Leo (Naiwen) Cui, Ph.D.’s Post

What if there was a training program to nurture scientific creativity and life science entrepreneurship? We thought about this during the creation of Amplitude, a fund founded on the belief that biotech breakthroughs originate from unconventional and visionary ideas, oftentimes from unique individuals of various backgrounds. In 2020, we decided to launch the Pre-Amp fellowship program to support this endeavor. The goal was to educate and inspire the next generation of leaders in our ecosystem and engage these early-career scientists in Pre-Amp’s unique approach to biotech company creation grounded in the premise of ‘What if that was possible?’. The world, specifically Canada, needs more biotech leaders and we’re happy to help foster them. Our fellowship wrapped up its 3rd year earlier this fall and the results have been incredible. Alumni of the program have gone on to roles at Amplitude portfolio companies; leading technology incubation institutions; other venture and investment banking firms; and some are embarking on their own entrepreneurial endeavors. Several also now work as Venture Associates with us at Pre-Amp where they are building the next generations of companies empowered by our company creation platform.  This year’s cohort was no different with 7 exceptional young individuals joining us from institutions and organizations across Canada. During their three months working alongside us, we encouraged them to adopt a fresh perspective on the scientific process and explore innovative ideas in exciting ways. Our team is grateful for the energy and creativity they brought to the table every day and looks forward to being there to support them on their journeys ahead. A huge congrats to the 2023 fellows - James Round, Julie Douchin, Laura DiGiovanni, Laura Stankiewicz, Madison Bolger-Munro, PhD, Michael Sugiyama, Samuel Burke Each year our fellows fully integrate into our group, collaborating closely with the Pre-Amp and Amplitude company creation teams. They delve deep into the scientific literature, engage in discussions with external experts and conduct brainstorming sessions amongst themselves. As a result, they generate and evaluate numerous hypotheses of potential new ventures, with the most promising ones presented to the broader Amplitude team and network of advisors in monthly readouts for feedback. Our 2024 Fellowship program is beginning to receive applications now. Follow our LinkedIn page for more news on the program and details on upcoming information sessions. You can find more about the program here - https://lnkd.in/dXXU5FFM Get excited. Get inspired. Apply at fellowship@amplitudevc.com #Biotech #Fellowship #Biotechnology #LifeSciences #Healthcare #VentureCapital #AmplitudeVC

#Spinouts #startups Growing #innovation “ Karin Immergluck Lesley Millar-Nicholson Millar-Nicholson, and Orin Herskowitz just published an Op Ed in the Times Higher Education, pointing out that the criticisms of the U.K.’s great research university tech transfer offices for their approaches spin-out are unfounded. The piece explains that the top-tier research institutions in the U.K. spin-out as many deeptech startups for their size as do their peers in the U.S., and do so on roughly the same equity terms as well once all the nuances (such as anti-dilution) are accounted for. But even so, there’s so much more to be done to support deeptech innovation in both regions. Getting these amazing #innovations get from the lab to the market isn't easy, but we are lucky to have so many excellent colleagues (scientists, patient advocacy organizations, government, #technologytransfer professionals, #entrepreneurs, #venturecapital investors, industry, etc) working hard to do so!” https://lnkd.in/ezc6E5DA

🌟 Great Opportunity for TUM Students! 🌟   OCCIDENT's latest collaboration with the TUM offers students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of venture capital while earning ECTS for their Master's program!   Through our OCCIDENT@ACADEMIA initiative, we as science investor are strengthening our ties with universities and research institutions. Together we aim to enhance the ecosystem through joint events, knowledge transfer and unique partnership programs. Our strategic goal is to expand our pan-European presence by identifying the next emerging startup hubs and incubators.   We are looking for the rising stars and hidden gems within the European deep tech start-up incubator landscape. We invite top student teams to join us in analyzing the vibrant European deep tech start-up ecosystem.   Are you ready to embark on this exciting journey? Click on the following link to learn more and apply: https://lnkd.in/dvf24pcD or https://lnkd.in/diTE2WGD   TUM School of Management, Paul Sunzenauer  #deeptech #venturecapital #startups #innovation #innovation #ecosystem #studentopportunities

ICYMI: Verne co-founder and CTO David Jaramillo wrote about the importance of helping entrepreneurial scientists cross the first "Valley of Death". In his mind, this first valley is the lab bench where many scientists and academics develop breakthrough technologies and products. Unfortunately, many of these science breakthroughs don’t see the light of day. It can be difficult for PhD students to independently determine whether the new material they have discovered or idea they have been developing has merit in the real world. Fortunately, there are many fantastic institutions working on solving this challenge. Activate, Breakthrough Energy Fellows, The Engine’s The Blueprint, and many others are leading examples of fellowships that aim to instruct scientists and create entrepreneurial communities. We agree with David. Investing in more programs to develop scientist-to-founder ecosystems is the best way to address some of the world’s toughest problems and to mitigate climate change. This is why Collaborative Fund created The Shared Future Fund back in 2022. We know that by backing climate startups that have earned a place among some of the world’s leading accelerators and fellowships, we can help provide rapid, catalytic capital to this emerging class of founders. https://lnkd.in/g_wXMHbX

Academia originated startups that are very successful with an international reach with origins in deep tech research labs of academia have a standard formulation in most of the cases. There is a star professor with years of academic research and successful US academia connections with top US academic labs. The most important criteria. The model on which the lab operates is there are atleast a few PhDs working on a core problem that let's create a team to build a product addressing a range of important problems that also result into successful academic publications in top conferences. This focus could be for the duration of PhD programs like 5 to 7 years which requires products to be built and launched towards the end of PhD duration of the group of students in the batch. The professor driving the lab is massively ambitious with entrepreneurial mindset and US investor connections and is willing to focus on research letting one of his ambitious and street smart enough students take position of the CEO to handle operational aspects once a good enough minimal viable product (mvp) is built. While the professor himself drives the core scientific angle. Once all these factors fall in place in most of the cases you will have a very successful deep tech product that solves an important problem and is massively successful in the industry while having raised millions in funding to begin its commercial journey. See if you can identify such academia originated startups around you in early stage or in massive scaled out stage already. #startup #deeptech #research #academia #entrepreneurship

Exciting News – We’re thrilled to announce a new collaboration effort between Portal Innovations, LLC and the Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC)! The CBC, generously funded by the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, stimulates collaboration, and most recently, biomedical translation, across Northwestern University, The University of Chicago, the University of Illinois Chicago. Portal, a life sciences venture development engine, is an early stage accelerator and investor in Chicago-based early stage biotech companies. This partnership will strengthen Chicago’s life sciences community into a Midwest innovation engine. The CBC, working with academic scientists at the beginning of their translation journey, will connect academic entrepreneurs to Portal, whose expert network, programming, and venture capital syndicates are targeted to Chicago-based early stage innovators. In addition, the CBC fellows will provide guidance to Portal member startups, helping propel strategic growth in business and science research. Since 2020, Portal’s “crafted capital” has been critical for Chicago’s biotech growth. The CBC has played an integral role in supporting life sciences research across Illinois for the last 20+ years. Together, we will continue to build the life science pipeline with the most innovative and exciting university founded startups in Chicago. This partnership promises a fusion of talent and opportunity to continue growing Chicago’s science, tech, and innovation space. These types of collaboration are key to helping grow Chicago from an emerging life sciences city, to a world-class, established market. #ChicagoBiotech

We asked our guests: “What advice can you give to academics raising their first round of venture funding?” Thank you to our esteemed contributors: Bob Langer, David Schaffer, Jeff Karp, David Mooney, Don Ingber, Pamela Silver, David Walt, Dino Di Carlo, Mike Snyder, Kevin Healy BIOS 10/10 series brings together unique perspectives from thought leaders in Life Sciences. In this series, we’ll feature 10 guest opinions across 10 topics areas pertinent to Life Science Entrepreneurship. We have a lot to learn from each other and hope that by sharing viewpoints from leading experts, we may all come to our own insights faster. In this edition of BIOS 10/10, we are honored to feature world leading professors, cutting edge Life Science researchers, and prolific academic entrepreneurs. Collectively this group possesses 350+ years of academic experience, holds 2,250+ patents, has been cited 900K+ times, cumulative H-Index of 1,300+, & started 100+ companies: including a few of the 21st centuries’ most impactful in Moderna & Illumina https://ow.ly/lu1a50PMhmI #VentureFundingAdvice #AcademicEntrepreneurs #LifeSciencesLeaders #EntrepreneurialInsights #ThoughtLeadership #InnovationInLifeSciences #VentureCapital #BiotechInnovation #AcademicEntrepreneurship #AcademicInnovation #BusinessInScience

We asked our guests: “What advice can you give to academics raising their first round of venture funding?” Thank you to our esteemed contributors: Bob Langer, David Schaffer, Jeff Karp, David Mooney, Don Ingber, Pamela Silver, David Walt, Dino Di Carlo, Mike Snyder, Kevin Healy BIOS 10/10 series brings together unique perspectives from thought leaders in Life Sciences. In this series, we’ll feature 10 guest opinions across 10 topics areas pertinent to Life Science Entrepreneurship. We have a lot to learn from each other and hope that by sharing viewpoints from leading experts, we may all come to our own insights faster. In this edition of BIOS 10/10, we are honored to feature world leading professors, cutting edge Life Science researchers, and prolific academic entrepreneurs. Collectively this group possesses 350+ years of academic experience, holds 2,250+ patents, has been cited 900K+ times, cumulative H-Index of 1,300+, & started 100+ companies: including a few of the 21st centuries’ most impactful in Moderna & Illumina https://ow.ly/lu1a50PMhmI #VentureFundingAdvice #AcademicEntrepreneurs #LifeSciencesLeaders #EntrepreneurialInsights #ThoughtLeadership #InnovationInLifeSciences #VentureCapital #BiotechInnovation #AcademicEntrepreneurship #AcademicInnovation #BusinessInScience

We asked our guests: “What advice can you give to academics raising their first round of venture funding?” Thank you to our esteemed contributors: Bob Langer, David Schaffer, Jeff Karp, David Mooney, Don Ingber, Pamela Silver, David Walt, Dino Di Carlo, Mike Snyder, Kevin Healy BIOS 10/10 series brings together unique perspectives from thought leaders in Life Sciences. In this series, we’ll feature 10 guest opinions across 10 topics areas pertinent to Life Science Entrepreneurship. We have a lot to learn from each other and hope that by sharing viewpoints from leading experts, we may all come to our own insights faster. In this edition of BIOS 10/10, we are honored to feature world leading professors, cutting edge Life Science researchers, and prolific academic entrepreneurs. Collectively this group possesses 350+ years of academic experience, holds 2,250+ patents, has been cited 900K+ times, cumulative H-Index of 1,300+, & started 100+ companies: including a few of the 21st centuries’ most impactful in Moderna & Illumina https://ow.ly/lu1a50PMhmI #VentureFundingAdvice #AcademicEntrepreneurs #LifeSciencesLeaders #EntrepreneurialInsights #ThoughtLeadership #InnovationInLifeSciences #VentureCapital #BiotechInnovation #AcademicEntrepreneurship #AcademicInnovation #BusinessInScience