Blog

At the recent annual BIO International Convention, more than 18,000 attendees converged on Boston to chart the biotech industry’s future and hold nearly 47,000 partnering meetings, a certified world record. The Innovation Institute was on hand to showcase its portfolio of life science discoveries available for licensing and to seek potential partnerships with industry, entrepreneurs and investors. Once again, the red hot field of cancer immunotherapy was front and center in a lot of the discussions. While in Boston, we took the opportunity to visit Pitt spinout, Oncorus, which is developing therapies in the emerging oncolytic virus domain of immunotherapy, to get an update on the company’s progress.

Mentoring at Pitt can be a rewarding experience both for the faculty/student entrepreneur and for the mentor who plays an often transformative role in helping translate a potentially world-changing idea or research discovery into a product or service that makes a difference in people's lives.

2016 Randall Family Big Idea Competition winner, POD. From left: Alec Kaija, Blake Dube and Mark Spitz. POD is also set to travel to Georgia Tech University for inaugural ACC InVenture Prize competition. $100,000 in prize money awarded to 16 student teams from across the University

Launch of Interphase Materials Showcases Range of Service and Support Offered by Pitt Innovation Institute Noah Snyder smiles broadly recalling the first time he was gripped by the entrepreneurial impulse that has propelled his life forward ever since.