CTL, Silicon Catalyst, Praxis Center and Geegah covered on SemiWiki.com

SemiWiki.com, an industry blog managed by semiconductor professionals, recently posted an article covering the collaborative ecosystem between Silicon Catalyst, CTL, Cornell’s Praxis Center for Venture Development, and CTL startup Geegah Inc

 

“…fundamental university-based research continues to be a valuable resource to drive the next generation of semiconductor solutions to benefit our industry and ultimately our lives. The Cornell Praxis and CTL collaboration with Silicon Catalyst and Geegah provides a great example of this value.” – Mike Gianfagna

 

Read the full article here:
https://semiwiki.com/semiconductor-services/silicon-catalyst/300123-silicon-catalyst-and-cornell-university-are-expanding-opportunities-for-startups-like-geegah/

From the Bench to CEO: How to Turn an Invention into a Product with Commercial Value

While the numbers are steadily increasing, women remain underrepresented in the technology innovation sector. In an effort to encourage female Cornellians to pursue their own ventures in technology innovation, the Center for Technology and Licensing (CTL) is hosting a series of webinars to allow women at Cornell to learn from one another through their Women Innovators Initiative (WI2).

 

The third webinar of the series was titled ‘Running a Startup: Perspective of Two Women Founders & CEOs from Cornell’, and featured Drs. Rachel Dorin (Ph.D. ‘13) of Terapore Technologies and Siyu Huang (Ph.D. ‘12, MBA ‘14) of Lionano(1) as panelists. Audience members ranged from Cornell students, alumni, and faculty members.

 

In the webinar, Dorin and Huang spoke of their journeys from bench scientists to becoming CEOs of their own companies while answering audience questions regarding the ins and outs of launching and growing a start-up from a women’s perspective. Throughout the seminar, Dorin and Huang continuously circled back to three common themes:

 

Importance of Cornell’s resources and broad network
Both touched on the notion that Cornell’s network and resources are not only limited to potential investors but the true power of the network lies within recruiting “potential talent and forming relationships” which can be critical for the infrastructure and success of the company. Additionally, at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey, Dorin and Huang utilized the various services provided by Cornell, among others, working with CTL on protecting their invention or identifying relevant intellectual property (IP) to build their venture around.

 

Communication is the key for generating interest for growth
To effectively pitch a product into a discernible product, Dorin and Huang emphasized the importance of focusing on “Who is my audience?” and tailoring every presentation appropriately. Understanding how to effectively communicate a technology to investors or pitch a product to potential customers is crucial in the early stages of a start-up company and it will open up opportunities for future conversations.

 

“Find the meaning of your life”
The burden of finding a work-life balance is an enduring and common hardship for women in all sectors. A participant asked about how to overcome adversity that inherently comes with being a woman in a male-dominated sector. Dorin recalled receiving an unexpected phone call from a high-profile investor and being concerned that the investor would not want to invest in her because she was pregnant, then posed the question “if an investor [doesn’t] want to invest in your business because you’re pregnant, do you want that investor involved in your business?” Ultimately, Huang emphasized that “finding the meaning of your life” was the most important goal and Dorin highlighted that “there are a lot of allies…” and as women, we need to “harness your power…and use your strength to make yourself a better CEO”.

 

The full webinar can be watched on CTL’s YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5rte9bGpZI

 

If you are interested in learning more about the WI2 program or participating in future women-led and focused innovation-based webinars, please visit the website at https://ctl.cornell.edu/inventors/women-innovators-initiative/ for more information.

 

(1) Note: Lionano has been recently renamed Factorial Energy.

 

Article written by Cybelle Tabilas.

 

Cybelle is a Ph.D. candidate in Microbiology and Immunology at Cornell University and a Practicant at the Center for Technology Licensing.

Meet the Panelists of Weill Digital Health Series #3: Securing Financing and the Founders Experience

Investment in the U.S. digital health sector has significantly increased from $7.5B in 2019 to $14.1B in funding in 2020 [1]. With that number in mind, in the last session of the series, we bring together founders and investors to discuss the increased investors’ interest in digital health innovations, the investment opportunities, and the founders’ experience in this sector.

 

Join us May 6, 2021 12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)

 

Panelists

Photo of Panelist Katie Baker Katie Baker, Director Innovation – Digital Care Delivery, Anthem, Inc.

 

Katie Baker is a Director of Innovation for the Anthem Digital Innovation team. In this role, she launched the Challenge Series for the Anthem Digital Incubator (ADI).   Katie is currently heading the expansion of ADI into additional markets. Additionally, Katie supports establishing pilots for both Medicaid and Behavioral Health. 

 

Prior to joining Anthem, Baker was at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation leading external innovation for the Entrepreneurship team for 12 years. In that role she ran the iBridge Network – a platform that created pathways for 300 universities to license their intellectual property. She also created, led strategy and business development for iStart – a platform that hosted over 500 business plan competitions. Most recently she led the strategy for community facing projects utilizing external processes, methodologies and technologies that were repurposed for economic development in communities across the country. 

 

Katie has coached startups for SXSW for over a decade, she has also coached for HatchPitch, Venture2Venture, Inventure$, Cherie Blair Foundation and Rise of the Rest among others. 

 

 

Photo of panelist Michael Laskoff Michael Laskoff, Serial Entrepreneur; Founder, AbleTo, Inc.

 

Michael Laskoff is an experienced telehealth entrepreneur, executive, and advisor focused on combining emerging technology and business model innovation to commercialize and scale behavioral and population healthcare solutions. Over the past decade, he has raised over $30M from highly regarded venture funds – including .406 Ventures, Sandbox/BCBS Ventures, HLM, Canaan Partners, and AXA Strategic Ventures – to start and grow two, technology-enabled healthcare services companies, Annum Health, and AbleTo. AbleTo was acquired by the nation’s largest health plan.

 

He has a BA in political science from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He lives with his wife in New York.

 

 

Photo of panelist Alex Morgan Alex Morgan, Partner, Khosla Ventures

 
Alex Morgan is currently a Partner at Khosla Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm which invests broadly in technology from seed stage funding to later stage capital. Alex has a special focus in biotechnology, healthcare, data science, and AI/ML and serves on the boards of a number of Khosla Ventures portfolio companies. Alex has an MD and PhD in biomedical informatics from Stanford. As a scientist, he has published over 50 scientific publications, primarily at the intersection of computer science, biology, and healthcare, and has licensed IP to three separate companies. Prior to working in venture capital, Alex was involved with a number of startups, and worked as a senior artificial engineer for the MITRE Corporation.

 

Example Investments: Advanced Chemotherapy Technologies, Arpeggio Bio, Atrendex, BioAge, Bionaut, Cellino, Deep Genomics, DiscernDx, Docbot, Earli, Ellipsis, Faeth, Flow Neuroscience, Fountain Biotherapeutics, Hello Heart, Invoy, Karius, Kernel, Known Medicine, Loop Genomics, Menten AI, Mirvie, Nebula Genomics, Ochre Bio, Oncobox, Overture, Pardes Bio, Prellis, Probably Genetic, Rubedo, Q Bio, StimScience, STIMIT, Syllable Corporation, Vitro Labs

 

 

Photo of panelist Asaf ZviranAsaf Zviran, CEO & CSO, C2i Genomics, Inc.

 

Asaf Zviran is the Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer of C2i Genomics. C2i Genomics helps doctors and patients fight cancer by providing doctors and patients with tumor burden information, starting with only a blood sample. Its service, called C2, uses software that performs pattern recognition on data from whole-genome sequencing of the blood sample. Physicians can use the service to monitor their patients’ response to treatment and detect treatment failure or disease recurrence well before they do otherwise. Physicians can also use the service to measure treatment response in clinical trials.

 

Moderator

Lisa Placanica, Senior Managing Director, Center for Technology Licensing at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM)

 

Dr. Placanica is Senior Managing Director, Center for Technology Licensing at WCM. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing WCM’s activities in technology management, marketing, licensing, and outreach to support Cornell’s goals in commercializing technologies, promoting start-ups, and building partnerships.

 

Prior to joining WCM in 2020, Dr. Placanica held the position of Managing Director, Business Development and Licensing at Mount Sinai Innovation Partners. In this role, she was responsible for managing a team of business development professionals focused on identifying, advancing, and partnering therapeutic technologies developed at the Mount Sinai Health System and acted as deal team lead for closing complex intellectual property transactions. Dr. Placanica also was a Licensing Manager in the Office of Technology Development at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she focused on development and commercialization of cell and gene therapy related inventions and previously was a key member of the Cell Biology research group at Athersys, Inc in Cleveland, Ohio.

 

Dr. Placanica received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Weill Cornell Medical College where she studied the biochemical composition of gamma secretase and its role in Alzheimer’s Disease in the laboratory of Dr. Yueming Li at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Cornell University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with Distinction.

 

In 2013, Dr. Placanica became a Certified Licensing Professional.

 

 

Register here:

More information on Weill Digital Health Series:

 

[1] DeSilva J., & Zweig J. 2020 Market Insights Report: Chasing a new equilibrium. Rock Health Report.

IGNITE:Research Acceleration Applications Are Now Open (Spring Cycle)

Applications are now being accepted for IGNITE:Research Acceleration

Research grants up to $50,000 per project to accelerate active CTL inventions from the Ithaca, Geneva, or Cornell Tech campuses towards commercialization. Learn more about IGNITE:Research Acceleration here.

 

Timeline:

  • Application Period Opens: March 22, 2021
  • Application Deadline: May 2, 2021 at 11:59 PM
  • Presentation Day: June 11, 2021 (Tentative date)

 

(New) CTL can provide 1 hour of market research assistance to support your application.

 

Apply through the InfoReady platform https://cornell.infoready4.com/CompetitionSpace/#competitionDetail/1838820

 

Meet the Panelists of Fruit & Vegetable Markets: COVID-19 Impacts and Beyond

Join us for a panel discussion on the impacts of COVID-19 on the fruit and vegetable markets across the U.S.A. and specifically in New York State.

 

Join us Apr 14, 2021 12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)

 

Panelists


Richard A. Ball, Commissioner, NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets

 

A native New Yorker, Mr. Ball has made a living in agriculture his entire life. His inspiration to become a farmer came from his grandparents, who were lifelong dairy farmers. At 18 years old, Mr. Ball began his own career in agriculture as a farm worker on a vegetable farm. He later became operations manager of that same farm. After 20 years there, in 1993 the opportunity arose to be a farm owner and for the past 27 years, he has been the owner and operator of Schoharie Valley Farms in Schoharie, NY, which consists of 200 acres and produces a wide range of vegetable crops, small fruits and greenhouse crops. The farm serves both retail and wholesale consumers through an onsite farm market and ships to brokers and restaurants in the local area as well as New York City.

 

James E. Prevor, Founder and Editor-in-Chief Editor, Produce Business

 

Jim Prevor is widely recognized as a leader in assessing the state of the perishable-food industries and analyzing the prospects for the retail and foodservice venues in which perishable foods are bought and sold. His comments and insights on a broad range of subjects — including food safety, genetically modified organisms, irradiation, consumer dynamics, the state of food prices, sustainability and the competitive dynamics in the fresh-food retailing industry — have been seen and heard on CNN, the Fox Business Channel, the BBC, NPR, many network affiliates and over 100 newspapers, magazines and associated websites, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, The Times of London, The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times.

 

 

Bradley J. Rickard, Associate Professor of Food and Agricultural Economics in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

 

Bradley Rickard is an associate professor of Food and Agricultural Economics in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. His teaching and research focus on the economic implications of policies, innovation, and industry-led initiatives in food and beverage markets. Results from his research have been highlighted by various media outlets including Buffalo News, The Economist, Freakonomics.com, National Public Radio, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Wine Spectator.

 

 

Moderator

Jess Stein, Senior Licensing and Business Development Officer at Cornell University.

 

Jessica is responsible for managing the portfolio of plant varieties and germplasm. She works closely with researchers and breeders in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, NY, and Cornell Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center, Riverhead, NY.

 

Before joining CTL in 2010, Jessica worked at Carolina Nurseries as a quality control manager, an assistant director in the new products department, and as a sales representative. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Ornamental Horticulture from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

 

 

Register here:

Meet the Panelists of Weill Digital Health Series #2: Regulatory Landscapes and Reimbursement Strategies and Why it Matters

In this second session of the Weill Digital Health Series, our guest experts will present an overview of the regulatory landscape and the challenges related to privacy and data protection. They will also address the future of reimbursement for digital health products.

 

Join us Apr 7, 2021 12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)

 

Panelists


Sally Bowden, Chief Operating Officer, RenalytixAI

 

Bio to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Melissa Hudzik, Senior Counsel, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

 

Melissa Hudzik is a Senior Counsel in the FDA Regulatory, Health Care, and Consumer Products practice of the Washington, DC office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She is also a Certified Professional Coder. Melissa represents health care providers, durable medical equipment manufacturers, and MedTech and life sciences companies in health care regulatory, fraud and abuse, and reimbursement and billing matters. She helps health care companies develop and implement health care compliance programs and regularly counsels clients on internal and external billing audits. Melissa also advises clients in mergers and acquisitions to ensure health care regulatory compliance with the arrangement and pre and post-closing.

 


Vernessa T. Pollard, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery

 

Vernessa Pollard is Chair of McDermott Will & Emery’s FDA practice. She provides strategic business and regulatory advice to FDA-regulated companies on complex issues related to the development, manufacture, marketing, post-market safety and compliance for FDA-regulated products, including drugs, medical devices and digital health technology. Vernessa counsels companies on product development and premarket strategy, good manufacturing practice/quality system requirements, advertising/promotion, adverse event reporting, FDA warning letters, FDA inspections, recalls, import detentions, corporate compliance programs and regulatory due diligence in mergers and acquisitions. She is a former Associate Chief Counsel for Enforcement in FDA’s Office of Chief Counsel and has been recognized in numerous Law and Life Sciences publications, including Chambers USA 2014 to 2020, Healthcare: Pharmaceutical/Medical Products Regulatory (DC) and LMG Life Sciences, Regulatory Attorney of the Year: FDA Medical Devices, 2018. Vernessa received her B.A. in Communications from Howard University and her JD from Temple University School of Law.

 

 

Moderator


Lisa Placanica, Senior Managing Director, Center for Technology Licensing at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM)

 

Dr. Placanica is Senior Managing Director, Center for Technology Licensing at WCM. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing WCM’s activities in technology management, marketing, licensing, and outreach to support Cornell’s goals in commercializing technologies, promoting start-ups, and building partnerships.

 

Prior to joining WCM in 2020, Dr. Placanica held the position of Managing Director, Business Development and Licensing at Mount Sinai Innovation Partners. In this role, she was responsible for managing a team of business development professionals focused on identifying, advancing, and partnering therapeutic technologies developed at the Mount Sinai Health System and acted as deal team lead for closing complex intellectual property transactions. Dr. Placanica also was a Licensing Manager in the Office of Technology Development at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she focused on development and commercialization of cell and gene therapy related inventions and previously was a key member of the Cell Biology research group at Athersys, Inc in Cleveland, Ohio.

 

Dr. Placanica received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Weill Cornell Medical College where she studied the biochemical composition of gamma secretase and its role in Alzheimer’s Disease in the laboratory of Dr. Yueming Li at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Cornell University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with Distinction.

 

In 2013, Dr. Placanica became a Certified Licensing Professional.

 

 

Register here:

More information on Weill Digital Health Series: