From light-activated pain relief to next-generation cancer immunotherapies, early-career scientists and clinicians at Weill Cornell Medicine showcased bold ideas for translating lab discoveries into real-world treatments.
The concepts were pitched by five finalist teams at the Accelerating BioVenture Innovation (ABI) competition, sponsored by the BioVenture eLab within Enterprise Innovation at Weill Cornell on December 9. The event at Uris Auditorium marked the culmination of a 15‑week program that pairs graduate students, postdocs, clinicians and other trainees with industry mentors to learn how to commercialize intellectual property.
“The program teaches skills that participants would not otherwise learn in the lab,” said Loren Busby, director of the BioVenture eLab. The experience is particularly valuable for trainees interested in translational medicine or careers beyond academia. In 2024, for example, nearly half of the doctoral graduates went on to accept positions in industry, pharmaceuticals or biotech, Busby said.
Judges left to right: Drs. Ting Jia, Rana Al-Hallaq and Fay Xing.
This year’s class included more than 50 participants from Weill Cornell, Cornell Tech, and the Tri-I program—as well as Houston Methodist Hospital and Cornell University in Ithaca. The young innovators honed their commercialization skills by researching a patented or patent-pending technology and creating its two-to-three-year development plan and eventual go-to-market strategy. Participants assumed start‑up roles—such as chief executive officer (CEO), chief operating officer and chief scientific officer—and built investor‑style pitches that assessed competition, market opportunity, R&D milestones and regulatory pathways.
“The foundational knowledge gained by participants in ABI teaches them to look at their scientific research with a lens toward commercialization, helping move research from the lab to the market and ultimately patient impact,” said Dr. Lisa Placanica, senior managing director of Center for Technology Licensing at Weill Cornell Medicine. “They are also transferable skills that can act as a launch pad to alternative careers beyond the bench.”
Each team gave a seven-minute presentation and fielded questions from a panel of expert judges about issues ranging from clinical administration and patient selection to scalability and market expansion. The judges included Dr. Ting “TJ” Jia, who graduated from Weill Cornell with a doctorate in immunology in 2009, and is founder and manager of Octagon Capital. Dr. Rana Al-Hallaq, partner and head of operations at Pfizer Ventures, and Dr. Fay Xing, partner at Panacea Venture Management Company, joined him.
Tackling Lung Cancer, Chronic Pain and Drug Development
Linsey Zhang (left) and Skye Zhao from Team Cyanova, which placed second.
The winning team, ARTisan Therapeutics, presented an antibody for treating non-small cell lung cancer, one of the deadliest cancers worldwide. “Therapeutic resistance almost always emerges driven by tumor heterogeneity and immune evasion mechanisms,” said Yosip Kelemen, who led ARTisan’s pitch.
To overcome this challenge, ARTisan targeted a tumor protein called ART1 that suppresses immune T cell activity. ART1 is upregulated in a significant subset of patients, particularly following radiation therapy. “Because our antibody technology acts on a distinct pathway, it has strong potential to be used in combination with existing immunotherapies, including immune checkpoint inhibitors,” Kelemen said.
ARTisan’s technology is based on inventions from Dr. Timothy McGraw, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Dr. Brendon Stiles, professor and chief of thoracic surgery and surgical oncology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Runner-up Cyanova focused on another prevalent challenge in health care. “Chronic pain is one of the largest and most persistent medical burdens in the U.S.,” said team CEO Skye Zhao, citing more than 60 million affected adults. Cyanova proposed advancing a drug called AM3 that provides morphine-level pain relief without the risk of addiction. Administered in an inactive form, the drug is switched on by a pulse of blue light at the site of pain, enabling localized relief.
Team Proxivity placed third (left to right): Colin Burdette, Deepika Nambiar, Isabelle Seckler, Aidan Wirrick and Ashley Jones.
In its initial rollout, the Cyanova team proposed working with centers that treat patients with sickle cell disease, who experience a high lifetime burden of chronic pain. Cyanova’s project is based on inventions from Dr. Joshua Levitz, associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Team Proxivity placed third with a platform addressing one of the biggest problems in drug development. “Over a billion dollars are spent on discovering, optimizing and testing a potential new drug. Yet 90% of such assets fail when they reach clinical trials, with 30% failing as a direct result of unforeseen toxicity or off target activity,” said Isabelle Seckler, who led team Proxivity's pitch.
“Our Affinity Map identifies all the protein interactions of a drug across the entire human proteome, revealing off-target interactions that may predict its toxicity earlier,” she said. The approach also avoids reliance on animal models, aligning with evolving regulatory expectations. Proxivity’s project is based on inventions from Dr. Jacob Geri, assistant professor of pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Revving Up T Cells to Fight Cancer and Supporting Graft Survival
Additional teams highlighted advances in immunotherapy and reconstructive surgery. NobusBio presented a personalized immunotherapy derived from T cells harvested from lymph nodes near lung tumors. “These T cells recognize multiple tumor antigens and show durable responses,” said Ziqi (Christine) Yu who acted as team CEO. “These therapeutic cells penetrate the tumor microenvironment, surviving in this hostile environment and fighting the cancer.”
Finally, Lipovect addressed a major limitation of fat‑grafting procedures used in reconstructive surgery: up to half of transferred tissue fails to survive. Team lead, Emilee Barnard described a gene therapy designed to enhance vascularization and improve graft survival, potentially improving outcomes for procedures such as breast reconstruction.
By equipping scientists and clinicians with the skills to translate discovery into development, the BioVenture eLab is helping ensure that promising ideas in the lab can become therapies that benefit patients in the future.