Weill Cornell Medicine Enterprise Innovation

Several recurring themes were touched upon by speakers and panelists at the Dean’s Symposium on Innovation and Entrepreneurship on Dec 18. As Dr. Krystyn J. Van Vliet, Vice President for Research and Innovation at Cornell University, pointed out, Weill Cornell Medicine innovators are highly motivated by their patients to improve how things are done. Innovators may have different paths to commercialization or entrepreneurship, but innovation requires a lot of conversation and collaboration among them across Cornell University.  A lot still needs to be innovated for women’s health. Tamatha Fenster MD, MS., Bobak Mosadegh Ph.D. and Rache Simmons MD MS MBA, all agreed that patients are the most important stakeholders when deciding what to pursue as invention/innovation. Each panelist introduced their women’s health innovation and shared their experience in the process. The panel believed physicians should be brave enough to move away from standard procedures as well as network with experts in engineering and business. The people connection is what transforms an innovative idea from conversation to prototype and ultimately, a product in the market that serves the patients’ needs. Clinicians possess the unique advantage of knowing health care pain points and seeing first-hand the problems patients and nurses have. However, they also face the unique challenge of lacking dedicated time to develop solutions and marketing and administrative supports along the way. All panelists of the “Beyond Therapeutics” innovation discussion, Drs. Keith Hentel, Denise Howard, Conor Liston and Rahul Sharma, MD, MBA, FACEP, discovered a clinical pain point in their field. They resolved that with innovation in the form of appropriate use criteria in imaging, a pre-op patient education and counseling app, psychological evaluation and telemedicine tools. For them, being a clinician-innovator means thinking out of the box, persistence, team work among colleagues and using available Cornell assets to pressure test innovation.  

Dean Robert A. Harrington sat down with Dr. Rachel Haurwitz, co-founder and CEO of Caribou Biosciences, for a fireside chat yesterday on her entrepreneurial journey.   Dr. Haurwitz had always loved hands-on science ever since she was a child. Taking business classes as a graduate student in science exposed her to the vocabulary of venture capital. It also gave her an opportunity to learn about founding and pitching a company. That sparked her interest in startup formation and team building. Dr. Haurwitz remembered the challenge of having to educate investors on CRISPR technology when her company was way ahead of its time.    When asked what advice she would give to emerging scientists, medical and graduate students, Dr. Haurwitz emphasized critical thinking – constantly use science and technology to solve problems for patients, absorbing as much information about the industry as possible, putting the team above the self and taking advantage of the local ecosystem. Her success is a buildup of incremental moments. Most importantly, they should “go for it”.   Weill Cornell Medicine

Congratulations to the top three teams Tornado Therapeutics, Pulmargeutics and VisionPro of the Accelerating BioVenture Innovation (ABI) program final pitch event on Dec 5. The ABI program has expanded over the years to include graduate students from Weill Cornell Medicine, The Rockefeller University, Cornell Tech and Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. Our aspiring participants were nurtured and mentored by representatives from the full spectrum of biomedical commercialization. We trust all participants developed new skills and perspectives that will enhance their research and help them meet their career goals.  Thank you to our judges: Eva Chmielnicki, Jared Feldman, PhD, Jesse Hwang and Abby Mueller. A shout-out to BioVenture eLab director Loren A. Busby, CFA for continuing to make the program more inclusive and diverse. Read a recap of the competition to learn more about each team's technology and commercialization plan: https://lnkd.in/esHEFbWU

We also appreciate our team of business development and licensing professionals at Weill Cornell Medicine who collaborates with our inventors and innovators to translate scientific discoveries into healthcare products for positive impact.

Many Weill Cornell Medicine clinical faculty innovate in areas beyond traditional drug and device development. Learn about the unique advantages and challenges in developing and commercializing their innovations. RSVP: https://lnkd.in/e4zVHGxJ Keith Hentel Denise Howard Rahul Sharma, MD, MBA, FACEP

Register now for the women’s health innovation panel at our annual Dean’s Symposium on Innovation and Entrepreneurship! Listen to an inspirational panel discussion by experienced Weill Cornell Medicine faculty entrepreneurs on how they improve health equity for women by innovating in medical devices and using AI to inform medical diagnosis and treatment.   RSVP: https://lnkd.in/eEiCQGYP Tamatha Fenster MD, MS. Bobak Mosadegh Rache Simmons MD MS MBA

The Accelerating BioVenture Innovation (ABI) Final Pitch Event is only two days away! Join us this Thursday, December 5, for a night of presentations and network with investors, ecosystem collaborators and industry representatives who served as mentors and lecturers throughout the program. Come cheer for the five finalist teams. These are the innovations they are presenting: • MindSure - Non-invasive device for determining subtypes of Major Depressive Disorder • Pulmargeutics - Small molecule targeting EMP-2 to treat COPD • Senecta Therapeutics - Fucoidan nanoparticles combined with drug payloads that target fibrotic tissue • Tornado Therapeutics - Platform to generate mRNA virus-like particles (VLPs) used initially to develop a norovirus vaccine • VisionPro - Non-invasive, high-frequency ultrasound device for early and quantitative detection of myopia https://lnkd.in/emdQMN6F Weill Cornell Medicine Center for Technology Licensing at Cornell University (CTL)

Dec 1 was World AIDS Day. Although medications are effective for maintaining the health of people living with HIV and preventing transmission, to stop the virus from rebounding means a lifelong commitment to drugs. Dr. Brad Jones, an Associate Professor of Immunology in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, is set on a mission to find a cure for HIV by empowering the immune system. https://lnkd.in/eyWzE7je

Gaining a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying tauopathies—neurodegenerative diseases marked by the accumulation of tau aggregates in the brain—paves the way for novel treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease. Check out the innovative technology developed by Dr. Li Gan and her team: https://lnkd.in/e4TCPaJj. #AlzheimersDisease