A Chicago Biomedical Consortium Hub of Innovative Technologies for Entrepreneurship and Science (CBC - HITES)

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PROJECT SUMMARY With three R1 universities and multiple research institutions, the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area is awash with academic innovation but needs to attract more early-stage biopharma specific capital and more “bio- entrepreneurs” trained to link university-based projects to the know-how and funding that can launch a biomedical application into the emerging ecosystem. The Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC), a philanthropically funded research consortium between the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), the University of Chicago (UC), and Northwestern University (NU) was founded in 2006, reimagined in 2016, and renewed in 2022 to bridge the Academic Innovator’s (AcIns) knowledge gap from idea to clinical implementation. Led by Northwestern University, anchored on CBC infrastructure that has developed diverse cohorts of PhD trained Entrepreneurial Fellows (EFs) and enabled translational awards across the three major Chicago universities, incorporating clinical translational expertise from a multi-campus network, and making such services available across nine Chicago research institutions, the Chicago Biomedical Consortium Hub for Innovative Technology and Entrepreneurship in the Sciences (CBC-HITES) will build a scaled multi-campus, academic service center for AcIns who want to develop biopharma small molecules, biologics, and new diagnostic/therapeutic modalities (e.g. cell and genetic therapies). The CBC-HITES will provide Chicago’s AcIns with multiple services, starting with the Request for Applications (RFA) stage and culminating in project execution. Under expert supervision by ex-industry personnel and a professional biopharmaceutical project manager, the center’s EFs will develop the AcIns’ ideas into industry grade analyses and project plans. Analyses are scientifically and clinically validated and, ultimately, validated by the end buyer, through an EF/AcIn joint presentation to a venture External Review Board (venture ERB) to inform funding. CBC – HITES’s leadership includes physician/surgeon scientists and expert drug hunters with connections to the city’s Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA)s, community physician groups and healthcare organizations to better integrate clinical perspectives with deep discovery capabilities. The center also incorporates regulatory and implementation science into the hub. Projects funded by CBC-HITES will engage VC 1-2 years before equity financing is needed, and, depending on when they are screened out, unfunded projects receive a large body of research and a gap analysis that can be used for resubmission or alternative funding. VC are connected to promising AcIns and curated research, making their jobs easier. During their one to two years of training, EFs are networked to the universities, each other, and the broader ecosystem and then go to work in Chicago’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, pulling more academic assets out of the universities and thus maximizing the utility of their training. Intentionally recruiting diverse cohorts of EFs enables a strong, inclusive bioeconomy that can attract VC funding and more talent.