UC pitch day announces application period

On June 28, the UC Center for Accelerated Innovation (CAI), along with UC Biomedical Research, Integration and Development (BRAID) and UCI Applied Innovation, will host the University of California Pitch Day, a forum for UC faculty to pitch advanced translational programs to a group of potential investors.

This program extends UC CAI activities beyond heart, lung, and blood diseases across all therapeutic areas. Pitches can cover any health condition where there is an unmet medical need or the potential for significant improvement over current treatments, diagnostics, devices, tools or services.

"The purpose of what we are trying to do is make it easier for investors to meet faculty,” said Mike Palazzolo, director for UC CAI, at the 2018 inaugural event held at UC Irvine. “Also, this helps faculty learn how to create a pitch that helps potential investors understand what they’re pitching, see if there are unmet needs being met, recognize if there is a problem being solved and whether or not it is a good investment."

At last year's inaugural event, 12 teams from UCLA, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC San Diego and UC San Francisco presented on their emerging technologies from their respective research labs to potential investors and corporate executives along with an audience of UC faculty researchers and staff. A full list of the 2018 participants are below. 

• Samir Shreim, Elliot Botvinick, Hamid Djalilian - UC Irvine, "New otoscope with built-in otitis media diagnostic"
• Juan Carlos del Alamo, Lorenzo Rossini, Andrew Kahn - UCSD, "Veocor"
• Aijun Wang, Alyssa Panitch, Richard Perez - UC Davis, "Improved vascular grafts for hemodialysis to treat end-stage renal disease"
• Harold Monbouquette, Jacob Schmidt - UCLA, "ElectroNucleics: Low-cost point-of-care device for rapid pathogen detection"
• Arash Kheradvar, Jack Sun, Anjan Batra - UC Irvine, "Helix Cardia: Minimally-invasive heart assist device"
• Ariana Anderson, Juanita Lewis - UCLA, "ChatterBaby NICU: Non-invasive assessment of infant pain
• H. Kirk Hammond, Mei Hua Gao, N Chin Lai - UCSD, "Urocortin 2 gene transfer for clinical type 2 diabetes"
• Robert L. Modlin, Jeffery F. Miller, Jim K. Wang, William J. Boyle - UCLA, "Dermalytica Inc.: First-in-class, selective, potent and safe antimicrobial as a topical treatment for acne vulgaris and as a prophylactic preop topical antibiotic for orthopedic surgeries"
• Tomas Ganz, Elizabeta Nemeth, Piotr Ruchala - UCLA, "Second generation minihepcidins for the treatment of life-threatening disorders of iron regulation"
• Jeff Neitz, Michelle Arkin, James Hsieh - UCSF "Small molecule inhibitors of Taspase1 for the treatment of recurrent EGFRm lung cancer"
• Yvonne Y. Chen, Chris Walthers - UCLA, "Bispecific CAR-T cell therapy to prevent cancer antigen escape"
• Arjun Deb, Michael Jung - UCLA, "Small molecule ENPP1 inhibitors for the treatment of ectopic calcification of the heart and vasculature" 

Innovators interested in the opportunity to pitch at the June 28 event are asked to submit applications between April 1 - 8, 2019. Faculty in all series at all ranks with a primary appointment at UC Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco are eligible. Postdoctoral scholars are eligible to submit as Co-PI with a faculty PI. Successful applicants will receive extensive hands-on mentoring to develop a pitch deck for presentation to a group of selected and interested investors. To learn more, read the RFA.

Following the 2019 Pitch Day, investors interested in projects will work with the faculty and Technology Transfer Office associated with that respective faculty's campus to determine whether terms can be reached for investment and potential company launch.  

Presentations will be in person at UC Irvine or by webcast.

Image source: UC CAI

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