President’s Entrepreneurial Fellows Gain Direct Experience Working at Biotech Startups
July 10, 2024
In the 2023-24 academic year, the fellows will pursue two research projects, working to deepen their understanding of intellectual property law while learning the inner workings of a biotech startup.
The Presidential Entrepreneurial Fellowship (PEF) encourages innovation and discovery, lifting the curtain on biotech entrepreneurship and giving students an up-close and personal experience working in a biotech startup.
Each year, the UM Ventures Baltimore team selects a small group of students to partner with real-world startups commercializing University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) technologies. Through this hands-on experience, students develop a unique perspective on advancing early-stage business ventures, learn about career paths they may not have known or considered before, and build a strong network that will support them throughout their academic lives and after graduation.
The 2023-24 PEF cohort included nine students representing four of UMB’s seven schools.
- Areej Alfaifi, University of Maryland School of Dentistry
- Michael Anderson, University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM)
- Jessica Cornell, UMSOM
- Don Kim, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
- Jonathan Shaham, Maryland Carey Law Firm
- Kandeep Singh, UMSOM
- Min Ji Soo, University of Maryland College of Pharmacy and Maryland Carey School of Law
- Abigail Vigderman, UMSOM
- Yui Chu, UMSOM
Interdisciplinary cohorts are a core strength of the PEF program. At UMB, students typically spend most of their time surrounded by students and faculty from their field. But in the real world, biotech companies employ people from a variety of backgrounds. The PEF program not only gives students experience working with people from different disciplines, it also helps introduce biotechnology to students from non-science backgrounds, such as law.
Dr. Rana Quraishi, director of new ventures at UM Ventures in Baltimore, developed the PEF program to help students better understand the realities of working in a biotech startup and show them that it is a viable career path.
“The level of knowledge, education and skill required of biotech entrepreneurs has increased significantly,” she comments. “Biotech companies face strict regulations, long development times, significant funding and a high risk of failure. It can take years, even decades, before a commercially viable product is available for sale or before a company is ready to exit the market. It’s not a job for the faint-hearted – it requires a lot of determination, grit and drive – but it can be extremely rewarding.”
Each PEF cohort will split into multidisciplinary teams and work on significant projects that will help advance UMB startups. In the 2023-24 program, students worked on three projects:
- Project 1: The fellow explored the use of 3D organoids derived from pancreatic cancer as a clinical tool to evaluate treatment response, supporting Isoprene Pharmaceuticals, a UMB startup focused on the oncology application of novel small molecule Mnk1/2 protein degraders developed by Vincent CO Njar, PhD, co-founder and CEO, professor in the UMSOM Department of Pharmacology and head of the Medicinal Chemistry Division in the Center for Biomolecular Therapeutics in UMSOM’s Institute for Biosciences and Biotechnology.
- Project 2: In this wet lab project, the fellow collaborated with Otter Immuno-Oncology to investigate potential combination therapies for multiple myeloma. Otter Immuno-Oncology is a seed-stage preclinical immunology-focused biopharmaceutical company developing potentially curative therapies in areas of high unmet need in oncology. The company was co-founded and is led by Darryl Carter, MD, Venture Advisor at UMB and one of the PEF program leaders.
- Project 3: Fellows delved into U.S. patent law to find ways to protect a group of molecules. Their findings can help UMB and UMB startups protect pharmaceutical innovations that at first glance appear similar to existing patented technologies.
In addition to providing valuable support to startups, these projects are designed to help Fellows gain practical new skills and apply what they learn in the classroom to real-world situations.
“Through the fellowship, I gained new perspectives on biotechnology and new technology development,” Chu said. “Specifically, I learned how to tailor proposals to specific audiences, including my fellow scientists and broader business stakeholders.”
“It was extremely rewarding to be able to apply my legal knowledge in a real-world setting,” Kim said. “It was a unique experience that I couldn’t have had in a traditional law school classroom setting.”
The PEF program is led by Quraishi, Carter, and Linda Petrillo, PhD, MS, UMB’s director of research and partnerships and pilot grant navigator for the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. Both Quraishi and Carter are veteran biotechnology executives with extensive experience in all aspects of company management, while Petrillo has more than 10 years of scientific research experience in both startups and academic institutions. Together, the three mentor the fellows.
“We felt that the leadership team at PEF always had our best interests in mind and we felt very supported,” Singh said.
The PEF program, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2024-25, is open to all UMB students, as well as students in the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park. For more information or to apply, visit umventures.org/PEF.
