“Even Research Needs a Rolodex”

Center for Biotechnology Director and Stony Brook Biomedical Engineering Chair Dr. Clinton Rubin recently spoke with Innovate Long Island about commercialization and entrepreneurship. A serial inventor, Dr. Rubin has been involved in three startup companies based on his technology which have all taught him different lessons about commercialization. As he notes in the article, “There’s a chasm between launching a technology and creating a company”. Read the full article here.

Long Island Bioscience Hub Selects Third Bioentrepreneur-In-Residence

Entrepreneur Derek Brand Selected to Facilitate New Bioscience Ventures

STONY BROOK, N.Y. – December 14, 2015 – The Center for Biotechnology at Stony Brook University announced today the appointment of Derek Brand as BioEntrepreneur-In-Residence (B-EIR) for the Long Island Bioscience Hub.  The Long Island Bioscience Hub is a National Institutes of Health-designated Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub, and represents a partnership between Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Brookhaven National Laboratory, to commercialize technology emerging from their institutions.

Mr. Brand most recently served as Vice President of Business Development at Enumeral Biomedical Corp., which licensed a single cell immunology platform out of MIT and is now a publicly traded biotechnology company with a pipeline of novel immunotherapies in oncology.  In addition to Enumeral, Mr. Brand has held both business and scientific roles at multiple early-stage, venture-backed biomedical startup companies; he has also held commercial leadership roles at GE and the New York Academy of Sciences and presently serves on the advisory board of Allovate LLC, a novel allergy immunotherapy company in NYC. He received his MBA from Babson College and his B.A. in biology from Hamilton College.

“I’m excited to take on the role of BioEntrepreneur-in-Residence and looking forward to bringing a diverse array of startup experience to the LIBH community” Mr. Brand stated. “The opportunity to dig in at the earliest stages of innovation with the exceptional scientists at Long Island institutions is a terrific opportunity, and it’s an honor to have been selected.”

“Mr. Brand is an excellent addition to the team of entrepreneurs engaged in the B-EIR initiative” Diane Fabel, Director of Operations for the Center for Biotechnology stated. “We are excited to see the positive impact these entrepreneurs will have as new companies are launched within the Hub.”

Mr. Brand joins an impressive roster of seven B-EIRs that was expanded in November to include Drs. Brian McCarthy and Gian Luca Araldi. Dr. McCarthy has an extensive background as an investment analyst and as the President and CEO of the startup Influmedix while Dr. Araldi has had a distinguished career in drug discovery within the pharmaceutical industry and as the Founder and Principal of US Pharma Services.

LIBH B-EIRs are tasked with identifying technology or technologies from within the partner institutions that will create the foundation for licensing and company formation.  B-EIRs will have the support of the LIBH business and technology development staff, along with external industry advisors to develop successful commercialization strategies, and position the company for SBIR/STTR grant opportunities, and Angel and VC investment. The LIBH can also provide opportunities to access development funding to help advance technologies towards commercialization.  Ultimately, the goal is to foster the creation and growth of new ventures that leverage the exceptional scientific and technological advances taking place at LIBH institutions.

Long Island Bioscience Hub Announces Funded Projects

Accelerating Biomedical Discoveries for Commercialization

STONY BROOK, N.Y. – December 7, 2015 – The Center for Biotechnology at Stony Brook University, on behalf of the Long Island Bioscience Hub (LIBH), announced today the recipients of the first technology development grants awarded by the Hub. Thirteen awards totaling $900,000 were granted to applicants from Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The LIBH technology development grants are a multi-tiered funding initiative aimed at collectively contributing to a pipeline of commercially promising biomedical technology in the region. The three funding initiatives include Feasibility, Proof of Concept and Commercialization awards.

Feasibility awards are designed to rapidly test the feasibility of new ideas in a “fail-fast-or-proceed” format, or to add value to existing intellectual property leading to new market applications of an existing technology.  Proof of Concept Awards provide targeted, milestone driven support for proof of concept research, development, testing, and analysis of existing intellectual property. The final tier, Commercialization Awards, provide targeted, milestone-driven support for a subset of projects with existing intellectual property where additional investment will clearly advance the technology to a major value inflection point for commercialization.

The grants awarded this cycle will support technologies developed across multiple disciplines including pharmacology, biomedical engineering, chemistry, and microbiology. Among the award recipients were two post-doctoral researchers. Of the thirteen grants awarded, eight were Feasibility awards and five were Proof of Concept Awards. The recipients of this round of awards are:

Feasibility awards

  • Targeting Pathogenic Viral Infections with First-In-Class Viral Budding Inhibitors – Dr. Carol Carter
  • Development of Small Molecule Inhibitors for PLD6 as Therapeutics for Triple Negative Breast Cancer – Dr. Michael Frohman
  • Novel miR-129 Based Therapeutics for Colon Cancer – Dr. Jingfang Ju
  • Fast Hybrid Approach For Determination of Structure of Therapeutic Protein Complexes – Dr. Dima Kosakov
  • Enhancement of Protein Yields Using Mechanical Signals: Augmenting Biotech Production to Reduce Drug Costs – Dr. Gabriel Pagnotti
  • Non-invasive Acoustic Radiation Force Therapy for OA Induced Pain and Cartilage Regeneration – Dr. Yixian Qin
  • LDL as Biomarker for Childhood Tuberculosis (TB) – Dr. Xinxin Yang

Proof of Concept awards

  • A New Standard of Care for Implant Bed Preparation Utilizing an Innovative Drill Bit Technology – Dr. Marcous Abboud
  • Orthovoltage X-Ray Minibeams: Brain Tumor Therapy with Tissue-sparing Incident Beams – Dr. Avraham Dilmanian
  • NEW‐HARP: A Highly Sensitive Avalanche Selenium Detector for Time‐of‐Flight (TOF) Positron Emission Tomography (PET) – Dr. Amirhossein Goldan
  • Azasteroids for Combination Anti-TB Therapy – Dr. Nicole Sampson
  • A Novel Glioblastoma Drug – Oncolytic Virus PV1-Mono-Cre – Dr. Eckard Wimmer

​“We are excited to see such a robust and diverse portfolio of early stage technologies supported through the LIBH and NIH-REACH consortium,” said Clinton T. Rubin, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Director, Center for Biotechnology. “We are hopeful that this investment by the federal and state government, as well as SBU, CSHL and BNL, will foster and accelerate the translation of these technologies from the bench to the bed side, and help attract further investment from the industrial and financial sectors.”

The main goal of the LIBH is to foster the development of therapeutics, preventatives, diagnostics, devices and research tools emerging from LIBH partner institutions that address diseases within the NIH’s mission.

Long Island Bioscience Hub Selects Bioentrepreneurs-In-Residence

Biotechnology Strategist Brian McCarthy and Pharma Executive Gian Luca Araldi
selected to launch new bioscience companies

STONY BROOK, N.Y. – November 23, 2015 – The Center for Biotechnology at Stony Brook University announced today the appointment of Brian McCarthy, PhD and Gian Luca Araldi, PhD, as BioEntrepreneurs-In-Residence (B-EIR) for the Long Island Bioscience Hub.  The Long Island Bioscience Hub is a National Institutes of Health-designated Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub, and represents a partnership between Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Brookhaven National Laboratory, to commercialize technology emerging from their institutions.

Drs. McCarthy and Araldi have broad bioscience industry experience and comprehensive knowledge of commercializing academic technologies. In their roles as BEIR they will identify technologies that have the potential to support company formation in the region.  Each brings unique skills and perspectives to technology assessment and bioscience-startups.

Dr. McCarthy is a senior biotechnology strategist with operational, start-up, development, and financial expertise. He currently serves as a business advisor to Gismo Therapeutics Inc. and VP of Business and Clinical Development at Viatar CTC Solutions Inc. Prior to his Wall Street and entrepreneurial career, Dr. McCarthy was a faculty member at Cornell University Medical College and the National Naval Medical Center. Dr. McCarthy received his PhD in Neurobiology from Stony Brook University.

Dr. Araldi is a pharmaceutical and biotechnology executive with more than 25 years of experience ranging from basic research through clinical development at major pharmaceutical companies including Glaxo, Forest Laboratories and Merck-Serono.  Dr. Araldi has been involved in the development of key medicines such as Teflaro®, Dutogliptin®, Gavestinel®, Sanfetrinem® and Sanfetrinem® Cilexetil and is the inventor of 113 granted patents. Dr. Araldi received doctorate degrees in Organic Chemistry and Pharmacy from the University of Parma (Italy) and recently received his M.B.A. in Finance from Long Island University Post.

“The Long Island Bioscience Hub is excited to announce the appointments of Drs. McCarthy and Araldi as BioEntrepreneurs-in-Residence” Diane Fabel, Director of Operations for the Center for Biotechnology stated. “They join a talented roster of five existing BioEntrepreneurs in Residence at the Center for Biotechnology who are well on their way to commercializing technologies and building their companies.”

As B-EIRs Drs. McCarthy and Araldi are tasked with identifying technology or technologies from within the partner institutions that will create the foundation for licensing and company formation.  They will have the support of the LIBH business and technology development staff, as well as the support of external industry advisors to develop successful commercialization strategies. The LIBH can also provide access to a competitive pool of technology development funding to help move their technologies down a commercial pathway.  Ultimately, the goal is to help the company position itself prepare for SBIR/STTR grant opportunities, and Angel and VC investment.

Commercialization Workshop for Life Sciences

Are you interested in learning about the skills needed to commercialize an innovation? Do you have an innovation that you are looking to bring out of the lab? Are you looking for funding to aide commercialization efforts? Attend the LIBH Commercialization Workshop.

The Long Island Bioscience Hub (LIBH) is hosting a Life Science focused Mini-Boot Camp- a one day rapid fire workshop that will provide practical tools used in commercialization as well as strategies to enhance applications for LIBH grant funding.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

8:30a-3:00pLong Island High Technology Incubator

25 Health Sciences Drive, Stony Brook, NY 11794

Who Should Attend: Faculty, Physicians, Fellows, Post Docs, Grad Students

Topics Include: Intellectual Property, Business Models, Market Needs & Size, Competitive Landscape, Regulatory Pathways

This is a free event but interested participants are asked to RSVP via email to Tiffany Tsui, PhD: tiffany.tsui@stonybrook.edu