Swindle-Reilly selected for entrepreneurial mentorship program
Professor Katelyn Swindle-Reilly was selected to pitch in 2022 Equalize, a mentor program and pitch competition sponsored by the Washington University in St. Louis and Osage University Partners. The program is designed to support women innovators and entrepreneurs in academia and take national action around the disparity of women academic inventors forming university startups.
Fifteen women academicians were selected to participate in the 2022 Equalize cohort, with mentorship and educational sessions beginning in January and culminating in a virtual pitch competition on June 30, 2022.
Professor Swindle-Reilly will be competing in the MedTech category.
Dr. Swindle-Reilly, who is an assistant professor in biomedical engineering; chemical and biomolecular engineering; and ophthalmology, has developed a unique drug delivery system to potentially treat wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) that would lower costs, cause less pain, improve patient compliance and reduce the risk of intraocular side effects without interfering with vision. Currently, patients being treated for AMD receive an injection in their eye once a month. However, Swindle-Reilly has found that drugs encapsulated in multi-layered polymer capsules can potentially be dispersed in the vitreous humor (a part of the eye) after injection, delivering an entire year’s worth of medication in a single injection. Dr. Swindle-Reilly is chief technology officer of Vitranu, who licensed these ocular drug delivery technologies.
Professor Swindle-Reilly is emerging as a leader within her field as her responsibilities and activities expand on a national level. In September 2021, she was named Communications Chair for the Ocular Delivery (OcD) Focus Group of the Controlled Release Society (CRS).
In September 2021 she spoke at a Congressional Briefing and gave a 5-minute interview as part of the Annual Emerging Vision Scientists program's 7th Annual Emerging Vision Scientists Day on Capitol Hill, having been selected in June 2021 for participation in the 2021 Annual Emerging Vision Scientists (AEVR) program.
In April 2020 she was named Program Chair for the Ophthalmic Biomaterials Special Interest Group of the Society of Biomaterials, the same month as her work was featured on the cover of the Journal of Controlled Release, (Impact Factor: 7.901).
Swindle-Reilly's overall research interests focus on the design of polymeric biomaterials for soft tissue repair and drug delivery with focused applications in ophthalmology and wound healing. She has expertise working with both polymeric and naturally-derived biomaterials, drug delivery, rheology and biomechanical testing, and tissue culture. Her research has spanned the fields of ophthalmology, wound healing, nerve tissue engineering, and drug delivery systems. Dr. Swindle-Reilly has experience taking research from idea to commercialized product, and holds several patents. She has entrepreneurial experience working on intellectual property protection, commercialization, and working with start-up companies.
