Scientific Entrepreneurship

Welcome to a new episode of Scientific Entrepreneurship. We live in strange times. We live at a time when a microorganism can get into our body, wreak havoc and cause enormous damage. One of the most important steps to prevent the spread of this microorganism is the availability of more tests, so we can detect them and treat them quickly. Yes, I am talking about the COVID-19 virus. However, detection is key to treat all diseases, including those caused by other microorganisms. Another public health challenge that we face right now is antibiotic resistance. According to the CDC, every year, at least 2.8 million ppl get an antibiotic-resistant infection and more than 35,000 die. Today, we will talk with Tara on how her company, BioAmp Diagnositics, is creating an impact in the field of antibiotic resistance and what her entrepreneurial journey has been like. Tara founded BioAmp Diagnostics in 2017, based on a technology first created to rapidly and sensitively detect antibiotic resistant bacteria. Tara holds a PhD in Chemistry and Biochemistry from University of California, Santa Cruz and invented the proprietary technology that BioAmp uses during her postdoctoral work in Prof. Niren Murthy’s group, in collaboration with Prof. Lee Riley in the School of Public Health at University of California, Berkeley. She has more recently taught a course at the Haas School of Business (Different Subtypes of Biotech: Diagnostics + Gene Edition: main approaches to their regulation). You can find more information on BioAmp diagnostics at https://bioampdx.com/.

Welcome to a new episode of Scientific Entrepreneurship. Many scientific ideas need an incubator/accelerator space to be tried and tested before they can become a minimum viable product or could generate promising results. These tangible outcomes  can then be leveraged by entrepreneurs to raise funds from investors. Incubators and accelerators are one of the many resources available to entrepreneurs. One of the well-known resources available to life sciences companies in California is the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences or QB3. QB3 was founded in late 2000 by Governor Gray Davis. Its mission is to grow the California bioeconomy. QB3 helps entrepreneurs create include medicines, medical devices, research tools, and genomic technologies that will ultimately benefit society. Our guest today, Dr. Ioana Aanei is the Entrepreneurship Program Manager and Scientific Analyst at QB3. Ioana has a PhD in Chemical Biology from the University of California at Berkeley. Today we will talk with Ioana about QB3, the various resources available to biomedical entrepreneurs and her transition from being a graduate student to QB3.

Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S. Americans use 85 million tons of paper, that’s 680 pounds per person. There are numerous efforts in place to recycle paper waste. But what about reducing the waste produced during paper? One of the key processes in paper production is known as pulping. Pulping removes cellulose, a precursor of paper, from other impurities like lignin. Lignin is the second most abundant biopolymer on the planet and serves to bind cells, fibres and vessels. Lignin also provides rigidity to plants and trees. Our guest today, Dr. Eric Gottlieb, will talk about excitement for lignin and his efforts to lignin-based materials. Dr. Eric Gottlieb is one of the co-founders of Lignolix Inc. Eric holds a PhD in Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Delaware. Eric and his team at Lignolix were one of the two winners of the 2019 University of Delaware Fast Pass challenge. You can find more information on Lignolix through this podcast and at Lignolix.com.

A total of 36573 Metric tons of Carbon dioxide or CO2 were emitted into the atmosphere in 2018. CO2emissions are primarily due to combustion of fossil fuels. CO2 traps the heat from the sun and raises the temperature of the Earth. This process is called global warming and has bad consequences. To tackle this challenge, 195 countries of the world signed the Paris Agreement in 2015. One of the key goals of the agreement was to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% in 2020 compared to 1990 levels. While the efforts of individual countries to attain this goal is unclear, there is one company in New York that aims to remove CO2, one vodka bottle at a time. Founded in 2017 by Dr. Staff Sheehan and Dr. Gregory Constantine, Air Co. “transforms carbon dioxide from the air into the purest alcohols on the planet”. The company was a finalist in the $20M NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, a global competition to develop breakthrough technologies that will convert CO2 emissions into valuable products. Today, we are joined by Dr. Staff Sheehan, the CTO of Air Co. Staff has a PhD in Chemical Physics from Yale University. Staff is a serial entrepreneur and is one of the co-founders of Dream8, Catalytic Innovations and more recently, Air Co. Staff has won numerous recognitions, including the Forbes 30 Under 30 All-Star Alumni, EarthX 30 under 30: The Green Generation and the Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) Magazine’s Talented 12.

14 new biological drugs were approved by the FDA in 2019. These drugs were either peptidomimetic, antibody or oligonucleotide scaffolds. It is important to store some of these scaffolds under cold temperatures to preserve their therapeutic function. However, storing under cold temperatures is a challenging supply-chain process and adds to the cost of the entity. Our guest today, Dr. Balaji Sridhar has invented a technology to address this challenge and preserve the function of these biological scaffolds at room temperature. Dr. Balaji V. Sridhar is the CEO and co-founder of Nanoly Bioscience Inc., a life sciences company, based in Denver, Colorado. He invented the Nanoshield technology to solve the cold-challenge while working on his MD.PhD. Nanoly has won numerous awards including Intel’s Top Social Innovation, NASA and Space Frontier Foundation’s Top 10 New Technology Companies for Space, Airbus’ Materials and Manufacturing Award, and an NIH SBIR grant. You can find more information on Nanoly through this podcast and at Nanoly.info.

The host, Matha Naganbabu, introduces the podcast series and outlines the objectives and structure of the future episodes. Questions/comments/feedback can be sent to @LeverageScience or [email protected].