Four Cornell University researchers have been accepted into the third cohort of the Ignite Fellow for New Ventures program from the Center for Technology Licensing (CTL). By training scientists and engineers to build solid, high-value businesses, the program aims to expand the real-world impact of research and enrich Cornell’s venture ecosystem.
Each fellow is partnered with a faculty inventor to establish a startup based on a technology developed at Cornell. During the program, fellows will work in their faculty inventor’s lab and report to one of the incubator directors at the Center for Life Science Ventures, the Praxis Center for Venture Development, or the Runway Startups program for business development support.
This model leverages the technical expertise of the labs where inventions are created and Cornell’s venture incubation resources to build a solid foundation for new ventures. Fellows also receive financial support allocated toward their compensation and basic experiment expenses.
“The Ignite Fellow program is gaining recognition as a new path to nurture scientist and engineer entrepreneurs and build strong foundations for deep tech startups,” said Alice Li, Executive Director of CTL. “We hope the third cohort will ride on the momentum in creating valuable new ventures.”
Previously, the Ignite Fellow for New Ventures program was broken into two 12-month phases. This cohort is the first recruited under the program’s new 12-month model, a simplified version of the program that accelerates fellows’ paths to licensing and impact.
The fellows in this cohort demonstrate the entrepreneurial mindsets, technical expertise, and business plans needed to successfully pursue a new venture. Each venture project represents a different academic discipline, demonstrating the diversity of innovative technologies emerging from Cornell.
“One of the Ignite Fellowship’s greatest strengths is the simultaneous development of both the technology and the fellow,” said Aaron Delahanty, Venture Manager at CTL. “As the innovations are driven towards market-ready products, fellows are prepared for leadership roles and equipped to build strong executive teams that can support continued growth of their new companies.”
The selected fellows and their venture projects are:
Technology: Anionic Cloaking Reagents for Intracellular Protein Delivery with Cationic
Lipids
- Fellow: Azmain Alamgir
- Faculty inventors: Christopher Alabi, Ph.D., Associate Professor, and Matthew DeLisa, Ph.D., William L. Lewis Professor, Smith School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering
- Incubator Director: Lou Walcer, Center for Life Science Ventures
- Venture project: Azmain is commercializing a novel reagent to improve delivery of protein-based therapeutics into cells, with applications in pharmacology and as a research tool for studying the function of full-length proteins inside cells.
Technology: Characterizing and Diagnosing Inflammation Using Cell-Free RNA
- Fellow: Conor Loy
- Faculty inventor: Iwjin De Vlaminck, Ph.D., Professor, Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering
- Incubator Director: Lou Walcer, Center for Life Science Ventures
- Venture project: Conor’s technology leverages plasma cell-free RNA (cfRNA) in the blood to profile inflammation, providing a diagnostic platform for pediatric inflammatory diseases and for complications of cancer immunotherapies.
Technology: Objective pAIn – An AI-Based Pain Biomarker
- Fellow: Hayford Agbanu Perry Fordson
- Faculty inventors: Adam Anderson, Ph.D., and Eve De Rosa, Ph.D., Professors, Department of Psychology, College of Human Ecology
- Incubator Director: Fernando Gomez-Baquero, Runway and Spinouts
- Venture project: Hayford is developing an objective, AI-based platform to accurately assess pain threshold, tolerance, and emotional distress using cardiac sensors. Applications of the technology include assessing patients who are unable to report their pain and providing “proof of pain” to help medical professionals administer appropriate levels of pharmaceuticals such as opioids.
Technology: AI-Driven Material Models for Engineering Simulations
- Fellow: Steven Yang
- Faculty inventor: Nikolaos Bouklas, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering
- Incubator Director: Robert Scharf, Praxis Center for Venture Development
- Venture project: Nikolaos’ team is building an AI-based tool for material modeling to accelerate the cycle from materials discovery to product development. The service provides insight into how a new material will respond to different forces, reducing the time and resources manufacturing companies must invest to develop material models.
“With my technology, we have a platform that can go in many different directions,” Loy said. “What I’m hoping to get out of the program is focus, so we can decide what we want to pitch to investors and make that decision before raising any money. We’re currently preparing for large-scale validation studies so that when we graduate from the program, we can hit the ground running.”
The Ignite Fellow for New Ventures Program continues to help Cornell researchers bridge the gap between research and commercialization, demonstrating the university’s commitments to interdisciplinary collaboration and societal impact. The program enables fellows to maximize the impact of their technology to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
“As recent graduates or postdocs, bringing deep technical expertise along with a strong willingness to learn and adapt, combined with the support of structured programs like the Ignite Fellow for New Ventures Accelerator, creates a strong foundation for building sustainable startups that can deliver innovative solutions for societal benefit,” said Lynda Inseque, Director of Technology and Venture initiatives & Engagement at CTL.
Applications for the Ignite Fellow for New Ventures 2025 cohort will open on November 1, 2024. Learn more about the program and application process here: https://ctl.cornell.edu/ignite/fellow-for-new-ventures/
The Ignite Fellow for New Ventures program is one of the four signature programs of the Ignite Cornell Research Lab to Market gap funding series. For more information, visit the official program website at https://ctl.cornell.edu/ignite/
