Get Out of the Lab!

By Kara Bishop
Photos by Neal Hinkle
Original article: TTU’s Health Science Center PULSE Magazine

School of Health Professions Associate Dean for Research Phil Sizer, PhD, PT, is passionate about research, obviously, and value in acquiring knowledge and translating it to a product that helps people. The problem? He wasn’t quite sure how to transcend the gap between the two.

“There’s a lot of ‘great’ research out there that makes great papers,” Sizer said. “However, translating the ‘great’ research into a tangible, commercialized product for consumers is an entirely different matter.”

The National Science Foundation (NSF) agrees. When taxpayers asked where their grant money was going and what it was doing for society, there wasn’t really a sufficient answer. To provide answers and bridge the gap between research and commercialization, NSF created the I-Corps initiative in 2011.

THE BOOT CAMP  “You want to talk about academics feeling like ducks out of water,” said Sizer, who participated with a team representing TKQuant—a commercialized venture measuring tissue integrity for the obstetrics gynecology and sports medicine industries. “The I-Corps program is intense. They throw you into the ‘business’ world, and you either sink or swim. I compare the boot camp portion to drinking from a re hydrant.”

NSF created a funding mechanism, derived from training models at Silicon Valley where, up to four times a year, they create cohorts of people in teams comprised of a principal investigator, an entrepreneurial lead and an industry mentor. They fund each quali ed team $50,000 to come and work with NSF in a seven-week program, Sizer’s “boot camp.” The teams then travel across the country validating their “customers” by conducting open-ended, qualitative research-based interviews.

The goal is for the data collected to support the original hypotheses made by the team based on what their product can accomplish; thus, crafting a strategy for translating the concept from bench research to market.

“You’re trying to gure out where their pain is and if you have a solution for it—all without biasing them toward your product,” Sizer said. “You leave the product out of it, which is a novel concept to most.”

To be accepted into a national I-Corps cohort and funded, teams have to rst establish legitimacy through a regional I-Corps program, a training taught at the Texas Tech University Innovation Hub at Research Park (The Hub). Teams spend two to three weeks in classes with mentors and I-Corps veterans, followed by a nal session with NSF senior mentors who evaluate their work. While in class, they also conduct local and regional interviews that begin validating their potential customer segment and identifying the ecosystem where their customers operate. Finally, they present their ndings at the end of the regional I-Corps session. If they’re postured well enough, the NSF faculty instructors will endorse their applications to the national I-Corps program, which is funded by NSF.

The TKQuant team application to the national I-Corps program was accepted for the October through December period, committing them to join the Houston I-Corps cohort. They met Oct. 18-20, for a three-day meeting to kick off “boot camp.”

“You go to class (every day) from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.” Sizer recalls. “You conduct interviews every day of the meeting and then report back to the NSF mentors where they use different strategies to expose different team members to the business world. They’re doing this to imitate the business/industry environment, thus readying the presentations for the commercial world. It’s similar to the cutting- edge, technology-based industry market, so that’s the intensity they’re trying to emulate. It was a culture shock moving to this model from the academic world. You really have to jump out of your comfort zone.”

Once the rst meeting is completed, teams have roughly six weeks to obtain as many interviews as possible, with the NSF requiring a minimum of 100.

“It’s really all about the number of interviews you get,” Sizer added. “Data collection is very important to establishing a track record of legitimacy for your product. At the time, our team held the record for most interviews conducted with over 155 total interviews collected across 14 cities in the U.S.” (A new team holds the record now—refer to Exhibit A.)

MOVING FORWARD  As their national interviewing came to a close, the team traveled again to Houston to meet with the cohort from Nov. 30 through Dec. 1. There they presented their ndings and participated in lectures/discussions with the national I-Corps program director, Steven Konsek, PhD. Finally, the NSF mentors advised them regarding further validation and next steps toward commercialization. This process served as a springboard for seeking commercialization success.

Teams can count on two main mantras of the I-Corps program, Sizer added. One, fall forward: you may feel way off balance, but at least you’re moving forward. Two, get out of the lab.

“You can’t solve your commercial dilemmas in the lab,” he said. “You need to get out and meet with people. You have to immerse yourself in the ecosystem where your customers live.” (Your customers’ ecosystem may be abroad—refer to Exhibit B.)

YOU’RE NOT ALONE  Leaving the lab behind is comparative to moving to a foreign country and not knowing the native language. It can be a daunting task without guidance, however, Kimberly Gramm, senior managing director of The Hub, helps faculty members translate their work into this new “language.”

The Hub opened in late 2015 with the mission to “be a major center for entrepreneurialism and innovation serving the Texas Tech University System (TTU) and the West Texas region,” according to their website. The Hub assists in the formation of technology startup companies critically relevant to today’s local and regional economy, with the goal of bringing more industry— jobs, talent and other resources—to the West Texas region. Gramm joined the TTU System in 2016 and believes in the integration of research and entrepreneurship as a way to truly serve surrounding communities. (To see this integration and entrepreneurship put into practice, refer to Exhibit C.)

“Entrepreneurs and academic researchers aren’t so different. They just speak different languages,” she said. “They have more in common than one might think. They’re both trying to make an impact on the world and create something of value. Faculty members don’t often think of themselves as entrepreneurs, which is why I work with them, and the transition process is fascinating to watch. It’s something special.”

Gramm and her team guided TKQuant through the process from start to nish and even helped them after I-Corps to enroll in an accelerator program through The Hub, where they received a $25,000 grant.

Sizer said the support from Gramm and her team has been critical to TKQuant’s success in the I-Corps program and beyond.

“The staff at The Hub are just awesome, and they want to see more of this kind of activity from the TTU System’s research core. They want to make a win-win for all parties.”

THE REWARD   While the I-Corps program may be intense and hard work, Sizer emphasizes the reward.

“This program totally realigned and inspired my thinking,” he said. “It was fun. It was hard, but I craved it. In many ways, the program reshaped my world view. It helped me as an academic guy to see things a lot differently and has changed how I spend my day. It was that impactful and transformative for me. I can name six things I’ve done in my life that were at the same level— dissertation defense, getting my clinical fellowship, etc.—and out of all the great events in my life, participating in the I-Corps program is in the top six.

“It’s not even typical research thinking or lineage. It is absolutely revolutionary, so while we may have had to drink from a re hydrant so-to-speak, it was worth it to become part of something that closes the gap between research and viable products that serve society.”

From embryo selection technology to the rst-ever vaccine license agreement for TTUHSC, representatives of our institution are jumping head- rst into the commercialization of their research. Here are abstracts of three such projects and how the researchers are moving their work from “great” papers to valuable services.

TKQuant participated in The Hub’s iLaunch competition in April, winning second place and $3,000. They also received the President’s Innovation Award from TTU President Lawrence Schovanec, PhD, and TTUHSC President Tedd L. Mitchell, MD, for $25,000.