Episode 117: How Universities Can Lead Biotech Innovation with Startup Mentorship and Venture Funding

In this episode, we talk about how universities can step up and invest in innovation, even in a tough funding climate. You're listening to BIO from the Bayou, empowering biotech leaders with the tools, assets, and expertise to improve healthcare outcomes.

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Serving the entire Gulf South, but recorded in the heart of New Orleans. Welcome back to BIO from the Bayou. I'm your host, Dr. Elaine Hamm, the Executive in Residence at Tulane School of Medicine. And with me, I have Dr. Kimberly Graham, who is the David and Marion Mussifer Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer of the Tulane Innovation Institute and the Managing Director of Tulane Ventures. So that's a mouthful. I love it. I like the queen of all you surveyed. That's good.

I like that too. You know, if you're doing something that someone likes, they just give you more things to do.

Absolutely. You must, you must be doing all the right things then, because that's a, that's a heck of a title. I love it.

I'm giving it a college try.

Well, I'm so happy to be able to sit down with you in person. This is fantastic. Last time we talked, we were in Milan drinking martinis, talking about innovation. I will take, you know, cold conference coffee in the basement of a hotel any day to talk about innovation. I love it. So I know you've been on our podcast before with he who must not be named James, because he's dead to me now. He's off in San Diego, so I have ripped him from my heart. But You have talked about what you do and the Innovation Institute and your venture fund with James, I believe, because I listen to that podcast too. But for those who don't know, and how could they not, but we'll get them anyway, tell us a little bit about what you do and what the Innovation Institute is up to right now.

Well, first, let me say thank you, Elaine. You are a delight to talk with, and you're incredibly knowledgeable and always smiling. This work is really, really tough.

It is.

And so you bring a perspective that I think is delightful to the work that we do. And so I'm really looking forward to talking with you today. All right, so what do we do at the Tulane Innovation Institute? Well, it started in 2022, so I'm the inaugural.

You are the first.

The first.

First of her name.

Uh-huh. And it's been really exciting and terrifying at the same time. It's like a white sheet of paper. It's like, here, build something new in New Orleans, and what could that be? And so I think the focus for our president, President Fitz, was we wanted to lean in on innovation and entrepreneurship. And so he was listening to a lot of his alums and people that are incredibly successful graduates of Tulane and said, you know, there's other places around the country that are doing this, so let's try to support our faculty, our students, our researchers, and think about what it means to develop technologies and develop founders. And so the Tulane Innovation Institute was born, and one of the first steps was, you know, identify someone that could help what we were already doing and amplify that.

Yeah.

Accelerate that, and really put point on the fact that we're going to focus on that as an institution. And potentially, that then reaps rewards for the community that we're in and creates economic opportunity and generational wealth. So we span everything from programming, venture development, and then we have the venture fund down at the end. And we've got some unique programming in between. There's about 14 of them total. But we try to kind of meet people where they're at. And there's a lot of gaps in most communities.

Oh, in every community.

Absolutely. And so we're trying to, you know, like, we have this high school program, like, plant the seeds early. And while sports is great, dance is great, but, you know, being an entrepreneur and having a line of sight on the American dream is really important to change the conversation at the dinner table. And so we do lots of different kinds of things that we'll talk about today.

Well, and you don't just do lots of different things, it's across a lot of different areas, which is just astounding. I mean, obviously, we're the School of Medicine, so we get to focus very specifically on medicine, which is still even broad in and of itself, but you have more than just medicine. You have energy, you You have oil and gas. You have so many things across the entire university spectrum.

That's right.

That's hard.

It is hard.

It's hard to be all the things to everyone, but you guys have done such a great job of really bringing the community together and then really finding a way to almost serve as Switzerland in a way of being that office across multiple campuses, multiple, you know, university silos, because every university has silos.

That's right.

And that's a hard job, so.

Yeah, you know, I appreciate you saying that, especially because you have You've been very close to it in parts of your career and kind of know what that means.

Yep, been there, done that.

It's hard. It's sort of, you know, folks in my last gig used to say I was the faculty whisperer, and I don't know that I would say that, but I think that Switzerland is a good analogy. It's like you have to— my father used to say you have one mouth and two ears for a reason.

There's—

you should listen. And so what we really try to do is just that. I don't have enough resources and FTE to do all the things.

Yeah, a lot of things, yeah.

But if you listen and you give people on-ramps, which is what we've tried to do in some of our councils, like our Faculty Innovation Council, they get a chance to weigh in on behalf of their school and say, you know what we're hearing? These are the couple things that would be really, really important to do here, and try to, again, meet people where they're at. We have a community council. We have a technology advancement committee. And so people from industry that are our alums— I mean, our alums are the X factor, honest to goodness. We have some amazing people that get to weigh in on some of the things that we're doing, like our proof of concept funds and stuff.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think that just means, you know, like, we are collaborating and we're trying to do things that are next level. Sometimes it's not always as efficient, but when you take the time to listen to people and bring them into the fold, they become your champions from within. And I think when you're culture changing, that takes a little time. So we're kind of doing the long game and the short game, and I feel like we're getting on the, on the map.

Yeah. Well, I love the on-ramp analogy that you gave, although I immediately thought of, did you watch Clueless? And like Cher drives to like, we're going onto the highway. Oh no, no.

That's exactly right. That's exactly right.

You feel kind of terrified. You're like, oh no, no, no. I mean, a faculty member or I'm a student and you're, you're getting onto the highway and it's very, very scary. Luckily, I mean, it's an on-ramp. That means there's also going to be an off-ramp too. So it may not be for you, but you can find perhaps the CEO that will take on your technology and you guys connect, you know, our researchers with those types of people too.

That's right.

So that's really important.

That's right. There's a lot of work to be done at Tulane and like many R1 universities or other universities. I don't think there's enough of us around to do all of the things. But we are very metric-driven. We are trying to really understand what conversion looks like from one thing to the next thing. What's our holdup? Who do we have to tap to get investment? Maybe we need 2 proof-of-concept funds because We are only moving things from 3 to 4, and now what happens to level 5, 6, 7 before it becomes ready for industry or ready to be a scalable kind of technology?

And that could be— ready means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, to a lot of different industries. And so I like that you pull in— you guys have entrepreneurs in residence, you bring in industry mentors, and that's really important. But it can be hard, I think, that sometimes in industry you have— if you've been working in Pfizer for a million years, you have a certain level of expectation of what TRL level gonna be. And university, it's still early stage, but having those conversations early so you know where you need to go is so important. And I love that you work that in.

Yeah. You know, that's a really interesting point because we run a huge volunteer organization. We have 103 mentors.

Oh my gosh. Oh, that sounds like a nightmare. I'm sorry.

Right.

I mean, just from a— just, that's a lot of just people to have to corral. So that's That's right.

And so—

Oh my God, we need to have a martini for this conversation, just that alone.

So what's interesting about that, and I will parlay that into how that is benefiting us at the state level on energy, if you would just entertain me for a second.

Oh, sure.

Absolutely.

But the motto at Tulane, not for oneself, but for one's own.

Which is such a great phrase.

Right. And so people are embedded in their DNA is this idea of giving back. And so you could have someone like, I'm going to name drop Steve Paul, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Who was president of Eli Lilly. and was a director at NIH. Just phenomenal talent, right?

Yeah.

But he wants to— if you have anything that's ready, call me up, and I'll make the connection. And so this idea of really opening their Rolodex and their network so that we can pressure test these technologies has really been a game changer for us. And we don't expect them to give 200 hours a month or something like this, but we give them very targeted, ways to participate. And so how this has really helped us is Tulane is a co-PI on one of those big NSF Engines grants, right? Oh, great.

Yeah, those are fantastic.

So for those of you who don't know, think of it as this huge translation mechanism, right? So at the state level, you've got lots of partners, you've got industry. Well, they knocked on our door and said, we love what you're doing with this mentor program, and we want to create an ambassador program within the labs. And so we're able to sort of white label—

Yeah.

Some of the programming, and that is another sort of form of validation where we get to help at the state level. And then when you think about bio and energy, when we need infrastructure to build in this bio district, these conversations will have relationships with people that are from industry and that are Tulane alums and people that are spinning out companies to really provide input on what it is we need. to help make those startups successful.

That's incredible. And it's— what a great way to give back to the universities. And it doesn't always have to be your university. I mean, I'm a graduate of University of Oklahoma. I donate my time there too. But here I am at Tulane, and I also help WashU. Like, yeah, it's just really exciting to be connected with faculty because you just get to sit down and have cool conversations about science and get to help out a little bit without having to open your checkbook per se too. So that's always nice.

Well, I love that. I think that what inspires me most about this work is this idea that people are really trying to be their best selves in the work that they do and their discovery. And so I think of this work as being a part of their team to help elevate that. And whether that's some kind of partnering-type opportunity or whether that's a spin-out, the idea really is impact, right?

Yeah.

I recently talked to one of our physicians, and he's like, oh, I love running a hospital, and I love doing this. And he goes, but what I really love, and I'm still seeing patients, is—

Oh, gosh.

—is the idea that I get to bring an innovation to a hospital or to a whole group of hospitals where a million people can take advantage of a discovery that then gets translated. And so he's really excited about that process and getting those technologies in the hands of the people that then can transform lives. And so all of that is super inspiring, and so I think we're cut from the same cloth. cloth with regards to what inspires us.

Yeah, I mean, it's to be able to amplify and go from one bench to all the, you know, people that you could potentially impact, whether it's a disease or just making their lives a little bit easier. What a great— I just get excited every day to go to work, and I know that sounds so cheesy, but it really is fun, and I can tell that you enjoy it as well.

It is fun. And, you know, again, we don't have all the answers and all the capital.

No, I'd be on an island, you know. That's right.

But we We give them a roadmap, we help make introductions, and hopefully we guide them in a way that coaches them towards success. And at the very minimum, they know what not to do, right? Isn't that how the light bulb got created?

Lots of lessons learned from what not to do. Absolutely. So, well, speaking of the things that you help provide, you also provide funding. So talk a little bit about the Tulane Ventures funds and then who can apply to that.

Yeah. So we started that just over a year ago and it's a $10 million fund. Our investment thesis is really about Investing in biotech, health and wellness, the things that are going to move the needle in people's health. And then we've got climate and energy, and then AI, machine learning, and really things that are tech-enabled. And sometimes AI covers—

It does.

—crosses over.

Absolutely.

That's right. And so we invest anywhere from $25,000 up to $250,000 is our check size. We average about $200,000, so we We're not the lead, but we do like to make a significant investment.

Yeah.

We have a bit of rigor in our venture fund. The investment committee is made up of people that are currently running funds. So we love learning, and we love syndicating the deals, and that helps us to get follow-on funding. And that's really, really important for particularly the biotech companies that we are spinning out here at Tulane.

Yeah.

And so we think we were smart about how we established that investment committee to show people that we are doing things that are world-class.

Well, so what's on the horizon for you the next 3 to 5 years? Or next 1 year? I mean, I know, I mean, it's— there's a lot going on, so.

Well, so, and this may bore the audience, please forgive me. I doubt it.

And if— we won't see them, it's fine.

We did this thing called a strategic plan.

Oh no, are you going to bring out a process? She's going to the whiteboard. I'm just kidding, folks.

I am not.

I am not. But what was really cool about that process is we didn't do that when we first started. We didn't have anything to baseline it off of.

Sure.

Everybody had thoughts about what we needed to do.

Oh, everybody does, yeah.

Right. So we had these 3 questions, right?

We did our own customer— You did your own ICOR. I love it.

We did. And we asked 200 people, which was quite a bit over the summer.

That's a lot.

And so a lot of folks were like, do you really want to know what we think? He's like, isn't that opening you up for a whole lot of opinions? So you can dirty your eyes. Yeah, because honestly, if you're trying to serve your stakeholders, you need to ask these questions.

Sure.

Anyway, the long and short of it is people were like, OK, we love what you're doing. You're off to a great start. Do more faster. And so in my mind, which probably in your mind is like, hey, scale, right? It's like scale. So you need more resources. You need, you know—

And it all takes another— that's a new business model too.

Correct. Yeah. So, and of course it was a little, you know, challenging, unnerving. But this idea that they are uptaking what we're doing and they're saying, this is fantastic, you know, let's do more of it. So I think that that Kind of parlays us into how do we use AI to build capacity?

Yeah, absolutely.

How does AI become a tool to help our researchers to do discovery without breaking all the rules? How can we do market intelligence for our portfolio companies in a way that is comprehensive and puts them in a place for their next round in a way that— some of the things we've talked about in the past. But all of these kinds of things, we're trying to kind of rethink the workflow, the tech transfer workflow, the commercialization workflow, to be able to compress some of that, and then use— pressure test that against people like we talked about, whether they're our technology leaders, or alums, or industry experts, to say, are we on base with this, and can we land this with a partner, or whatever? But that all has metrics attached to it, right? That it does. And so, I mentioned this, But usually, for research enterprises our size, there's 2 university spinouts annually. That's not enough for our leaders here, so we'd like to see more.

Yeah.

So, you know, my big—

No pressure.

Yeah, my big goal is to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15.

Oh, girl.

I know, I know. But, you know, if your goals aren't stretching you, then what do they say?

You shoot for the moon, you land on the stars.

Right.

But, yeah, I mean, you have to go big. Right.

Well, we're already, with doing the baseline programming, which wasn't really kind of funneling people, we're funneling people, getting them excited, teaching them a few things. We had 6, right? And so I'm like, okay, well, could we become a mechanism where we have on a regular basis anywhere from 10 to 12? You know, maybe. Let's try it. And so, you know, we need people like you in our ERRs and scoping and scouting things out early so we can think about that. Now, fortunately, we have AI and machine learning as one of the kind of areas that we fund. And that means our fund also, we can take in deals from the community as well. So I didn't— I did not mention that earlier. But so that gives us a chance to play around with how we support people and startups and founders in their development. That's fun.

Yeah. Well, I'm so happy you joined us for the podcast. It's good to see you. Well, thank you. And Carson.

Thank you.

And I'm so thrilled that we have a chance to sit down and talk about all of the exciting things that you guys are working on and what What to look forward to seeing in the next, you know, 1 to 5 years. Sounds like a lot of startups are coming our way. That's right.

So, oofa doofa. If we really want to make a difference in this community, that's what it's going to take.

It is.

And the last time I checked, we're the ones that really can step up.

Someone's got to do it.

That's right. So, we'll be back next year.

That's right. I'm glad too.

Did she survive it?

Yeah, we'll check back in. We'll do a little pressure testing or something. You okay? You okay? Can we get you anything? But no, you got to go big, especially in the Gulf South region. I mean, people in Boston and San Francisco wouldn't even blink an eye at the goals you're setting, so why not here? Why not us?

That's right. That's right. We have incredible talent. Yeah.

Untouched technologies here, so we just have a wealth to mine from, which is really exciting.

That's right.

Yeah. I've always been astounded by the level of openness that people have down here in the South, and really, it's been a really spectacular experience thus far, and I think I think if I'm as good as I think I am, you know, that we could make that kind of an impact and be transformative the way that people need us to be and, you know, be our best each and every day. So that's what we're working at.

Well, as always, we'll have more information about the work that Kimberly and her group is doing on our show links. And please check the show notes out so you can take a look at that. And if you're in tech transfer and are wanting to do similar things within your organization, some of the things we're talking about at Bio on the Bayou this week, please reach out to her because this is so important. It makes such a big— it's just a small ripple that has a huge effect. And we're so glad that you're here to do that.

Thank you, Elaine. Thanks for all you do. Yeah, great.

Appreciate you.

Thanks for joining us for Bio from the Bayou, and we hope you'll join us again.

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This podcast was edited by Resonate Recordings.