Advancing Translational Research

On Thursday, June 18, UCSF Innovation and TCG Labs-Soleil invited UCSF researchers developing novel therapeutic ideas to learn about funding and startup opportunities. We were delighted to host Eric Gomez, PhD, Principal at TCG Labs Soleil, for an engaging discussion on TCG Labs Soleil’s opportunities for innovators at UCSF.

Eric shared valuable insights into TCG Labs Soleil’s unique company creation model, which combines investment capital with drug discovery and development expertise to help transform breakthrough scientific discoveries into venture-backed biotechnology companies. Attendees learned about pathways for commercialization, startup formation, and strategies for advancing translational research toward clinical impact.

Thank you to Eric and everyone who joined the discussion. We appreciate the opportunity to connect our research community with VC leaders who are helping bridge the gap between academic innovation and entrepreneurship.

The UCSF NSF I-Corps (Innovation Corps) is a U.S. National Science Foundation-funded initiative designed to help researchers, scientists, physicians, and health professionals translate their academic research and laboratory discoveries into real-world, commercial applications. The program is an immersive, entrepreneurial training program that facilitates the translation of invention to impact.

This experiential training program prepares participants to extend their focus beyond the university laboratory and accelerates the economic and societal benefits of research projects toward commercialization and patient benefit. UCSF, the birthplace of biotechnology and the first institution to apply Steve Blank’s Lean Launchpad framework in a bioscience setting, hosts its training courses focused on healthcare products, including therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices, digital health, and platform technologies.

The course is an immersive two-week virtual customer discovery training. Participants learn how to conduct 20 customer interviews to identify top customer segment and value propositions, validate commercial markets, and accelerate finding product market fit.

We are happy to welcome the new Executives-In-Residence (XiR) who have joined Innovation Ventures and are providing feedback and working across startup opportunities at UCSF.

• Vijay Shreedhar: Therapeutics
• Milica Vukmirovic, PhD: Therapeutics, Diagnostics
• Katie Ellias, MBA: Therapeutics, DHealth, Medical Devices
• Josh Nickols, PhD, MBA: Therapeutics, Medical Devices
• Richard Treadwell: Medical Devices
• Jeff Kolberg: Medical device XiR
• Klint Rose, PhD: Research tool and diagnostic XiR
• Herb Ryan: Therapeutics, Life Science Tools, Medical Devices, Biomanufacturing, dHealth

The XiRs provide feedback on UCSF technologies and work across UCSF startup opportunities to help move our most promising inventions towards the investment milestone. They all have significant entrepreneurial and industry experience and bring tremendous value to UCSF Innovators and Innovation Ventures.

For more information about the program, please go to the following link:

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