November 2020
THE OCR REPORT
A Message from Jon
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Whether around a table or Zoomsgiving-style, I sincerely hope you were able to celebrate the season with your loved ones last week. As I reflect on the successes and challenges of the past several months, I remain grateful; Grateful for the dedicated OCR team, the faculty who trust us with their ideas, and for our partners whose support is requisite in maximizing the impact of Yale-developed research. This is a big week for us: Thursday and Friday we are hosting Yale Lifesciences PitchFest 2020. Please join us.
Jon Soderstrom
Managing Director
Yale Office of Cooperative Research
What's
Coming Up
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This Thursday and Friday, 22 Yale PIs will take the virtual stage at PitchFest 2020 for 5 minute pitch presentations. Selected from a larger group of applicants, these projects represent Yale’s top biotech opportunities and are candidates for accelerator awards from the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale. Please join us, vote in the “audience choice” awards at the end of each day and for the virtual networking hour from 3-4PM both days. Registration is free.
Our News
Yale Lifesciences PitchFest 2020 Agenda Announced
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Our Phavorite Solution? Phage (Op-Ed by Yale spinout, Felix Biotechnology)
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FDA Yale team leads national rollout of cost-friendly SalivaDirect™
COVID-19 test (Commentary from Lola Kadiri, OCR)
News We're Following
Yale-founded biotech company brings research opportunities to New Haven
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Aero Therapeutics selected for JLABS @ San Diego
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Bayh-Dole 40th Anniversary Celebration Video Webinar
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With Murthy, Nunez-Smith, and Kessler, Biden leans on experience to steer Covid-19 task force
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EvolveImmune Therapeutics opens their new Branford lab and office
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Current, state-wide industry news.
Faculty Spotlight
Brett Lindenbach, PhD
Associate Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis and of Comparative Medicine
Overview of Current Project: Biosafe SARAS-CoV-2 replicons for high-throughput drug discovery
(Brett will be presenting this week at PitchFest).

There is a pressing need for antiviral compounds that target SARS-CoV-2 replication enzymes, not only to combat the current pandemic, but for future coronavirus outbreaks. A key impediment is the lack of a robust high-throughput viral replication assay with low biosafety requirements. We have developed SARS-CoV-2 replicons – fragments of the viral genome that replicate in cells but do not make infectious virus particles – and shown that they are useful for drug screening, dose titration, and drug synergy studies. We will complete optimization of second-generation replicons, conduct pilot screens, and validate assay scalability and robustness for large-scale screening.
Favorite Off-Time Activity
I like to cook, ride my bike, and spend time with my family. I used to enjoy travel, and hope to get back to it soon!

Best Advice for new entrepreneurs
Developing a scientific concept into a product is very different from discovery-based research.
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