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INVO NEWSLETTER
Fall 2022
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The InQbation Lab launched its website and opened its first space at 1801 Maple in September (photo to right). The Collaborative Space on the first floor offers workstations, meeting spaces, conference rooms and a classroom. Fifth floor renovations include office space for resident startups and 4 new wet labs, all of which will be ready by December 2022. The final phase of office and lab renovations on the sixth floor will be completed by the end of Summer 2023.
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The Q Lab hosted its first showcase event on October 26, "SynBio 2.0 | What Comes Next," welcoming over 120 guests and panelists from leading synthetic biology faculty and coastal investors from around the country including Khosla Ventures, 8VC, Lux Ventures, KdT Ventures, Breakout Ventures, 50Years, Pear VC and others. The evening networking session drew in panelists, faculty, administration and graduate students. | | |
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The N.XT Fund is a $10 million gap fund designed to foster and supports Northwestern’s promising early-stage startups. Investments aim to de-risk technologies to a value inflection point in order to attract potential partners and investors. The size of N.XT investments are up to $150K, based on proposed milestones.
The following three startups are finalists for 2022 N.XT Funding:
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Syenex – SynBio platform company focused on designing and engineering extracellular vesicles for biotherapeutic delivery. | Josh Leonard (McCormick)
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Opera Bioscience – SynBio platform company developing a novel microbial protein expression system for cheaper/faster protein production. | Danielle Tullman-Ercek (McCormick)
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CosmeTec – Consumer-oriented haircare company developing a cleaner, safer hair dye based on synthetic melanin. | Nathan Gianneschi (Weinberg & McCormick)
N.XT News on Last Year's EdTech Awardees
Michael Horn (SESP & McCormick) spun out a new startup, Eccentric Orbit, to commercialize their N.XT-funded TunePad platform which aims to broaden student engagement in computing by allowing them to create music while learning Python.
Spencer Striker’s (NU Qatar) History Adventures project won the 2022 Anthem Awards Silver Medal for Education, Art, & Culture.
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INVO PRACTICUM INTERNSHIP
During COVID, the INVO Practicum went fully remote, yet we managed to train 17 interns and find opportunities to connect briefly in person. The Practicum has had over 70 interns working with the INVO team, assessing invention disclosures and helping with other technology transfer opportunities.
The 12th cohort (top photo, left to right) included Christopher Koo (PhD candidate, Prof. Amy Rosenzweig, WCAS), Bon Ikwuagwu (PhD candidate, Prof. Danielle Tullman-Ercek, McC), Antoineen White (PhD candidate, Prof. Laura Lackner, WCAS), Casey Adams (PhD candidate, Prof. Tom Meade, WCAS), Dan Sykora (PhD candidate, Prof. Milan Mrksich, McC), William Corcoran (PhD candidate, Profs. Josh Leonard and Gabe Rocklin, McC), Tom Zhao (PhD candidate, Prof. Neelesh Patankar, McC), Shuvam Chaudhuri (PhD candidate, Prof. Deyu Feng, FSM), Martha Dunbar (PhD candidate, Prof. Sinan Keten, McC), and Erika Ramos (PhD candidate, Prof. Huiping Liu, FSM).
The 13th cohort (middle photo) included Program Directors Sarah Kamper and Sonia Kim, Katarina Popovic (PhD candidate, Prof. Todd Murphey, McC), Marija Milisavljevic (PhD candidate, Prof. Keith Tyo, McC), Alexander Sudrzynski (MS candidate, BME), Icho Lu (MS candidate, Biotech), Camila Kaufman (PhD candidate, Prof. Michael Jewett, McC), Tori Seto (PhD candidate, Prof. Milan Mrksich, McC), and My Chau Ta (PostDoc, Prof. Paul DeCaen, FSM).
The current 14th cohort (bottom photo) began their in-person training in October. Interns (left to right) include Karis D'Alessandro (PhD candidate, Prof. Navdeep Chandel, FSM), Rebecca Keate (PhD candidate, Profs. Guillermo Ameer and Jonathan Rivnay, McC), Hayley McMorrow (PhD candidate, Prof. Lisa Beutler, FSM), Eric Martin (PhD candidate, Prof. Evangelos Kiskinis, FSM), Chanwook Park (PhD candidate, Prof. Wing Liu, McC), and Katie Cherny (PostDoc, Dr. Larry Kociolek, Lurie Children's Hospital).
For more information on the program, please visit the INVO Practicum website.
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NEWCURES
Launched in 2018, NewCures, Northwestern's biomedical accelerator, has leveraged approximately $2.5M funding in support of 15+ projects focused on developing potential therapeutics out of Northwestern research labs. In addition to the initial identification of these projects, NewCures guided many of these projects outlining critical experiments and sourcing them to external Contract Research Organizations. The CRO work created great value as much of the work reached key value inflection points of high potential.
Since its inception, NewCures has seen a number of successes in the form of:
- 1 Collaborative Research Agreement with a major pharmaceutical company
- 1 Exclusive License Agreement;
- 5 Option Agreements to License; and
- 3 licenses under negotiation.
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INVO UPDATES
INVO Welcomes 3 New Colleagues | Phillip Carter, Nnamdi Nelson and Maxine Faass
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Phillip Carter joins INVO as an Invention Manager, covering portfolios in material sciences, chemistry, and medical devices. Phil brings over 25 years of diversified industrial R&D experience across specialty chemical and medical devices/pharma. He started his career developing water treatment additives for mineral scale control and flocculants for papermaking at Nalco Chemical Co. At Cabot Microelectronics, he held Research Fellow and Director roles with responsibilities for innovating nanoparticle polishing slurry formulations in the production of advanced node semiconductors. As R&D Director at Baxter Healthcare, he helped build capabilities in particle analyses, emulsion technology, cross functional discovery teams, and analytical support to manufacturing. Throughout his career, Phil has maintained a focus on discovery and new product development that includes over 40 patents, numerous innovation awards, 35 journal publications, and several commercialized products. Phil received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois-Champaign, his PhD in physical organic chemistry from the University of California-Berkeley and conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Minnesota Chemical Engineering Department focused on crystallization science.
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Nnamdi Nelson joins INVO as an Invention Associate from UCSF where he was a postdoctoral researcher and a technology analyst intern at UCSF’s Innovation Ventures group for two years. He manages a diverse portfolio of inventions, spanning a wide array of life science fields, including synthetic biology, medical devices, therapeutics, and research tools. Nnamdi graduated from Wartburg College with a BA in Biology and then went on to graduate with a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Nnamdi also served as VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Biotech Connection, a Bay Area nonprofit focused on life science innovation, where he led initiatives to accelerate careers and increase innovation opportunities for underrepresented minority scientists.
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Maxine Faass comes to INVO as an Invention Associate from a biotechnology startup company in Chicago, where she served as an associate patent agent, working on their portfolio licensed from Northwestern. While in college, she worked on the R&D team at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Maxine is a graduate of Emory University with a BS in Chemistry and Ancient Mediterranean studies. She also earned her MS through the Masters of Biotechnology program at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering in 2021.
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UPCOMING PROGRAMS
19th Chicago Biomedical Consortium Symposium
"Stress and Human Health: Diabetes"
Thursday, November 17, 8:30am-6:30pm, Northwestern Medicine Prentice Women's Hospital
DETAILS AND REGISTRATION LINK
Q FOUNDER SERIES
Dividing Up the Pie: Equity Structures & Frameworks for Early-Stage Startups (in-person), Plus Office Hours Available
November 29, 2022, 1-2pm, InQbation Lab, 1801 Maple Ave, Suite 1400
REGISTER HERE
FoundHer SERIES
Closing the Gender Gap at Northwestern| Best Practices in Inventorship and Entrepreneurship
December 12, 11am-12pm
REGISTER HERE
Q FOUNDER SERIES
Fundraising Terms and Structures for Startups (in-person), Plus Office Hours Available
December 14, 2022, 1-2pm, InQbation Lab, 1801 Maple Ave, Suite 1400
REGISTER HERE
INVOForward Therapeutics 2023
January-March 2023
Application for Faculty Teams are open. This is a mentorship program geared towards equipping Northwestern faculty with an improved understanding of the elements necessary to create a compelling data package for investors and industry.
Details may be found HERE. APPLY HERE
PAST EVENTS
SynBio 2.0 | What Comes Next: Northwestern University’s Querrey InQbation Lab hosted its inaugural event on October 26, featuring panels and “lakeside chats” focused on opportunities in this important area. The day highlighted panelists and speakers from KdT Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Breakout Ventures, OMX Ventures, Pear VC, Fifty Years, Westlake Village BioPartners, Lux Capital, Foresite Capital, LanzaTech, Resilience, Northwestern, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Startups Syenex from Northwestern, Syntax from University of Illinois at Chicago, and Evozyne from University of Chicago also presented. The event facilitated powerful interactions between investors around the country with the local research and startup community, showcasing the strength of synthetic biology R&D in the Midwest.
SBIR/STTR Seminar Series: INVO hosted a 5-part webinar series covering both fundamental and more advanced topics related to SBIR/STTR grants. SBIR Consultant, Kris Parmelee, led the series and moderated a special Northwestern Panel on how to navigate the University with regard to SBIRs/STTRs. Together, representatives from INVO, Conflict of Interest, Sponsored Research and IRB shared their respective perspectives. Refer to this FAQ One-Pager for Northwestern researchers as it relates to SBIRs/STTRs.
INVOForward Therapeutics 2022: INVO hosted its 2nd INVOForward Therapeutics, a mentorship program geared towards equipping Northwestern faculty with an improved understanding of the elements necessary to create a compelling data package for investors and industry. Participating speakers included Jim Sullivan (Vanqua Bio and Orbimed), Mitchell Glass(Broom Street Associates), John Haugen (INVO), Marta New (Radyus Research), Jim Audia (Third Rock Ventures), and Niels Emmerich (AbbVie). INVOForward Therapeutics 2023 is expected to run January through March 2023. APPLY HERE
INVOForward Digital Health: With the guidance of Evan Norton (Kellogg Adjunct Lecturer and Founder & Managing Partner of SPRIG Equity), INVO hosted its 1st INVOForward Digital Health program which helped Northwestern faculty and clinicians prepare a compelling business model. The series featured Katie Arnold (SPRIG Consulting), Lee Shapiro (7wire Ventures), Jodi Akin (Hawthorne Effect), Mert Iseri (MATH Venture Partners) and Evan Norton (SPRIG Equity).
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