MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tennessee leaders in technology transfer, industry, research and entrepreneurship gathered to discuss and provide practical advice to aspiring University of Tennessee Health Sciences (UTHSC) entrepreneurs. The presenters and panelists discussed the mindset, skills and connections needed to translate scientific discovery into real-world impact.
The workshop, titled From Discovery to Impact: Entrepreneurship & Industry Partnerships in Health Sciences, was organized and hosted by Jessica Snowden, MD, MS, FAAP, MHPTT, vice chancellor for Research at UT Health Sciences, a nationally recognized pediatric infectious disease specialist and researcher. Dr. Snowden opened the event emphasizing why entrepreneurship matters for academic health sciences.
“Thank you so much to the UT Research Foundation, Life Science Tennessee (Life Science TN) and Launch Tennessee (LaunchTN) for sponsoring this event,” Dr. Snowden said.
Keynote speaker Monica M. Jablonski, PhD, Hamilton Endowed Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the College of Medicine-Memphis, vice chair and director of Research and associate dean of postdoctoral affairs at UT Health Sciences, shared lessons she learned in navigating both academia and industry when commercializing treatments and therapies for eye-related diseases such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Altogether, Jablonski said her team raised approximately $9 million in seed funding and $17 million in Series A funding to develop the technology.
“It’s absolutely critical to protect your IP – you must start with the end in mind,” Jablonski said.
Now, her startup, Tavo Biotherapeutics, is developing novel treatments for glaucoma and retinal diseases. Jablonski serves as the Chief Scientific Officer.
“Ultimately, it takes a village. You cannot do this on your own, do not do this on your own. You shouldn’t think you have to do this on your own. You need protection and UTRF helps you evaluate technologies, find paths, etc.,” Jablonski said. “I don’t know how to get to the finish line; that’s not what I’m trained to do. I love creating knowledge, but that won’t get you to a finished drug.”
Working with others and knowing when to relinquish control were also important lessons in achieving her goals.
For Jablonski, “success is seeing something we created making it to the clinic to be used by patients and improve the lives of patients.”
Following the keynote, Jablonski, Maha Krishnamurthy, UT Research Foundation (UTRF) President and CEO, Abby Trotter, Executive Director of Life Science TN, and Chris Ramezanpour, Associate Director of the Institute for Agricultural and Conservation Research and Education at the University of Memphis, held a panel providing practical guidance around startup formation.
Panel members discussed how they entered the technology transfer field and the challenges and rewards associated with bringing innovations to market.
“Success in this field often looks like sometimes a lot of failures that are named, but most importantly the grit to move on from those. Most people who are doing this work have stories like Monica’s. It’s crucial to continue believing in your technology and believing in what it can do long term for patients,” Trotter said.
The discussion helped participants understand that there is no single pathway from discovery to impact and provided a deeper understanding of the resources around them.
“Get to know the resources around you and use them,” Trotter said. “We have UTRF, Life Science TN, LaunchTN, the Epicenter and more. There are federal and state opportunities. Get to know the resources and don’t leave them on the table.”
Jablonski reiterated Trotter’s point, saying, “I would not be sitting here today if I had not taken advantage of all of those opportunities.”
Next, Olaf Schulz, director of Zeroto510, and Ela Emami, manager of startup services for the Epicenter, led a workshop on how to identify opportunities through design thinking.
“Epicenter’s goal is to connect founders with resources needed to build, grow, and scale their companies in the Digital Delta,” Schulz said.
Emami and Schulz discussed their nationally recognized ZeroTo510 MedTech Accelerator, a 13-week intensive curriculum with a demo day. The program has supported 53 companies, with participating companies demonstrating a lifespan twice the national average.
“It’s so important to understand that there is money, mentors and resources available to make you successful,” Schulz said.
Epicenter also provided guidance on framing research, crafting point-of-view statements and using communication strategies to balance user needs, business viability and technical feasibility.
After the Epicenter presentation, UTRF-Memphis Office Vice President James Parrett presented on commercialization fundamentals.
“Intellectual property is how you take your science and define what you’ve created. That then allows you to legally transfer it to someone else,” Parrett said.
Parrett discussed the main four categories of intellectual property: patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, focusing on the different types of patents available, the requirements for obtaining a patent, prior art, inventorship and business considerations.
After Parrett’s presentation, a panel explored sponsored research and collaboration models, strategies for approaching industry partners, and conflict-of-interest and compliance considerations.
Alan Smith, Executive Director of Operations Excellence in Biomanufacturing from Charles River International, Patrick Rickard, Financial Controller from PBC BioMed, Jablonski and Ramesh Narayanan, Ph.D., Interim Assistant Dean of Research for the College of Medicine-Memphis and Eric Muirhead Professor at UT Health Sciences participated in the panel.
“UT Health Sciences is extremely strong in drug discovery, and we have a tremendous partnership with UTRF. They are the facilitators of moving drugs to the next stage,” said Narayanan.
The workshop closed out with a session on how to build the best pitch, presented by Karla Leeper, Ph.D., MBA, MA, Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications and Marketing at UT Health Sciences.
She provided practical guidance on how to frame the problem, solution and impact your technology proposes to get external audiences to care.
“You must build trust. If people don’t think you’re trying to communicate in a way they understand, that comes off as untrustworthy,” said Leeper.
The workshop concludes June 18 with a pitch competition that will provide seed funding to graduate and postdoctoral students who participated in the workshop.