“At this accelerator, we're not only helping faculty explore deep scientific questions, but also broaden their mindset to think of themselves as innovators and entrepreneurs,” said Lauren Busby, director of BioVenture E-Lab, a division of Enterprise Innovation. She made these remarks at the 2024 Business Plan Challenge pitch competition, held June 4 at Uris Auditorium.
The accelerator's 24 participants received several weeks of educational instruction focused on a variety of commercialization and startup topics, including industry research, intellectual property strategies, R&D planning, as well as the legal, regulatory and fundraising aspects of company formation.
Ten teams set out to develop a business plan based on an invention or technology from Weill Cornell Medicine, WCM-Qatar or Cornell University. Each team received guidance and feedback on their plan and presentation to investors from industry mentors throughout the program. In addition to traditional areas of care, this year's technologies included digital platforms and devices powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
The competition builds bridges between academic researchers and industry to bring innovations from the lab to the patient. “To expand our impact as a biomedical research institution, Weill Cornell Medicine must bring innovations to market through collaborations with industry and others,” said John Leonard, PhD, senior vice dean for innovation and initiatives and the Richard T. Silver Distinguished Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology.
Final Round
The Business Plan Challenge culminated in a Shark Tank-style pitch competition where five teams put their knowledge and marketing skills to the test. Each team presented their innovation, market opportunity, and business development plan. They also answered judges' questions about the advantages of their product over competing products. The judging panel included industry leaders with diverse investor interests that matched the finalists' presentations. Dr. Igor Splawski, Chief Scientific Officer at Yarrow Biotechnology, has decades of industry and biologics experience. Michal Gilon-Yanai, Partner at Two Lanterns VC, has a background in computer science, law, business, healthcare IT startups, and software technology investing. Dr. Nil Gural, Senior Associate at Polaris Partners, and George Wang, Investor at AV8 Ventures, are both experts in early-stage biotech consulting and management. Dr. Meera Mani (Ph.D. ’08, MD ’09), a partner at Town Hall Ventures, works in health technology and tech-enabled services with a mission to support innovation that helps underserved populations.
Winners – Innovating for Tomorrow's Healthcare Environment
After rigorous deliberation, the top prize was awarded to ConsenSurg, a promising app that aims to revolutionize the surgical consent process and provide patients with consistent and unbiased pre-op education.
Dr. Denise Howard, vice chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medical College, said that in her experience as a gynecologic surgeon, the current surgical consent process has several major flaws that make it “confusing and overwhelming.” Without individual counseling, patients are often reluctant to ask questions when they don't understand the procedure, and language barriers further complicate things.
Dr. Howard proposed ConsenSurg, a tablet-based interactive counseling tool and electronic consent form that explains the surgical process in a clear way in the patient's preferred language. Patients are immersed in self-paced, visual, interactive learning about the procedure. They are also informed of the pros and cons of the procedure using evidence-based data. At the end of the consultation, a series of questions is asked to test the patient's understanding.
ConsenSurg has the potential to empower patients, increase surgeon efficiency, reduce surgery cancellations and strain on the health care system, leading to cost savings.
“I am honored to have been selected [for first place] “This award is a testament to the potential value of our proposed product,” said Dr. Howard. “We're grateful to eLab and Weill Cornell Medicine for the opportunity to participate in this program and appreciate the support to develop an idea that has the potential to transform healthcare and provide effective and equitable care.” Dr. Howard plans to use the $50,000 award to build a prototype and test an initial model.
The StewardGuard team (from left): Dr Khanh Pham, Dr Madu Nzerem and Dr Maryam Maqsood Ahmed.
Runners-up StewardGuard and TwiXimo each won $25,000.
StewardGuard leverages AI and machine learning to support doctors in prescribing and monitoring antibiotic use by extracting data from patients' hospital records and cross-referencing doctor's notes and standard treatment guidelines to generate recommendations on antibiotic selection.
The software can improve workflow and reduce errors and antibiotic overprescribing, especially in smaller for-profit and state community hospitals where traditional management frameworks are not available.
“Our journey has been extremely rewarding, and we are grateful to Lauren Busby and BioVenture eLab for their unwavering support in unraveling the entrepreneurial thread that has paved the way for us to have a tangible impact on patient care and antimicrobial stewardship,” said Dr. Khan Pham, lecturer in medicine and physician-scientist in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine, speaking on behalf of fellow team members Madou Nzerem of New York University and Dr. Maryam Maqsood Ahmed of Cornell University.
Dr. Elena Valdambrini, representing TwiXimo Therapeutics;
Dr. Elena ValdambriniPostdoctoral Researcher Dr. Francis BaranyResearchers from the lab of presented new technology that TwiXimo Therapeutics is developing to create protein degraders that target BRD4. Finding drugs that can degrade the BRD4 protein could potentially treat cancers that depend on MYC, an oncogenic driver for many cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer.
The CURE-PRO platform rapidly and efficiently generates novel small protein degraders that consist of two molecules joined by a linker: a ligand that recognizes and binds to BRD4, linked to an E3 ligase that degrades BRD4. They have proof-of-concept data both in vitro and in vivo for targeting BRD4 and plan to conduct studies in disease models. They believe this new therapeutic paradigm could be applied to other solid tumors.
“Participating in the Business Plan Challenge gave us the opportunity to learn from and network with a variety of experts in our fields,” said Francis Barany, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology. “We are thrilled to be recognized by the judges and receive the cash prize to help us move forward with our idea and ultimately benefit cancer patients.”
The Business Plan Challenge has served as the launch pad for many Weill Cornell Medicine startups, with past winning teams having founded companies, run pilot studies, successfully raised funding, and brought new technologies to market to meet urgent medical needs.
Many of Cornell Medicine's physician-scientists maintain relationships and collaborate with outside organizations to foster scientific innovation and provide expert guidance. In the interest of transparency, the school makes this information publicly available. To learn more, see Dr. Francis Barany's profile..
