Fostering and Catalyzing Biotech Startups Out of Academia: Insights From the 2021 Weill Cornell Medicine Startup Symposium
At Weill Cornell Medicine, we think differently about supporting startups. In an effort to nucleate, foster and catalyze our startups, we recently hosted our annual Startup Symposium and InvestorConnect event. Over 200 people attended the symposium, which featured an all-star panel on how companies launching out of academia get to seed funding. Dr. Bob Langer, Institute Professor at MIT and founder of numerous biotech companies, including Moderna, was our Keynote Speaker.
University’s thriving business incubators, accelerators take off
But they soon discovered that Weill Cornell Medicine’s BioVenture eLab, a recently established hub of the institution’s entrepreneurial system, was launching its inaugural 2017 Business Plan Challenge competition. The 10-week event, designed to help Weill Cornell Medicine clinicians and researchers commercialize their concepts, would culminate with a “Shark Tank”-type contest in which teams compete for a total of $100,000 in prize money.
Biomedical Business Plan Challenge Nurtures Weill Cornell Medicine Entrepreneurs
Iris was one of seven companies formed by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators that participated in the Business Plan Challenge. The groups competed in Griffis Faculty Club in front of a panel of seven expert judges comprised of investors who specialize in early-stage companies, for investment capital for their NewCos to help commercialize their technologies.
Du Cheng, 29
Now an M.D.-Ph.D. student, Du Cheng was initially rejected from college and later from all but one medical school. But he has since distinguished himself by balancing the rigors of studying medicine with running his own startup, iDu Optics, which has generated more than $500,000 in revenue.
The Entrepreneurs
Fostering a Culture of Innovation, Weill Cornell Medicine is Making it Faster and Easier for Researchers to Move their Discoveries From Bench to Bedside
Running the Numbers
Computational Biology Student Neel Madhukar Designs a Powerful Tool for Optimizing Drug Development.
Baby Steps
Infertility affects about 12 percent of American couples. Celmatix, a New York City-based personalized medicine company focused on reproductive health, is trying to change that.
Pioneering Program Teaches Students How to Commercialize Medical Technologies
As an undergraduate student, Du Cheng invented a laboratory camera adapter that would allow scientists to capture images with an iPhone and then view them through a microscope.
Moneyball Could Offer Winning Strategy for Drug Development
Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have developed a promising new AI tool that better predicts which drug candidates are likely to be too toxic—and it’s based on the Oakland A’s winning strategy, immortalized in the blockbuster book and movie Moneyball.