The adage goes, it takes a village to raise a child. To translate a technology developed from Pitt research to market takes a thriving, expanding innovation ecosystem.
Just ask Juan Taboas, associate professor of dental medicine. He has spent much of the past year as one of the inaugural fellows of the University of Pittsburgh Equitable, Inclusive Innovation and Incubation initiative, or Pitt EI3. The program, spearheaded by Cecelia Yates, associate professor of nursing, and with with operational support of the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, is designed to extend opportunities in innovation and entrepreneurship at the university to more women and historically excluded people.
“In the EI3 program we have this group of people that are all in this boat together and learning from each other,” Taboas said. “From my peers I have learned to see things from different perspectives. How they view their market opportunities has opened my eyes to a bigger world.”
Buoyed by the additional mentoring and support he has received, along with the time to devote to his innovation activities, Taboas recently had the new therapy developed in his lab to regenerate tooth pulp for children suffering mouth trauma optioned to a venture development group seeking to commercialize the technology.
From Scientist to Entrepreneur
Taboas said he has learned from mentors at the Innovation Institute how to distill his pitch to potential partners and investors to the main bullet points they are interested in around topics including intellectual property protection, market size, competitive advantage, and regulatory pathway and reimbursement.
During the EI3 fellowship, Taboas has had a standing Friday Zoom meeting with his mentor, Jan Berkow, whose day job is the program manager for commercialization at Pitt’s Center for Military Medicine Research. This mentorship has led to the creation of Taboas' next innovation with possible commercial potential.
“Jan’s angle is how do you try to secure as much nondilutive funding as you can. Military funding has been good for that. We are now developing an antimicrobial hydrogel to minimize infection risk and promote healing of bone wounds. That will be of value to the military. We’re defining what that market is now.”
Taboas came to Pitt in 2011 following postdoctoral training and the National Institutes of Health. His focus early-on was on developing stem-cell-infused hydrogels to stimulate regeneration of growth plates in children who have suffered trauma.
He credits PhD students in his lab with adapting the technology to serve a need for regenerating tooth pulp in instances of facial trauma and carious lesions. Maintenance of vital pulp in the tooth is critical for fighting future infections, preventing fracture, and retaining the tooth, particularly for immature permanent teeth without fully developed roots.
One student in particular, Dr. Jingming Chen, had several people in her family who had to have root canals and believed there could be a therapeutic benefit to restoring tooth pulp.
She and fellow students Dr. Adam Chin, Tyler Swensen, and Dr. Patrick Donnolly did market research and confirmed this approach has therapeutic benefits and could attract investment. The team further defined the value proposition of their innovation through interviews with potential customers via their participation in Pitt’s NSF I-Corps.
From there the team received $25,000 through the Center for Medical Innovation at the Swanson School of Engineering to perform a proof of concept under the name Vital-Dent.
The major thrust in translation of the Vital-Dent therapeutic was supported by the Michigan-Pittsburgh-Wyss Medicine Resource Center, a consortium of the universities of Pittsburgh and Michigan and the Wyss Institute formed to promote the clinical translation of dental, oral and craniofacial tissue regeneration therapies.
“With that package we were able to start reaching out to potential investors and companies that would be interested in that technology,” Taboas said.
Behind the Scenes Commercialization Support
Paul-Valentin Pitou, director of industry partnerships at the Office of Industry & Economic Partnerships (OIEP), first met with VIC Technology Venture Development in September 2021 to explore opportunities for company formation. Vital-Dent was among these opportunities, and Pitou facilitated an introduction call between Taboas and VIC shortly after. In the following months, VIC performed due diligence on Vital-Dent before expressing a desire to start negotiating an option agreement in the summer of 2022. Janice Panza, senior licensing manager, led these negotiations from the Pitt side.
“From an investment perspective, we were very attracted to the Vital-Dent technology because it addresses a significant unmet need for which no other products are available,” said Kelly Mabry, executive in residence VIC in charge of commercializing the technology.
Mabry said the support of the entrepreneurs in residence at the OIE resulted in a commercialization strategy and market assessment that were “far more comprehensive than would typically be seen from a technology still being developed within an academic setting.”
“Furthermore, the extensive in vitro and in vivo studies that Dr. Taboas performed also gave us a very high level of confidence in the technology and its clinical translation potential.”
Mabry is currently focused on establishing manufacturing of the Vital-Dent product and pre-clinical testing to support FDA clearance. The company has received a $1.6 million SBIR grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research to achieve these goals. She also sees the potential to extend the product for treatment of other indications.
Taboas has taken a role as chief scientific officer in the company.
“I’m an engineer. I like to build things that make a difference in people’s lives. Commercializing our lab’s technologies is the best way to accomplish that goal.”
But it's not something he could do all on his own. It took the support of the robust ecosystem to provide support at every step from ideation to commercialization.