Life Science TN, BioTN hold three events in the Knoxville area earlier in the week
Two "Lab to Launch" events were held during the day, followed by a well-attended "Beer and Biotech" meetup at Schulz Bräu Brewing Company.
Life Science Tennessee (LST) and BioTN, its nonprofit affiliate, were in the Knoxville area all day Wednesday hosting three different events. Two were titled “Lab to Launch” that celebrated the emerging biotech industry across the Volunteer State, and the third was a return of the “Beer and Biotech” meetup at Schulz Bräu Brewing Company.
During “Lab to Launch” sessions on Wednesday morning at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and that afternoon at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), the two organizations had panels that featured start-ups commercializing life science technologies in the region. There was also a focus at all three events on the semi-annual Scipreneur Challenge that engages graduate students and post-docs in a 10-week commercialization catalyst program organized by BioTN’s Academic Alliance.
At the “Beer and Biotech” meetup, Bryan Barringer, who facilitates the Scipreneur Challenge, told attendees who included numerous students and post-docs that the program can accept 30 participants, and about two dozen have applied. Those interested in building a business plan around intellectual property from one of the state’s research institutions can apply at this link.
He also announced that for the first time ever, the program is now an I-Corps-certified offering which opens additional opportunities for grants among other items.
Barringer also moderated a conversation during the “Lab to Launch” session at UTK that featured the Chief Executive Officers of two local and growing start-ups – Eric Mayer of New Day Diagnostics LLC and Britton Garrett of iO Urology. Formerly known as EDP Biotech, the company that was founded in 2005 by Tom Boyd adopted the name of a company with which in merged in July 2023. You can read more about New Day in a teknovation.biz feature article next week.
In the case of iO Urology, the company announced at the end of March a $19.4 million Series A funding round led by Solas BioVentures of Chattanooga, two urologic strategic organizations, Launch Tennessee, and Jumpstart Capital.
Both Mayer and Garrett talked about how their companies have negotiated additional fields of use beyond the intellectual property they are commercializing today.
In fact, Mayer quipped, “We are acting as our own technology transfer office although we are not very good at it.”
Garrett said future areas of use for iO Urology’s technology could be in areas like cardiovascular disease and diagnostics.
“The gap (in the region) is not on the science side,” he added. “We have a lot of the core stuff here.”
Garrett talked about UTK’s new College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies as an example of the emerging talent pipeline that will help start-ups like iO Urology and New Day Diagnostics continue to grow.
“There is research and talent here,” Mayer said. “What is missing is connections with industry and capital.”
As the event wrapped up, he reminded individuals, “Entrepreneurship is fun. You can always go into industry later. If you are thinking about doing it (entrepreneurship), do it now.”
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