2021–2022
Annual Report
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2021–2022
Annual Report
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Contents
Letter From the Vice President
By the Numbers
Faculty Recognition
New Leadership
Awarded Funding
Commercialized Research
State-of-the-Art Spaces
Duke Science and Technology Initiative
2nd Annual Duke Research Week
Letter From the Vice President
I am pleased to share Duke Research & Innovation’s achievements from the past year in our 2021-22 annual report. It fills me with pride to see our faculty and students at the forefront of research discovery with the support of their research staff partners, who provide a strong foundation for research activities.
As recipients of federal and state funds in support of our research, we continue our longstanding commitment to pursuing knowledge in service to society. We are particularly proud of our Duke research community for having surpassed $1.2 billion in research expenditures with more than $780 million in federal spending and $307 million from non-federal sources — even during the post-pandemic era. In addition, we have seen a significant increase in the number of patents granted to our faculty and the launch of several new startups based on University research.
Looking to the future, we remain committed to supporting the research and innovation efforts of our faculty and students, and to leveraging our strengths to make a positive impact on the world around us.
Thank you for a great year and your support of the Duke Research & Innovation enterprise.
Sincerely,
Jenny Lodge
Jennifer Lodge, Ph.D.
Vice President for Research & Innovation
Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
By the Numbers
Expenditures
Duke University surpassed $1.2 billion in research expenditures in fiscal year 2021-22 with more than $780 million in federal spending and $307 million from non-federal sources.
$1.2B Total Research Expenditures
$780M Federally Sponsored Research
$50M in Support of NC Businesses
Data provided by the NSF FY 2021 Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey.
Data provided by the NSF FY 2021 Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey.
FY 2022 data provided by the Duke Office of Post Award Administration.
Translation & Commercialization
Duke’s Office for Translation & Commercialization (OTC) helped launch 14 new startups and received more than $95 million in revenue from its licensees related to product revenues and company acquisitions. Many of Duke’s startups have stayed in North Carolina over the years, with nearly 65% of the new startups formed this year headquartered in North Carolina.
316 New Invention Disclosures
14 New Startups
116 Issued U.S. Patents
FY 2022 data provided by the Duke Office for Translation & Commercialization.
FY 2022 data provided by the Duke Office for Translation & Commercialization.
FY 2022 data provided by the Duke Office for Translation & Commercialization.
Faculty Researchers
2,580
Grants
105 Awards & Honors
11,134
Publications
FY 2022 data provided by Scholars@Duke.
FY 2022 data provided by Scholars@Duke.
FY 2022 data provided by Scholars@Duke.
Faculty Recognition
National Academies
Neuroscientist
Stephen Lisberger, Ph.D.
George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor for Research in Neurobiology
Anthropologist
Anne Pusey, Ph.D.
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emerita of Evolutionary Anthropology
Neuroscientist
Kafui Dzirasa, Ph.D., M.D.
K. Ranga Rama Krishnan Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Electrical Engineer
Guillermo Sapiro, Ph.D.
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Neuroscientist Kafui Dzirasa, Ph.D., M.D., and cell biologist Cagla Eroglu, Ph.D., will each receive roughly $9 million of research support over a seven-year term.
Neuroscientist
Kafui Dzirasa, Ph.D., M.D.
K. Ranga Rama Krishnan Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Environmental Policy Expert
Lydia Olander, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor of Environmental Sciences & Policy
American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Computer Scientist
Robert Calderbank, Ph.D.
Charles S. Sydnor Distinguished Professor of Computer Science
Psychologist
Avshalom Caspi, Ph.D.
Edward M. Arnett Distinguished Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience
Neuroscientist
Josh Huang, Ph.D.
Duke School of Medicine Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience
Psychologist
Terrie E. Moffitt, Ph.D.
Nannerl O. Keohane University Distinguished Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience
New Leadership
Jennifer Lodge
Jennifer Lodge, Ph.D., a microbiologist and vice chancellor for research at Washington University in St. Louis, was appointed Duke’s new vice president for Research & Innovation. As the university’s chief research and innovation officer, Lodge leads oversight of Duke’s $1.2 billion annual research portfolio, including grants administration, ethical practices and commercialization.
Chris Beyrer
Chris Beyrer, M.D., M.P.H., was named director of the Duke Global Health Institute.
Vincent Guilamo-Ramos
Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, Ph.D., M.P.H., became the dean of Nursing.
Mohamed Noor
Mohamed A.F. Noor, Ph.D., was named interim dean of Trinity Arts & Sciences.
Awarded Funding
Duke investigators brought in some major awards during the fiscal year.
Duke Human Vaccine Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID): $365 million, seven-year contract to produce investigational vaccines and treatments for HIV and other viruses. $17.5 million over three years to develop a ‘pan-coronavirus’ vaccine. $27 million, five-year grant to establish the Duke Center for HIV Structural Biology.
Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
National Institutes of Health (NIH): $14.8 million five-year grant to Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Multidisciplinary University Research Initiatives
Department of Defense: $7.5 million for identifying and synthesizing new materials with intensive computation. $7.5 million to develop a ‘super camera’ that captures just about every type of information light can carry in a single shot.
UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress
U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): $20 million, five-year grant for raising access and care standards for children and families that have experienced trauma.
Duke Science and Technology
The fundraising campaign for the Duke Science and Technology (DST) initiative kicked off with a second $50 million investment from the Duke Endowment to accelerate and expand faculty recruitment in science, medicine, technology, engineering and mathematics. Duke Trustee Ned Gilhuly ‘82 and his wife Karen added a $23.75 million gift to the effort. Trustee Eddy Cue ’86 and his wife Paula ‘86 contributed $10 million to retain four early-career, diverse faculty hires in computer science and computer engineering.
Commercialized Research
Commercial entities spun out of Duke’s efforts continued to grow at a steady pace and racked up some significant milestones in the fiscal year.
completed a $31.4 million Series-A funding round, which included the Duke Angel Network. The company was co-founded by Electrical and Computer Engineer Daniel Sorin to transform automation with flexible robot control capabilities, built on its innovative, real-time collision-free motion planning technology.
a tire sensor and data management Duke start-up, entered into a partnership with Bridgestone Americas. This strategic investment accelerates Bridgestone’s efforts to deploy advanced mobility solutions that improve fleet safety, efficiency and sustainability and provides Tyrata with additional investment. The company’s IntelliTread® technology monitors, tracks and predicts tire tread life in real-time.
a gene editing Duke start-up established in 2006 that has already spun off a daughter company, announced a partnership with Novartis in June 2022 to use Precision’s gene editing technology for treatment of sickle cell disease. The Durham-based company received an upfront payment of $75M in equity investment and cash, along with up to $1.4B in potential milestones.
a precision oncology company launched by Duke medicine and engineering faculty in 2019, announced the close of a $70 million Series-A financing round in July 2021. Their MicroOganoSphere™ technology holds promise for both cancer therapy and drug discovery. The company was featured in Forbes and was highlighted by Nasdaq on its tower in Times Square.
a Durham-based biomedical engineering spinout using 3D printing and artificial intelligence to create personalized medical devices, raised $23 million in an April 2022 funding round, having merged with ankle replacement firm Kinos Medical in 2021.
a local software development company, signed two new licenses, marking its eleventh license with Duke. One license is to further develop the Duke Cancer Network’s chemotherapy templates – forms used by clinical oncologists and which conform to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) standard. The other license is for a collection of chest pain assessment tools developed by Interventional Cardiologist James Tcheng, M.D., and team, which include a new highly-sensitive lab test with a validated clinical algorithm to more accurately diagnose acute coronary syndrome in ED patients presenting with chest pain.
a privately held maker of flat panel antennas based on Duke’s metamaterials research, closed an equity funding round of $84 million in March 2022. The investment will be used to expand Kymeta’s manufacturing and research and development.
Evolv Technology, IonQ, & 374Water
three Duke spinouts, became publicly traded companies during the fiscal year. Evolv Technology, a security technology company that grew out of Duke’s pioneering work on metamaterials, was listed on the Nasdaq in July 2021, having received a valuation of $1.7 billion from a special purpose acquisition company partnership. IonQ, a trapped-ion quantum computing company co-founded by two Duke faculty, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in October, 2021, having garnered $636 million in gross proceeds from a special purpose acquisition by dMY Technology Group. 374Water, a five-year-old cleantech company focused on a Duke-developed technology for water purification, joined the NASDAQ in June 2022 and recorded their first sale of a supercritical water oxidation system in Orange County, California.
a radar platform company based on Duke’s metamaterials research, closed a $135 million funding round in June 2022. Earlier in the fiscal year, the 125-employee firm also secured a five-year, $20 million contract from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for border monitoring technology.
Learn more about Duke Translation & Commercialization 2021–2022 achievements
State-of-the-Art Spaces
Duke’s research infrastructure grew in significant ways.
Duke Engineering’s Wilkinson Building is a 150,000-square-foot teaching and research space, focused on collaborations in health, computing and the environment.
The Duke Human Vaccine Institute moved into new leased space called Duke Research and Discovery @RTP, 273,000 square feet formerly occupied by GlaxoSmithKline.
Duke Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences opened an 8,500-square-foot clinical research facility on the third floor of North Pavilion.
Duke Science and Technology Initiative
Solutions to the world’s pressing problems are waiting to be discovered.
Seed Grant Programs
Launched in April 2022, two new Duke Science and Technology (DST) seed grant programs were developed in partnership with the Office for Research & Innovation to enhance the research and scholarship of Duke’s early- to mid-career faculty and to support collaborative interdisciplinary projects across campus, School of Nursing, and School of Medicine.
DST Spark
Nine early- to mid-career faculty from across campus and the School of Medicine were recognized and awarded funding for pursuing new directions and ideas to enhance novel research and scholarship at Duke.
DST Launch
Comprising eight teams from across campus and the School of Medicine, 20 faculty were recognized and awarded funding for high-impact interdisciplinary projects.
New DST Scholars
Emma J. Chory, Ph.D.
Biomedical Engineering
Research: Directed Evolution of Biosynthetic Pathways in Order To Synthesize Novel Peptide Therapeutics for a Range of Diseases
Miaofang Chi, Ph.D.
Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science
Research: Electron Microscopy and Energy Materials
Pardis Emami-Naeini, Ph.D.
Computer Science
Research: Security, Privacy, and Human-Computer Interaction
Rana K. Gupta, Ph.D.
Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Nutrition
Research: Adipocytes, Mammalian Cell Differentiation, and Tissue Remodeling
Seok-Yong Lee, Ph.D.
Biochemistry
Research: Membrane Transport Proteins, Calcium Permeation in Somatosensation, Drug and Metabolite Transport, and Polysaccharide Transport in Microbial Cell Wall Synthesis
Christ D. Richmond, Ph.D.
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Research: Statistical Signal Processing, Detection/Estimation, and Information Theory
Divine Kumah, Ph.D.
Physics
Research: Electronic Materials, Thin Films, Interfaces, Synchrotron X-ray Scattering and Spectroscopy
Laura Elizabeth Dalton, Ph.D.
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Research: Mass Transport Through Porous Materials (Concrete Durability)
Sharon Gerecht, Ph.D.
Biomedical Engineering
Research: Stem Cells, Biomaterials, and Regenerative Medicine
Shuo Han, Ph.D.
Biochemistry
Research: Human Gut Microbiota and Host Aging
Trudy G. Oliver, Ph.D.
Pharmacology & Cancer Biology
Research: Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) and Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SqCC)
Tania Roy, Ph.D.
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Research: Device Physics and Nanotechnology
Leanne Gilbertson, Ph.D.
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Research: Environmental Engineering, Life Cycle Assessment, Sustainable Material Design, and Sustainable Nanotechnology
2nd Annual Duke Research Week
Over 2,800 attendees celebrated research at Duke.
After soaring across West Campus in a video, attendees were welcomed in a virtual lobby by Vice President for Research & Innovation Jennifer Lodge, Ph.D., and Duke University School of Medicine Dean Mary Klotman, M.D.
Duke Research Week 2022 was an exceptional opportunity to gather virtually and celebrate Duke faculty and trainees’ novel research accomplishments. The week-long celebration kicked off January 31 and featured 19 research topics from across the university and School of Medicine. With 100 speakers and more than 2,800 members of the Duke community, its neighbors, and industry partners in attendance, this year’s event was the largest to date.
Professor Bonnie L. Bassler, Provost Sally Kornbluth, Dean Valerie Ashby, and Professor Ingrid Daubechies during the Daubechies Lecture 2022 on Wednesday, February 2.
19 Research Topics Featured
Daily lectures, presentations, and discussions included in-depth looks into how researchers are advancing neuroscience and brain science, the convergence of disciplines necessary to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change, and what conducting research during COVID-19 was like with predictions for social policy research in a post-COVID-19 era.
Huda Yahya Zoghbi, M.D., Dean Mary Klotman, M.D., and Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D. during the Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D., Distinguished Lecture on Monday, January 31.
