Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

May 25, 2021

Yale Innovation Summit announces grant and pitch fest winners 

PHOTO | File image ReNetX Bio CEO Erika Smith
By Joanna Smiley

On May 21, Yale’s Office of Cooperative Research announced the winners of its Yale Innovation Summit pitch fest event and 2021 Blavatnik Fund Award recipients.

The award recipients were named on the final day of the summit, a four-day event that featured 36 venture teams pitching potential partners and investors in a “Shark Tank” style format. The summit has been running eight years and is the largest entrepreneurship event on Yale’s campus featuring 28 sponsors and 1,000 event registrations.

This year was the first time in Yale’s history that the event was held virtually. Even though it was not an in person event, on average 300 attendees popped in online daily to watch over 100 innovation pitches in the video showcase, according to Yale spokesperson Michelle McQueen.

The Blavatnik fund, a $25 million fund that assists Yale faculty in the commercialization of applied research and technology in the life sciences, awarded $2.5 million to innovation winners. Its family foundation supports charitable institutions throughout the world and is run by Len Blavatnik, founder and chairman of Access Industries.

“During a year of unmatched uncertainty, I am even more grateful for the continued generosity and partnership from the Blavatnik Family Foundation. Their commitment to impact through innovation remains steadfast and is a primary reason entrepreneurship at Yale is thriving,” said Michael C. Crair, vice provost for research at Yale.

Bill Wiesler, director of new ventures and of Blavatnik fund for innovation at Yale commented, “This year’s group of Blavatnik awards completes our 5th year of the fund, which is supporting a total of 33 projects with over $10 million in funding. The impact this grant has on our innovation ecosystem has been extraordinary. Doubling the number of venture-backed spinouts coming out of Yale each year can be directly attributable to the hundreds of connections we make between Blavatnik participants and industry leaders. We eagerly await helping this next group of innovators drive their projects towards proof-of-concept and commercialization.”

Since the fund’s inception in 2016, Blavatnik-funded projects at Yale have resulted in three FDA-approved investigational new drugs, two licensing deals and 11 funded ventures that have raised $107 million to-date, according to Yale’s press release.

The new 2021 Blavatnik awardees are:

  • Choukri Ben Mamoun, PhD, professor of medicine (infectious diseases) and of microbial pathogenesis, for Virtus Therapeutics: A Novel Therapy for Pantothenate Kinase-Associated Neurodegeneration.
  • Demetrios Braddock, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology, for Net Therapeutics: Targeting NETs in Human Disease
  • Joe Contessa, MD, PhD, professor of therapeutic radiology and of pharmacology, for Apira: Developing Therapeutic OST Inhibitors 
  • Anjelica Gonzalez, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering, for Aero Therapeutics: Preclinical Validation of Low-Cost Versatile Respirator
  • Mustafa Khokha, MD, professor of pediatrics (critical care medicine), for Small Molecule Regulation of β-catenin Nuclear Transport: New Targets Against Cancer
  • Nikhil Malvankar, PhD, assistant professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, for Faster, Reliable & Scalable DNA Sequencing using Biomolecular Electronics
  • Faye Rogers, PhD, associate professor of therapeutic radiology, for TargetGene Therapeutics: Direct Targeting of Amplified Cancer Driver Genes as a Therapeutic Strategy

The winners of the Yale Innovation Summit include:

Pitch Day 1

  • 1st Place - Erika Smith, ReNetX
  • 2nd Place - Demetrios Braddock, Net Therapeutics
  • 3rd Place - Ashley Kalinauskas, Torigen

Pitch Day 2

  • 1st Place - Kevin Rocco, Biorez
  • 2nd Place - Mike Theran, CoRISMA
  • 3rd Place - Greg Tietjen, Revalia Bio

Pitch Day 3

  • 1st Place - Aaron Ring, Simcha
  • 2nd Place - Faye Rogers, Targeted Therapeutics for Cancers with Gene Amplification
  • 3rd Place - Gloria Huang, New Treatment Strategy for ARID1A-Mutated Cancers

To watch videos of the Yale Innovation Summit’s winning pitches and read more about the Blavatnik awardees click HERE.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify the total value of the Blavatnik fund.

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

0 Comments

Order a PDF