Episode 13: Entrepreneur-in-Residence in Biotech with Key Opinion Leader Kenneth Eilertsen

You're listening to Bio from the Bayou, featuring stories and industry insights from experts in the bustling biotech scene of New Orleans.

The entire Gulf Coast region is buzzing with expertise and excitement. We're here to bring you frontline access to this vibrant ecosystem direct from NOLA, a city that provides a little lagniappe with everything we do.

Where people come for the science and stay for the food, festivals, and resilient culture. Welcome to Bio from the Bayou. I'm your host, Patrick I'm Dr. Reed from LSU Health New Orleans and Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Today's guest is Dr. Kenneth Eilertsen. Dr. Ken Eilertsen is the new entrepreneur in residence at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, an LSU campus in Baton Rouge focused on metabolic health, human performance, obesity, and nutrition. Prior to his new role, Ken was on Pennington Biomedical's entrepreneurial track. His academic research is broadly focused on epigenetic programming And he is also a seasoned entrepreneur, starting companies New Potential and Infogen, and turned an animal diagnostic acquisition, Genmark, to profitability and eventual sale. I've recently started working at Pennington Biomedical on a part-time basis and have been working closely with Ken in his new role to help promote and support innovation, commercialization, and entrepreneurship on campus. Ken and I will both be at BIO in Boston in June. Ken's technical and entrepreneurial background dovetails perfectly with my academic technology transfer and business development expertise. Today, I wanted to dig a bit deeper into Ken's background to better understand how his past experiences position him to be a champion of all things innovation at Pennington Biomedical. Thanks for joining me today, Ken. I'm just going to jump right in. How has your work in startup companies informed your bench research and vice versa?

Well, I was initially introduced to the idea of developing products from basic research discoveries when I was a postdoc at the Tissue Research Center of Johnson& Johnson in Skillman, New Jersey. And it was that time that I really embraced that notion of developing products from basic research discoveries. And really since that time, every basic research question I pursued always was driven by the notion of a product that could improve people's lives.

What aspects of your career, including that start as a postdoc at Johnson& Johnson, founding these companies, making them profitable, and joining Pennington Biomedical Research Center, What makes you well-suited for the newly created Entrepreneur-in-Residence role at Pennington Biomedical?

Well, one thing that I've learned over the years is that in general, physicians and biomedical researchers lack the education and experience on the business side of science, and this lack of knowledge and experience in the business of translation is a lost opportunity for academic and university systems. My background in life science startups and basic research can help bridge this gap by helping them better understand how to bring an idea to a commercial product, how to collaborate with medical life science entrepreneurs, and for interested graduate students and/or postdocs, how to pursue a career in entrepreneurship.

And to kind of go off of that response, why do you think it can be beneficial to bring an innovation entrepreneurial mindset to academic research in the life sciences?

Well, roughly about a third of all novel drugs on the market today were originally discovered by university researchers, and about 20% of medical devices were invented by physicians. And both of these validate the importance of discovery and translation. It's been my experience that I've noticed some basic researchers don't really connect their research to translation. Bringing an innovation entrepreneurial mindset to life science academic research increases the potential to bring more products to market, in my opinion.

So it's interesting that you say that, that you've noticed several basic researchers don't connect their research to translation, and I've noticed that in my career as well. What do you think are some effective programs, funding mechanisms, and other opportunities that would help an academic investigator be more involved in having that translational mindset?

Well, locally, I believe the LSU's Proof of Concept Fund, Leveraging Innovation for Technology Transfer, or LIIFT, has had a very positive impact. Certainly SBIR and STTR programs can provide initial dollars to move a discovery forward to commercialization. More recently, the development of NSF and NIH I-Corps programs Provide training for life scientists to extend their focus beyond university laboratory, and accelerate basic research projects toward commercialization. Also, something that seems to be very new is a novel education program that, again, is in its very early stages, and it's been developed and implemented by New York University School of Medicine. It's referred to as the Biomedical Entrepreneur Education Program, or BEEP, and I think it's really the first of its kind. I'm very interested to see where this program goes. And similar types of curricula will be implemented at other institutions.

Yeah, that's great.

And so as we develop more of these programs and bring other things to this region, what do you think are some of the challenges you see to effective commercialization here locally?

I think the biggest challenge is, at least in my opinion, there's a very limited access to venture capital in this region. And it's also very challenging to attract those monies from East and West Coasts. I also believe there's an underdeveloped innovation culture in universities, which I think needs to be embraced and nurtured to develop a regional innovation culture.

Yeah, it's interesting you mentioned that. I think James Zanewicz and I are keenly aware of some of these issues. It's one of the primary reasons we started this podcast and created the Bio on the Bayou annual research symposium and try to meet partners where they are at conferences around the country and the world. What other things do you think we could be doing to address some of these shortcomings?

I think establishing in-person and online lectures, podcasts such as this, and mentoring sessions led by industrial professionals would help to illuminate paths to translate discoveries and solidify the concept that benchwork can be applied beyond the laboratory, which can also be very rewarding to scientists as well.

So thinking about the next 5 to 10 years, what are you most excited about at Pennington Biomedical, and how do you hope to play a role?

Well, I certainly hope Pennington Biomedical will continue to nurture and cultivate an innovation commercialization culture that again brings products to market that improve people's lives. At this stage in my life, I believe my role is to help plant those seeds in the hope that a new generation of life science researchers will embrace and carry it forward.

It's certainly been a fun challenge in effecting this change together in Baton Rouge. Given the extraordinary and impactful research being done at Pennington Biomedical, I'm confident we'll be able to make great progress. Thanks so much, Ken. I look forward to updating the Bayou from the Bayou audience on the great things you're doing to help build at Pennington Biomedical in the future. We will have Dr. Eilertsen's contact info and some relevant links posted in our show notes. Make sure you check them out to learn more. Once again, thank you for listening to Bio from the Bayou.

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

If you'd like to learn more about the emerging biotech scene in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, Visit us at biofromthebayou.com, where we have more info on who we are, how to get involved and connected in biotech in New Orleans, and the industry events we'll be hosting where you can meet with us in person.

And we'd be remiss if we didn't give a special thanks to the Accelerator Network for providing funding for this podcast. Learn more about them in our show notes.

We'll catch you on our next episode of Bio from the Bayou.