BIO from the BAYOU: Build Your Biotech Network with Key Opinion Leaders and Investors
8 Jun 2022 · 15 min
0:00
In this episode of Bio from the Bayou, hosts Patrick Reed and James R. Zanewicz interview Dr. Elaine Hamm, CEO of Ascend Bioventures and Tulane’s first Executive in Residence (EIR). Dr. Hamm explains the biggest hurdles academic scientists face when engaging industry—primarily the need for “boring” experiments that answer safety, manufacturability, and regulatory questions. She describes the EIR role as a bridge that brings operational, regulatory, and entrepreneurial experience to help academics prioritize data‑driven, low‑risk experiments that matter to investors and pharma partners. Practical partnering advice is shared: do thorough partner research, articulate a clear scientific value proposition, and present comprehensive data packages that highlight gaps and de‑risking. Dr. Hamm outlines a planned series of lunch‑and‑learn sessions focused on microbiology and immunology, emphasizing industry‑relevant models such as the thigh‑infection assay and fibrosis endpoints. The conversation also covers the feasibility of remote EIR work, noting that virtual meetings can be effective while still requiring face‑to‑face interaction for deep data dives. Finally, she offers guidance for scientists and tech‑transfer professionals—maintain clean lab notebooks, stay focused on critical experiments, and understand industry data expectations—and advises universities on how to launch attractive EIR programs by offering flexibility, local connections, and the ability to work remotely. The episode closes with invitations for listeners to connect, attend future lunch‑and‑learns, and engage with the broader Gulf Coast biotech ecosystem.
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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, the 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. I'm Patrick Reed at LSU Health.
And I'm James Zanewicz from Tulane University. You're listening to Bio from the Bayou. I'm James Zanewicz, the Chief Business Officer for the Tulane University School of Medicine and the Tulane National Primate Research Center. And today we are joined by Dr. Elaine Hamm, the CEO of Ascend Bioventures, and perhaps more interestingly for today's topic, the very first Executive in Residence at the Tulane University School of Medicine. Today we're going to explore what that Executive in Residence role means. Elaine, welcome back to the show.
Hi.
Well, we're recording these back to back, and so it probably feels like you were just here, but let's keep going.
Are we supposed to pretend that I came back for the second one?
Sure, why not? I mean, you stepped away for a second.
I did.
Let's see, as a reminder for our listeners, you have a PhD, you've been a scientist in academia and industry, you've been a tech transfer person, you've been an investor, you've been both the COO and CEO of biotech companies. But people may not know that you and I have also worked together as the planning and moderating team behind a series of events Designed to eliminate barriers between the academy and industry and investors and foundations, and really advancing the innovation ecosystems for several organizations, including crafting the conversation for Autumn. With that, you have a lot of perspective in this area, you have a lot of value to bring back. So what are some of the biggest challenges you see for academic scientists trying to engage with the business world?
Yeah, the thing that a lot of times business people want are going to be the really boring questions to be answered. So, I mean, scientists, we're drawn to the really interesting and the really hard questions, but a lot of what I have found that people want to know is very basic of, is it safe? Does it kill you? Can you make it?
That's a big one.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's a fair, yeah, does it kill you is a pretty good one. But those are still really boring experiments, right? I mean, those are, you know, inject a mouse and see if they go feet up, feet down.
That's not really exciting. Or a worm. I mean, it's not fun to watch a worm go left, right?
Or a worm, as I've learned, yeah. But those are really interesting. I mean, but they're really the hardest ones to answer in a lot of ways too. And manufacturing is the most boring concept in a lot of ways, but it is one of the main killers of products. I mean, not just in the bio world, but in general. I mean, if you can't make it inexpensively, then it can be a big challenge to get your product out there.
Right. So maybe you just gave us some of the reasons with that answer. What made you decide to venture back inside the academy, especially at Tulane, to become an executive in residence and help scientists?
Because I love boring experiments. They can think of the really hard stuff and the hard problems.
My—
I can check off the list of boring experiments for the FDA like no one's business. So I have no problem. And I— you mentioned the COO role. That is one of my favorite roles, to be honest, because I love operations. I love project management. And that's the nerdiest statement I've said this week, but that's what is necessary to check boxes. And that's what a lot of drug development is, is checking boxes.
And it's something academic scientists probably don't often think about because it's not where they're headed with their research, right?
Yeah, no, they're doing the really hard stuff, so I can help them with the other stuff.
Yeah, and expanding on that, what do you see as the role of an executive in residence? How else can they add value to both the university and the regional ecosystem they operate within?
When I think of an executive in residence, I think of someone who's been there and done that and has experienced the pain of, of being an entrepreneur. And so I think bringing that perspective is really important. I mean, that's something that in theory that I knew, when you actually become an executive, Boy, do you have a lot of life lessons get thrown at you. And so having had that experience, I think, is really important because you're sort of bringing the boots-on-the-ground perspective. You can kind of see things before they happen because you've been there.
Right, no, definitely. So one of your first projects with us was very focused on partnering strategies. And you've been on the receiving end and, you know, the providing end of partnering invitations quite a bit. So what tips would you share with academics or companies, big or small, who are trying to partner either at BIO or another one of the big trade organizations?
Well, this is something that you and I have talked about before. It's doing your research, which sounds really basic, and still people don't do that. I mean, I make fun of the people that, you know, send an email to me that say, dear sir. I'm not a sir. So the basic research piece of it is really important. When I have a product, I understand exactly what, you know, value proposition my product can bring, and then I look at it, I do the research on the partner of how does this fit into what they already have. You want to try to make it as easy as possible for them to want to partner, and Kind of spoon-feed it to them almost, of just like, here's how I can see it working for what you guys are doing, and why it would make sense for you. As people pitch to me, I really— it's focusing on the science, to be honest. I mean, please don't tell me the market. I don't need to know that. I understand that piece of it.
If you don't, you're not very good at your job.
Yeah, right, exactly. What do you mean diabetes is a thing? No, I think it's really important. I mean, you do have to understand, like, if you are developing a new diabetes drug, what makes you different from all of the other ones, but that comes down to science. You really have to think about— you're focusing on the science. How does it fit into what everyone else has done? What differentiates you? And what kind of data do you have around it? I would love to see really good data. I'd love to see the list of all the data that you have on a product so I can understand what gaps remain and how you've de-risked it. And honestly, where you think the risks still remain. It's okay to have a risky product. That's what we're in this game for. But identify that for me and be okay with that because we can find a way to solve it.
Yeah, and I know too that you are very focused on the data in the background, and you're very aware that for your current executive-in-residence role with Tulane, that we were founded as a university, actually as a school of medicine, to combat an infectious disease outbreak, yellow fever.
Yep.
It's very much in our DNA. We're very outward community-focused. And with that, you've mentioned a plan to hold lunch and learns with faculty around specific areas, really starting with micro and immuno to begin with. What do you have in mind for those?
And it's not just because I'm a microbiologist and I just want to get back to my roots. Once you told me that piece about Tulane being started because of infectious disease, and I already knew about your infectious disease program, it just made perfect sense to sort of focus on that. And I have experience in developing new antibiotics and vaccines as well. And so really, it's going to be doing some lunch and learns around, you know, what does industry care about in terms of developing a new antibiotic? So, What are the standards that you'll need to meet? I mean, what are the standard models? I mean, why focus on a model that industry doesn't necessarily care about when you could do a really simple experiment? I mean, thigh infection model is really straightforward and basic, maybe not terribly interesting from an academic perspective, but it is a pretty standard model, and they wanna see a 3-log CFU drop. I mean, that's what they, you know, bare minimum. If you can't do that in that model, that's gonna be a problem, so.
Yeah, and faculty are usually very motivated to ensure that, we like to say at Tealine that we bring ideas to lives, that what they're doing in their research actually comes out to impact the human condition. And I think it's important for them to have someone like you who says, if you don't do it this way, that's not going to happen, because that's what drives them. They're not concerned with money in return from their deal. Like, that's an aside, but most of them are very, very passionate about impact.
Right. And again, that comes from experience. So I worked on a diabetes drug for a while, and we did these experiments in a very specific diabetic model that we thought was really important. And it turned out that no one cared about that model. And so when we had conversations with pharmaceutical companies, they're like, that's great. And I'm glad that you did it in an animal model, but this is the only model we care about for XYZ. And it's just like, okay. And then really understanding what it's going to take from a data perspective to get it to become a drug. I worked on a liver disease company and man, we had some really good data in the liver, but the thing that industry cared the most about was fibrosis and we didn't Absolutely nothing for fibrosis. So it's really understanding and prioritizing experiments that are going to be incredibly effective. Maybe they're simple and not very scientifically interesting, but boy, they'll move your product forward if you can accomplish them.
Yeah.
And we just came out of a meeting with our podcast producer, Ian McLaughlin's father, James McLaughlin, and his collaborator, Lisa Marici.
We did.
And I think you were pleasantly surprised with some of the things they had done.
Oh my gosh, they have a crap ton of data. When I asked them via email, I was just like, hey, you know, tell me what kind of data you have. And they were are very straightforward. But when we start to dig, it's just like, wait a minute, you are doing IND-enabling studies, which may not mean anything to a professor, but for us, that means that you're very close to human clinical trials. And that, from an investments perspective, telling a partner that you're that close is really important. And honestly, academics don't really often think about safety studies, and here they are doing GLP toxicology work. It's just like, oh, that rarely happens in academia. Let's talk about that. And in my head, I'm just thinking of, I can come up with an entire spreadsheet of all of the data that they're telling me, and I could hand that to a partner. It's, here's what they've done. And it's just a really data-intensive program, which is fantastic.
And transitioning ever so slightly to a different topic, people outside the big clusters, like where we are, where you are, may worry that they don't have someone like you in their backyard. You're not in our backyard. Does an EIR Need to be 100% boots on the ground, or can telework well work?
That's a good question. Yeah, I mean, you sort of think about an EIR, is the biggest part of that is in residence.
Yeah.
And while I am in residence currently, I'm also in Oklahoma, but I think the pandemic has really showed us that we can work wherever, and Zoom is amazing, and that's how I run my current companies. And so it does take face-to-face conversations, it 100% does, or at least a conversation via Zoom where I can go through and really dig into the data and ask them those kinds of questions. But I think it absolutely can work, and that's how you're going to get executives from all over to be able to help the Midwest, in that they don't have to move to be that. In fact, when we recruit for CEOs for our portfolio companies, we don't make a requirement to move to Oklahoma, and it's so we have the best person for the best job. And that's why.
Now, you were also in a university in 2 roles, both as a scientist and as a tech transfer professional. What do you know now that you wish you had known then in each of those roles? Because there are probably people listening in those roles. What advice would you give them? And I know you hate to give advice, but this is to yourself that other people can learn from.
Yeah, that's right. I'm trying to think. Probably as a grad student, it would've been like, keep up with my lab notebooks better, that nobody likes to receive data in Prism. That's the other thing. And we talked about that today with our scientists of like, please don't send me things in Prism. already have it made up in a PDF, that would be great. So yes, keeping better documents, being hyper-focused on the data that— and the experiments that really, really matter.
Right.
And so, I mean, it's so easy when you're in science to just get distracted by, oh, that sounds like an interesting question, and then you've gone down a rabbit hole. Staying really focused on like what questions you need to answer is really key. And from a tech transfer perspective, I wish I'd been able to give better industry advice, but having— I hadn't been in industry yet. I mean, I was on sort of the cusp of industry being in tech transfer, but having gone out and done investment and been on the investment side and now been at a company, I have a very different perspective of what people actually like to see. So—
And I guess to close out today, there are lots and lots of universities with great science who aren't in a cluster. I mean, there are really 4 big biotech clusters in the US, and there are a lot of universities who aren't there. If universities are interested in this and want to establish this executive-in-residence model, how would you tell them to approach it? What makes it attractive to someone like you? What are the benefits? What are the things that we can offer you? Even if we don't have a lot of money, what can we do to make it worthwhile for you?
Well, I think what appealed to me here is that I've gotten, over the years, I've gotten to know Tulane. So I've come to Bayou on the Bayou. I've been keeping up with your professors for many years, just from my relationship with you, and grown to It's going to sound cheesy, grown to love the programs and what you guys are doing. But I think also what appealed to me in actually making this a role is that I could see myself helping and finding like, you know, if they just did this, I think that they would be successful in XYZ. And the other piece was that you were very flexible and that I could stay in Oklahoma and do this role and come and visit, which, I mean, New Orleans is a nice city to visit. So there is that piece of it. But at the same time, I can be of help and connect to resources that are neither in Oklahoma nor in New Orleans. And so having the flexibility of being able to engage even from my, the comforts of my own home was really helpful.
That's fantastic, Elaine. I just want to thank you so much for coming back once again.
Of course.
I mean, I'm sure we will have you back in the future because we're just beginning this Executive-in-Residence exploratory project.
Yes.
And we're learning and growing. And I think as we learn more, we'll share more.
Exactly. Get excited for some lunch and learns about drug development. That'll be good. And I'll be in residence at that time.
We can Zoom you in. You can drop food on camera.
Absolutely. And I encourage even alumnae to Elaine, if they have an interest, they can reach out to me as well. So I'm available for questions. I mean, my role is just to help.
Very good. And for folks out there, if you want to connect with Elaine, myself, or the podcast, or if you want to learn more about Lisa Marietje or James McLaughlin science. You can check out our show notes on biofromthebayou.com. Check out all the episodes we have so far. We're dropping a whole swath of episodes right with major industry trade events. This will be the batch for BIO 2022. And if you're listening to this at BIO and want to learn more about the science—
Come find us.
Come find us.
Track us down.
We're happy to do formal meetings. We're happy to do cocktails. We really don't like super early coffee, but we'll do it.
You might do it. I'm here for the cocktail conversations for sure, so. All right, thanks so much.
Thank you so much, and this has been another great episode of Bio from the Bayou, and we'll see you all next time. 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.
