SOM Faculty Take Advantage of LSU I-Corps Program
Two LSU SOM faculty have taken advantage of the LSU-Baton Rouge I-Corps Program to
better understand how the principles of entrepreneurship and commercialization could
relate to their research.
“I-Corps made us think about our science in terms of whether or not businesses would
find it a solution to a compelling need for the general population,” said Dr. Sunyoung
Kim, a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. “Conversely,
it forced me to think about why I choose to do experiments in my academic lab. I feel
I have become a better scientist and a better professor as a consequence. I am more
willing to quickly determine if something is a failure. I am also more willing to
realize that even if it appears successful, that does not necessarily merit continuation,”
she added.
LSU was designated as an NSF I-Corps site in 2016. The main goal of the program is
to help faculty and students answer critical commercialization questions and identify
potential funding partners for their ideas.
Dr. Gerhard “Sol” Mundinger also went through the program earlier this year. His interest
in the program was a practical one - he wanted his invention to get to the market
as quickly as possible to benefit patients. Mundinger invented HoldTen, an anchor
that allows orthopaedic surgeons to choose a suture to connect soft tissue to bone,
with Dr. Mandi Lopez at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine.
As a business school graduate, he had been exposed to many of the concepts before.
He described the course as the “practical application of what I learned in business
school.”
“The biggest problem when you have a great idea is that you don't know what to do
with it. The vast majority of inventions don't make it to market, and often that is
because the inventor did not understand the competitive landscape or the business
environment,” Mundinger said. “It can be demoralizing to spend an immense amount of
time and money on trying to bring an innovation to market when you haven't thoroughly thought
through how to set it up for success. That is what I-Corps is - a crash course in
start-up and development.”
“One misconception I frequently run into is that I-Corps is only for those who plan
to start a company,” Patrick Reed, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Innovation and Partnerships,
said. “But it can be helpful for any innovator with an idea that they believe is marketable.
Ultimately, it can help fine-tune their concept through discussions with potential
customers and they can better explain the problem their idea helps solve and why it
is better than existing solutions in the marketplace. Even if the innovator isn't
interested in starting a company, the I-Corps program will help them think about their
particular innovation in a new light. The end result could be a more persuasive pitch
to a potential licensee or a stronger grant proposal.”
Andrew Maas, Assistant Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer at LSU
and Director of the LSU Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization, echoes
many of the program's benefits, but with a small twist.
“Ultimately, when it comes to medical development, most companies are not interested
in investing in a new company at the proof-of-concept stage. They want to see meaningful
data. Even if you aren't looking to start a company, it just might be the way to get
preliminary data.”
The six-week course works with scientists to apply the scientific method to marketing
their own innovations. Participants can then choose to go on to the national I-Corps
program. Maas also notes that those who continue on to the national program are 300-400
times more likely to be awarded SBIR or STTR funding.
“I-Corps applies the scientific process of data-driven discovery to determine if your
idea should move to market. I had not really thought of it in those terms before because
the business aspect was very foreign to me, but once it was framed as scientific inquiry
it made it more palatable,” said Kim. “The point is to figure out if there a place
for your scientific, engineering, or biomedical idea in the real market.”
Those who participate in the program make a minimal commitment of two hours of class
time per week with an additional three to four hours to be spent outside of class,
or a total commitment of seven to 10 hours per week.
Kim, who describes the program as “remarkably welcoming and remarkably challenging”
said that after every class, she and Dr. Rebecca Buckley had to research and then
justify one aspect of their value proposition, akin to a scientific hypothesis. Kim
estimates that they conducted more than 200 interviews among all the iterations of
I-Corps that she and Dr. Buckley participated in.
Kim described the interviews as challenging. “Just getting people to talk to you from
different businesses and areas of operation is extremely challenging. First, you have
to find these people - you don't know who they are. Then you have to ask for the meeting
and frame the request with humility and a reason to talk to a complete stranger. If
they agree, you then have to have a meaningful conversation to extract real information.
It is very intensive on a lot of levels and it forces you to get out of your comfort
zone and out of your silo about who you think are the experts,” she said.
Mundinger agrees that the phone calls are challenging, but necessary. “You make phone
calls to people who might use your product. Their feedback is important because it
helps you think critically about whether or not you should devote the time, energy
and money into further development of the product,” he said.
Kim, who participated in the program with Buckley in 2016 at the local level, in 2017
at the national level, and in 2020 for the boot camp version, said she gained so much
from the program. “After taking the I-Corps classes at the local level for six weeks,
we thought we had a commercial product but realized we were just at the tip of iceberg
and had so much to learn, so we applied to the national I-Corps program. This four-month
program came with a lot more didactic learning and more team-based interactions,”
she said. “Clearly it is a lot of work, but we gained as much as we put in.”
Mundinger described the course as well structured and added, “You can see the lights
come on as people go through the program.”
Faculty interested in more information can contact Reed at preed3@lsuhsc.edu.