Company Performance Metrics
Williamson Z. Bradford: Director- Robin Richards Donohoe: Founder & ChairmanPast Role: The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, Founder & General Partner
They began in 2008 as the Consortium for Frontotemporal Dementia Research (CFR), a UCSF-based academic research consortium focused on discovery research. Their investigators pursued projects to understand progranulin genetics and basic biology, developed animal models and assays, identified potential drug targets and pathways, and expanded key
repositories, including brain and fluid biobanks. The CFR originally operated under a grant provided to UCSF and offered sub-awards to invited investigators across the US and Canada.
In 2010, to expand their efforts, they founded a non-profit foundation, the Bluefield Project to Cure FTD. The mission of the Bluefield Project is to translate the findings of their research consortium into the development of drugs to treat FTD. As of 2017, the Bluefield Project directly funds grant recipients. In order to accomplish this change, individual research and licensing agreements were negotiated with each investigator’s institution. These agreements also enabled the aggregation of all IP, tools, methods, assays and samples under one master agreement. Such an approach greatly facilitates Bluefield’s ability to enter into partnerships with pharma and biotech companies.
