagonists of S1P receptors, as well as inhibitors of S1P synthetic enzymes and a transporter that extrudes S1P to the extracellular space. For several years, they have been studying the biomedical implications of S1P transport inhibition.

UVA Licensing & Ventures Group Executive Director Richard W. Chylla sees a bright future for S1P Therapeutics, the startup company on which Lynch’s technology is based that was founded in 2019.

“Kevin and his team have made remarkable progress with this technology, and S1P Therapeutics is really taking off,” Chylla said. “We’re looking forward to collaborating throughout the commercialization process, and we’re so excited to be on the path to helping people who have to struggle with these terrible diseases.”