University Bioconnect: Growing your Start Up w/ NIH

For our next event, we are excited to welcome 2 representatives from NIH - Dr. Swamy Tripurani and Dr. Monique Pond.

Dr. Monique Pond is a Team Leader & Program Director at the NCI SBIR Development Center. She manages a portfolio of grants and contracts to small businesses developing novel cancer therapeutics, digital health technologies, and therapeutic devices. Monique leads the CARE (Connecting Awardees with Regulatory Experts) program and other collaborative initiatives with the FDA to assist small busi- nesses in navigating the regulatory pathway for their technology. Be- fore joining the NCI SBIR Development Center in 2018, Monique spent several years as a regulatory consultant at a small start-up, providing clients with regulatory support for FDA, EMA, and other country submissions. She completed her postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Swamy Tripurani is a Program Director at the NCI SBIR Develop- ment Center. He is responsible for managing a portfolio of grants and contracts that support the development of innovative cancer therapeu- tics, digital health technologies, and therapeutic devices by small busi- nesses. He supports the CARE (Connecting Awardees with Regulatory Experts) program, facilitating interactions between NCI-funded small businesses and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Before joining NCI, Dr. Tripurani worked as a regulatory scientist at the FDA for eight years. Dr. Tripurani earned his Ph.D. in Genetics and Developmental Biology from West Virginia University and completed his postdoctoral research training focused on gynecologic cancers and reproductive dis- orders at Baylor College of Medicine.

Come join the conversation with NIH's excellent program directors that are determined to help small businesses come to life!

5:30pm-6:00pm Networking and hanging out
6:00pm-6:30pm Monique & Swamy's presentation and Q/A
6:30pm-7:30pm Networking and hanging out

Signup and connect with attendees via our LinkedIn page!

Dress code: on the casual side of business casual, depending on your preference. (It's a light social hang, so feel free to wear whatever you have on that day or whatever feels right to you).

University Bioconnect is founded on the observation that major biotech centers such as Kendall Square in Boston have community gatherings to share ideas and discuss the many themes that are collectively biotech. One can show up to these events and meet tons of people passionate about biotech’s potential to improve the world, people like researchers from top-tier institutions, clinicians, biotech startup founders, venture capital investors, and employees of massive biotech companies. Before you know it, three hours have passed, and connections have been made that sometimes lead to innovations that would have been impossible otherwise.

As we see it, Atlanta is past-due for developing a similar scene. The University Bioconnect Meetup is being launched by Ph.D. students from Georgia Tech, Emory, GSU, and Morehouse with assistance from VentureLab at Georgia Tech, to host monthly meetups with wide-ranging topics to foster the types of connections that make great biotech hubs thrive. With its leading position in research, clinical expertise, and recent and planned infrastructure, Atlanta is well-positioned to create the world’s next top high-growth biotech community; join us and help make that vision a reality!