PROMOTING COLLISIONS THAT IGNITE IDEAS
The Inaugural Forward BIO Institute Annual Member Meeting
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The Forward BIO Institute hosted our inaugural Annual Member Meeting on September 17. With over 80 participants, attendees included innovators and educators, trainees, technology transfer and intellectual property experts, investors, and industry partners representing both large and small companies.
The event was opened by awarding Dr. Ian Robertson, Dean of the College of Engineering, the Forward BIO Institute Advocate Award in recognition of his support for the Institute’s mission to expedite transformation of innovative technologies into healthcare solutions. The event featured keynote presentations by experts in the field Dr. Mary Haak-Frendscho, President, CEO and a Board member of
Spotlight Therapeutics
in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Dr. Paul Conrad, Vice President of Business Development and Alliance Management for
bluebird bio
headquartered in Cambridge, MA. Both keynotes underscored the unprecedented growth that cell- and tissue-based therapies and technologies are experiencing, and the tremendous economic and humanitarian potential associated with this new age of health care innovation. Drs. Haak-Frendscho and Conrad, both UW-Madison alumni, acknowledged the immense potential of the Madison community, and the greater Wisconsin region, to emerge as a new epicenter of biomanufacturing and biohealth innovation with contributions from organizations like the Forward BIO Institute and its partners.
The potential for growth in the biohealth sector was exemplified through Barry Kurokawa, Chairman and CEO of
Dianomi Therapeutics
, a recently founded biotechnology startup based on technology for novel drug stabilization and delivery developed at UW Madison. The Annual Member Meeting also showcased presentations by Forward BIO Institute partners, Andy Richards, Director of Design to Product (D2P), and Greg Keenan, Manager of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) Accelerator Program, and many more!
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LAUNCHING THE FORWARD BIO CONSORTIUM
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Along with the Annual Member Meeting, the Forward BIO Institute is proud to announce the official launch of our Industry Consortium. We welcome our Charter Members
AlloSource
,
Catalent
,
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals
,
Venture Investors
, and
Versiti
, along with an association of startup companies from around Wisconsin, and thank them and our on-campus sponsors for their support of the Forward BIO Institute’s initiatives to advance biomanufacturing technological innovation and build a world-class workforce for the 21
st
century.
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SHOWCASE
Anne Smith Joins Executive Committee
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We are delighted to welcome Anne Smith as the new Director of Legal Strategy for the Forward BIO Institute. Anne Smith is a Clinical Associate Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, as well as co-founder and Director of the Law School’s Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic. Previously, she was the General Counsel for Winterthur U.S. Holdings, Inc., a U.S. insurance holding company owned by Winterthur Swiss Insurance Company and Credit Suisse; and later became General Counsel for Promega Corporation, a global life sciences company. Her practice focused on general corporate law and mergers and acquisitions.
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ACCELERATING UW-MADISON DISCOVERIES
ON THE PATH TO COMMERCIALIZATION
The WARF Accelerator Program
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Greg Keenan presenting on the WARF Accelerator process at the Forward BIO Institute Annual Member Meeting
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As part of their ongoing mission to support scientific research within the UW–Madison community, and translate innovation to the marketplace, WARF manages a technology development program called the WARF Accelerator Program. This program invests in proof-of-concept milestones that validate market potential, demonstrate commercial value, and de-risk technology to attract industry partners or investors. In 2018-2019 alone, the program awarded over $2.4 million to help inventors bridge the oft-described “valley of death” through developing prototypes, executing critical field trials, assessing markets, determining customer requirements, and identifying collaborators and potential investors. The program market focus areas include computer science and engineering, clean technology, food and agriculture, healthcare, and research tools.
“The WARF Accelerator Program is an important resource for UW inventors. They provide support for technical de-risking that is generally not available from any other funding source.” -Bill Murphy, Director of the Forward BIO Institute
The Accelerator Program employs a staged project management process to guide technology innovation from opportunity identification, through late stage marketing and licensing opportunities. The Forward BIO Institute and the WARF Accelerator program have established a new partnership leveraging both organizations’ phase-based and comprehensive project management structures.
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“We are excited to work with the Forward BIO Institute in supporting the commercialization of biomanufacturing technologies from UW-Madison. Through the complementary resources provided by the Forward BIO Institute we can more effectively support the biomanufacturing projects in the WARF Accelerator portfolio.” - Greg Keenan
Keenan, the manager of the WARF Accelerator Program continues, “The Catapult Program works with our project teams to help them formulate a value proposition and establish a business case that informs the project milestones and justifies funding. Also, the Forward BIO Institute provides our project teams with connectivity and access to leading companies in biomanufacturing through their network of industry partners. These partners, and potential future customers, are a fantastic resource for our project teams as they develop their technologies and refine their business models.” As Murphy reiterates, “We at the Forward BIO Institute are very fortunate to be able to partner with the WARF Accelerator program to convert groundbreaking discoveries into realistic societal benefit.”
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