Membership Benefits

In its mission to advance cell and gene therapies and regenerative medicine research, Gates Institute serves as a networking hub for its membership with events throughout the year to foster collaboration and provides an opportunity to conduct essential aspects of research cost effectively. We provide numerous benefits to support our diverse members as they navigate each stage of the continuum from basic science to patient benefit. Many of our offerings are enumerated below.

Funding Opportunities

Research Funding

Managed in collaboration with CU Innovations, the Gates Grubstake Fund makes awards of up to $350,000 to investigators who are researching and developing regenerative medicine-related technologies including therapeutics, diagnostics, devices, manufacturing, and platforms.

Startup Toolbox

Startup Toolbox is an important part of the bench-to-bedside operating philosophy of Gates Institute and the Anschutz Medical Campus. The program is co-administered with CU Innovations and provides researchers essential services that are not traditionally funded by medically-oriented grants. These commercialization resources include support for financial modeling and business plans, as well as assistance with regulatory strategy and corporate formation. The novel platform also includes legal strategy and guidance, product development, and Small Business Innovation Resources (SBIR) consultants.

Research Opportunities Through Core Facilities

Research Core Facilities provide specialized services to the Gates Institute community on a fee-for-service basis. Cores facilitate research by enabling investigators to outsource experiments that require specialized knowledge and technical abilities not found in most laboratories. Because of the nonprofit design of cores, service pricing for Gates Institute members is significantly below that of commercial entities providing similar services.

• Flow Cytometry Core: The University of Colorado Flow Cytometry Shared Resource (FCSR) at the Cancer Center is committed to providing quality state-of-the-art cytometry services to the Anschutz Medical campus and surrounding educational and biotechnology community. 
• Genomics Core: The Genomics Core offers advanced access to cutting-edge technologies encompassing next-generation sequencing (NGS), DNA microarray, single-cell, and spatial genomics. This facility serves as a crucial resource by not only providing access to diverse technologies but also actively engaging in experimental design, consultations, and data analysis assistance using innovative algorithms.
• Histology Core: The Histology Core provides investigators and their research teams with the tools, knowledge, and technical expertise needed to process and analyze their tissue samples. The Core offers a wide array of services including paraffin and OCT embedding, sectioning of frozen and paraffin blocks, as well as routine (H&E) and special staining for all types of tissues. 
• Organoid Core: The Organoid Core offers full access to state-of-the-art organoid technologies and expert technical support to utilize these innovative techniques to develop models of human diseases. 
• Stem Cell Biobank and Disease Modeling Core: The Stem Cell Biobank and Disease Modeling Core (SCB&DM core offers complete services related to the production of high-quality human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patient-derived somatic cells.
  

Gates Biomanufacturing Facility

Gates Institute’s affiliated Gates Biomanufacturing Facility (GBF) is one of six combined cell therapy and protein manufacturing facilities in the United States and the only one of its kind within an 800-mile radius. The GBF, a first-in-human phase 1 Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility, serves some of the nation’s top regenerative medicine researchers at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.

The Gates Biomanufacturing Facility provides the following services: process development, scale up, manufacturing of both cell therapy- and protein-based products to cGMP standards, and process documentation to academic researchers, clinicians and early stage biotechnology companies. Utilizing its expertise in quality assurance and control and process development and manufacturing, facility staff help translate bench scale processes to optimized clinical-ready manufacturing processes and perform product manufacturing for early-phase clinical trials. By leveraging our existing current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) facility, trained personnel, qualified equipment and best practices across each of our support services, investigators can significantly accelerate their timeline while minimizing their overall investment.

Networking Opportunities

A key part of Gates Institute's mission is to serve as a focal point for recruitment and retention of top research talent for Colorado, tapping into the resources of the Anschutz Medical Campus and our collaborative partners. Pillars of Gates Institute, including the Gates Biomanufacturing Facility and the Grubstake Fund, have proven attractive to top national researchers and highly-regarded Anschutz researchers as they seek to move their discoveries toward treatments in human patients.  

Gates Institute works closely with partners to identify and reach out to top researchers. Our partners include CU Boulder, Anschutz Medical Campus, the University of Colorado School of Medicine, UCHealth, Children’s Hospital Colorado, Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines, and private industry.

Mentorship Opportunities

The Gates Summer Internship Program (GSIP) encourages outstanding undergraduates to consider careers in biomedical research in an academic or industry setting by providing 11-week full-time training opportunities at Gates Institute. A committee of Gates Institute faculty selects highly qualified undergraduates to work full-time in Gates Institute members' laboratories at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Mentors are critical to our interns' experiences and crucial to the success of the program.

Gates Institute also supports the Graduate Program in Cell Biology, Stem Cells and Development (CSD) directed by Jeff Moore, PhD, Gates Institute member and Diane G. Wallach Chair in Pediatric Stem Cell Biology. The CSD program is advancing the use of stem cells in the clinic by pursuing fundamental discoveries into how cells function and how cells in embryos form the different tissues of the body. Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie development, disease, stem cell biology and regeneration promotes extensive interaction among labs and fosters a robust intellectual environment.

John Gates Seminar Series

On the fourth Tuesday of the month, January through October, we offer hourlong presentations spanning a wide range of cell and gene therapy and regenerative medicine topics. These presentations bring together a community of researchers with common interests to collaborate, learn, and advance science.

Commercialization Opportunities