BioTN Foundation, which helps propel bioscience entrepreneurship and STEM education in Tennessee, has named Karrie Dudek PhD director of its Life Science Venture Program (LSVP), which offers an accelerator that is to serve qualified entrepreneurs from across the state.

Candidates for possible admission to the accelerator will be drawn from applicants who are founders of companies that are now raising capital and have headquarters or other offices in Tennessee, and which are preparing to advance their bioscience-derived offerings into markets.

An hour-long online LSVP introductory session for prospective candidates for admission to the program is set for Tuesday, Oct. 22, beginning at 3p.m. Central.

Registration links for the virtual introductory session are here and here. Related background.

To be clear: The BioTN LSVP makes no investments of its own, but will, as part of its startup maturation services, help Tennessee founders learn to navigate the capital ecosystem.

The LSVP landing page explains the accelerator offers "a flexible, customized approach for life science startups ready to commercialize, connect to capital, and scale their technologies. The program will consist of three key components designed to build upon BioTN's past successes and expand the capabilities of the previous Life Science Mentor Network. The LSVP will provide Tennessee's life science startups with a dedicated team of expert mentors, a curated series of monthly educational programs in partnership with our broad network of life science ecosystem supporters, as well as unique opportunities to connect with investors."

Sam Lynch Bio entrepreneur

In a BioTN press release Oct. 15, Samuel "Sam" Lynch DMSc DMD, founder and chairman of BioTN, said "We are thrilled to welcome Karrie and for her to carry out our vision of uplifting many of the state's bioscience entrepreneurs. Her passion for entrepreneurship and deep knowledge of what it takes to scale companies in this industry make her the perfect fit to lead the program."

Learning yesterday that BioTN had branded its accelerator using the word "Venture" immediately brought to mind VNC's recent wide-ranging interview with Lynch.

Responding Sept. 25 to VNC questions, Lynch said he believes that our region's supplies of bioscience expertise and talent are no longer the "holdback" they once were, thanks to many factors, not the least of which have been the growing reputations of Nashville, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University, and other actors.

Instead, Lynch said he now believes it is this region's insufficient supply of sophisticated bio-domain capital that controls the throttle of the state's bioscience innovation and growth.

Lynch acknowledged that private investments in healthcare services and healthcare information technology draw a very large share of the region's early-stage investments, Tennessee bioscience shares with other inland or "flyover" states a profound venture-capital shortage.

Though the scale of the LSVP's impact is yet to be determined, BioTN's transformation of its earlier mentorship program deserves more than a perfunctory nod.

LSVP's fresh start comes amid an array of other Tennessee initiatives, including these examples:

(a) LaunchTN's ramping SSBCI equity investments and (b) its formation of the Tennessee Intellectual Property Alliance (TNIPA); (c) Tennessee Economic and Community Development's SSBCI lending program; (d) the Nashville region's cross-border MedTech Bridge initiative; (e) the relaunch of Epicenter Memphis's ZeroTo510 accelerator; (f) the launch of the Greater Nashville Venture Capital Association; and, (g) the creation of the industry-agnostic Nashville Innovation Alliance.

We can't predict the future, but the convergence and these and other initiatives now underway could yield a true inflection point -- or, at least a watershed rampant with more lessons learned.

ENTER DR. DUDEK

Karrie Dudek PhD LSVP Director

In the BioTN press release, Dudek said, "I am thrilled about the opportunity to advance innovation and work with early-stage companies to drive meaningful growth. Tennessee has a history of producing transformative bioscience technologies that have improved patient outcomes across the world. I look forward to collaborating with a group of dynamic partners within our ecosystem and helping companies scale their technology."

Eighteen months ago, Karrie Dudek, who earned her doctorate in cell and development biology at Vanderbilt University in 2021, registered a Tennessee startup she co-founded and leads as CEO: Eupalinos Inc.

Eupalinos is an early-stage therapeutic/medical device business that offers an injectable hydrogel for enhanced arteriorgenesis in peripheral artery disease treatment by stimulating new blood vessel growth for blood flow restoration.

Earlier this year, as part of a Vanderbilt roundup of alumni participants in the Founders program of VU's Wond'ry Innovation Center, Dudek forecast that for the next few years, while wearing her Eupalinos hat, she plans to work toward submitting an investigational new drug application (IND) through the FDA and enter into clinical trials, which could take Eupalinos closer to being able to effectively serve patients in the clinic."

A 2023 profile of Dudek's efforts at Vanderbilt University indicates Eupaolinos's offering was commercialized under license from the university. Dudek received her doctorate in cell and development biology from Vanderbilt University in 2021.

The same VU profile explains Dudek won a postdoctoral fellowship that allowed her to focus on "the development of a biomaterial for use in regenerative medicine, a technology developed by Ethan Lippmann, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. Dudek went on to win a National Science Foundation I-Corps award for her work." Related Elsevier entry.

A month ago, Dudek presented her company in Nashville to conferees of the McKinsey-backed Grand Rounds program within a BioCentury event.

Dudek's Grand Rounds abstract read, in part: "Peripheral artery disease, or PAD, occurs when blood flow is restricted due to occlusion of arteries, generally leading to ischemia of the affected tissues. PAD is a widespread disease, affecting over 200 million people globally and over 20 million Americans. However, existing treatment options are limited in efficacy, costly, can be difficult to implement in more distal occlusions below the knee, and often have poor patency rates. There is a clear need for new treatment options that are more effective, less invasive, and mechanically more adaptable. Eupalinos seeks to address this problem with a novel hydrogel technology termed 'GelCad' that promotes the growth and integration of new collateral arterioles into the host circulatory system. Minimally invasive relative to existing treatment options, injection of this hydrogel around sites of arterial occlusion would help to restore blood supply to the afflicted tissues and prevent further complications..."

VIEW FORWARD, BACKWARD

Abby Trotter

BioTN Executive Director Abby Trotter was quoted in the release saying that with Dudek aboard, the LSVP "will be a catalyst to refine investment pitching and assist companies with access to capital. We will tap into our network of experts in Tennessee to lead companies down the right path to ultimately grow here in the Volunteer State."

Trotter confirmed for VNC that Dudek's appointment as program director allows Dudek latitude to continue pursuing advancement of her own vintage-2023 bioscience startup, Eupalinos Inc., more on which later in this story.

BioTN, a 501c3 nonprofit, is allied with the LSVP accelerator's primary backer -- Tennessee Technology Development Corporation, dba Launch Tennessee -- as well as with Life Science Tennessee.

BioTN was co-founded in 2007 by the aforementioned Sam Lynch and Leslie Wisner-Lynch DDS DMsc. In addition to their overlapping entrepreneurial careers, the couple's nonprofit service roles have included his once serving president of the Life Science Tennessee trade association and her serving as Interim CEO of TTDC dba LaunchTN, then and now a subsidiary of Tennessee Economic and Community Development (TNECD).

Sam Lynch's most recent entrepreneurial venture Lynch Regenerative Medicine, and through its LRM Aesthetics subsidiary offers its aeriessence skin rejuvenation product.

His earlier ventures included BioMimetic Therapeutics, which sold to Wright Medical in 2013. Two years ago, Lynch sold his Lynch Biologics to Geistlich Pharma North America, the Princeton, N.J.-based sub of a Switzerland-based company.

Jim Monsor

The LSVP program is successor to the Life Science Mentor Network (LSMN), which was led during 2014-2016 by Jim Monsor -- a bioscience veteran who [corrected-Ed.] developed the original mentor program in 2015 and led it from its launch in 2016 until 2021 -- moved-on to found RLS Therapeutics LLC.

Monsor was succeeded as executive director first by veteran mentor Steven King and more recently by Abby Trotter, who serves as executive director of both Life Science Tennessee and BioTN Foundation, in addition to her role as a partner in Hall Strategies, which in 2023-24 included serving as a registered lobbyist for Life Science Tennessee, according to state records online. Trotter video.

According to the BioTN website, the original mentorship program assisted at least 22 companies through stage-gated processes; engaged at least 120 mentors; hosted six pitch competition events; and, as of EOY 2023, saw its alumnni companies raise at least $4.2MM from public and private funding (apparently includes dilutive and nondilutve fundings). The program page shows logos of 19 previous Mentor Network companies.

Note: Life Science Tennessee Inc. operated from 1999 to 2010 as The Biotechnology Association of Tennessee. Its current board of directors is here.

Tennessee was the 25th state to form such an association, according to LifeSciTN's ally, The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), which is a Washington, D.C., trade association (501c6) with an affiliated political action committee and a long-running industry advocacy role, supported by roughly 1,000 members, according to its FY 2022 Form 990.

VNC notes that BIO convenes major industry events, such as the Investor Forum wrapping-up today in San Francisco, with other events in coming months in Washington, D.C., New York City, San Francisco, Boston, Stockholm, Milan and Taipei.

Other resources: BioTN Scipreneur Challenge | TN SSBCI Equity and Credit and AssistTN |

. last edited 1755 16 October 2024