Biomedical experts and practitioners in North Carolina are developing technology to rebuild skin and repair damaged organs, and they think it can be used to heal injuries on the battlefield.
“You have to have healthy people to have an economy that is competitive.”
Tim Bertram, CEO of the NSF Regional Innovation Engine in North Carolina
But commercializing regenerative medicine technology is tedious, per Tim Bertram, CEO of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Regenerative Medicine Engine in North Carolina. His project, led by the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, links companies, manufacturers and researchers to accelerate getting those products into the hands of people who need them.
“One of our major objectives was to create a mutually supportive, symbiotic ecosystem,” Bertram told Technical.ly, “that really allows these companies to be able to come together in a way that allows them to accelerate the development, do it at a lower cost and do it at a faster pace.”
This engine’s focus on regenerative medicine, which initially received $15 million for two years, refers to the work of replacing or repairing damaged tissue and organs through the body’s own healing process and advanced technology.
While it originally started as the “Piedmont Triad,” which includes Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point, the engine spread statewide because of its initial success in creating jobs and attracting investment, according to Bertram.
Bertram and his team are preparing for a virtual site visit with NSF this month to go over progress and how the engine aims to use future funds for the next cycle. The NSF program provides up to $160 million for up to 10 years.
The North Carolina engine is asking for $45 million to last through 2028, Bertram said, to keep spurring new jobs and attract companies to the region. Other NSF Engine topics include textile innovation in North Carolina and addressing water scarcity in the Southwest US.
Funding drives job creation
The biotechnology industry is seeing continued investment, per PitchBook data.
In 2024, firms in North Carolina raised nearly $800 million across 31 deals. That’s a jump in capital from 2023, which saw $408 million across 35 deals. About $446 million has been raised this year across 22 deals, according to PitchBook.
Nabbing private investment is a core goal of the engine, and funds from the government are “catalytic” in achieving this, Bertram explained.
In 2024, the first year of the award, the engine accumulated $250 million in investment from companies with venture capital or private equity, Bertram said. The publicly traded regenerative medicine company ProKidney in Winston-Salem announced a $22.5 million expansion in 2024 in the state, for example.
There have also been other public sector investments from DARPA and the National Institutes of Health, but he has not been able to get a cohesive count of that, per Bertram.
With investment comes jobs, he explained. The state now has more than 1,000 jobs linked to regenerative medicine, including direct and indirect jobs, such as legal services in the field.
Bertram worked with the state to estimate that by 2030, there will be almost 70,000 jobs as a result of the engine. That includes 25,000 regenerative medicine jobs directly in the field and 44,000 additional jobs in the labor market It’s also projected that there will be $6 billion in direct labor income, $25 billion in economic output and more than $10 billion in gross domestic product.
“The impact of this particular technology and what we’re doing is actually quite, quite substantial,” Bertram said.
A national security imperative, too
Regenerative medicine has several uses within the Department of War, formerly known as the Department of Defense, per Bertram. The military has also expressed interest in the work the engine is doing.
The technology can be used for wound care, spinal cord injuries and organ damage — all relevant to the battlefield, he explained.
“In military context, when things are shot off, blown up or there’s violence in one form or another,” he said, “being able to repair those body parts is quite important.”
Outside of warfighting, securing intellectual property in regenerative medicine is relevant to national security, he said. But he also sees it through a simple lens of keeping people well.
“You have to have healthy people,” Bertram said, “to have an economy that is competitive.”
This story was reported with support from The Builder Platform, which helps connect and support the NSF Engines initiative nationwide. To explore resources, connections and updates from across the NSF Engines, visit The Builder Platform.
