Abstract
A symposium at SciX LI sought to demystify commercialization of academically developed technologies, focused on analytical and spectroscopic measurements. Speakers ranged from those with successful commercial products to those in the early stages of product development. Speakers sought to explain the challenges, motivations, excitement, and frustrations of moving beyond technical papers and patents to making saleable products and successful enterprises. Their insights are summarized.
This is a visual representation of the abstract.
Introduction
Among the symposia at the fifty-first FACSS/SciX meeting held in Raleigh, North Carolina, in October 2024, were a series of sessions to help young and experienced scientists changing subfields in understanding various aspects of the analytical sciences profession adjacent to actual measurement. Among these was a session on commercializing analytical technologies first invented in academic or government lab environments. Most analytical professionals are skilled in one or more measurement techniques, but may be less schooled in business (accounting, finance, marketing, sales), intellectual property (patents, trademarks), or personnel management. Commercializing a technology requires all these skills. In some cases, existing firms can license such technology from the inventor, but in others the inventor or innovator decides to commercialize the technology themselves with a team either pre-existing or aggregated with the intent to start a new enterprise. The four speakers at the symposium have had varying experiences in this area and shared their observations. The symposium organizer and corresponding author has also been party to two startups. Each talk was 15 to 20 min long and are summarized here.
In order of presentation, the authors credentials relevant to the talks are: J. Michael Ramsey is an emeritus from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) where he held the Minnie N. Goldby Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Chair. He was also on the faculty of the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Applied Physical Sciences at UNC-CH. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the Optical Society of America, the American Chemical Society, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Professor Ramsey has founded four venture-financed spinout companies from his laboratories. Two of these companies became publicly traded through initial public offerings (IPOs); Caliper Technologies (NASDAQ:CALP), renamed Caliper Life Sciences and acquired by PerkinElmer in 2011 and 908 Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:MASS), a company developing revolutionary handheld and desktop tools for acquiring chemical and biochemical information. He is also the science founder of two additional venture financed life sciences tools companies, Genturi Inc. and Codetta Bio Inc. Sanna Gaspard is the CEO and founder of Rubitection. Rubitection results from the translation of her PhD research in biomedical engineering focused on developing a low-cost platform for skin health assessment from Carnegie Mellon University. As part of her entrepreneurial journey, she has invented and patented two medical devices and founded two startups to support their commercialization. Her expertise combines engineering and scientific knowledge, creativity, strategic partnerships, and resilience, earning her recognition as a leader in healthcare innovation including being selected as an AAAS Invention Ambassador and winning the 2023 Association of American Retired Persons (AARP) Agetech Collaborative Health Innovation Challenge. Rina K. Dukor is a co-founder of BioTools (with Syracuse University Distinguished Emeritus Professor Laurence A. Nafie). Rina has led the company for 25 years through development, commercialization, and establishment of two technologies, vibrational circular dichroism, and Raman optical activity. Upon receiving her PhD at the University of Illinois at Chicago with Professor Timothy Keiderling, Dr. Dukor recognized the impact her PhD work could have in the pharmaceutical industry as two new classes of breakthrough therapeutics were coming to market, chiral small molecules, and biologics. Her critical understanding of the potential market led to the formation of the company, and BioTools is now recognized world-wide as a leader in chiroptical and biological spectroscopy. The recipe for longevity and success is solid science, listening to customers, hard work, trust in one's team, and enthusiasm. Freddy T. Nguyen is currently a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Fellow and Director of the MIT Catalyst Scholars Program. He received his undergraduate training at Rice University, his graduate training at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and held several medical positions at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, and Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York, before moving to MIT. He is co-founder and CEO of Nine Diagnostics, Inc., developing AI-enabled nanosensors for optimizing disease treatment.
Summary of the Talks
J. Michael Ramsey: Translating Academic Research from the Lab to Commercial Products: A Few Experiences
As noted in the brief biographical sketch above, Ramsey has founded and successfully exited two large enterprises and is involved with several additional startups. All four spinout companies have primarily focused on addressing unmet needs in the life science tools markets. These multiple experiences have utilized a sequence of steps for company formation that have largely been successful, a recipe of sorts that have worked for this laboratory.
The Ramsey Lab Spinout Recipe
Envision (Invent) a strategy to address a significant unmet need
Raise government funding for technology development
Proof-of-principle experiments, reduction to practice
Generation of an international patent portfolio
Find an experienced business lead/team
Shop to Investors
Incorporate
Stay involved
Launch products
Cash flow breakeven and/or liquidation via IPO or acquisition
Dr. Ramsey has found perseverance to be an important element of success. His experience is that novel ideas are frequently met with skepticism; determination and patience is required to demonstrate new concepts. The time from conception to realization of series A funding has been nearly a decade or more for each spinout company. An example timeline is shown in Figure 1. He derived considerable satisfaction from translational activities including emotional satisfaction from delivering tools that play a part in benefiting society, a return on investment to the taxpayers who have funded the technology development and providing employment opportunities to former research group members.
Timeline from conception to initial public offering for 908 Devices inc., a company started by J. Michael Ramsey and collaborators focused on portable mass spectrometry.
Funding for the startups can be derived from many sources including state Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and federal Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants (SBIR and STTR), contracts, friends and family, crowdfunding, angel investors, joint development agreements, venture capital and venture debt. Each comes in different amounts with different expectations and opportunities. Grants avoid capital dilution but may not provide adequate capital to rapidly expand an enterprise. From first notions to an initial public offering can take some time, even decades.
In common with many entrepreneurs, Ramsey experienced a series of responses to his ideas:
A silly idea, it will never work! Interesting, but probably wrong It will work but is unimportant A no-brainer from the start!
This brief summary covers over three decades of entrepreneurial activity, collaboration with scores of individuals or companies, generation of hundreds of patents, and development of skills well beyond those required for a productive academic or research career.
Sanna Gaspard: Translational Development of Optical Device and Platform for Skin Health Assessment for Chronic Wounds and Dermatological Conditions
Research and Analysis
Prior to beginning the scientific research to develop an optical device for skin health assessment and management, Gaspard, completed commercial analysis to evaluate the market potential and opportunities for translation. Her approach to evaluate the commercial potential applied the same rigor used to complete the scientific research to explore the technical feasibility for her PhD. The steps she followed to explore its commercial potential include:
Market Analysis: Literature review of the market to determine size of the problem, where the problem was occurring, and gather data to create a financial model of the market. Clinical Analysis: Evaluating the clinical need, clinical standard of care, and getting potential user feedback to guide the technical features. Technology Assessment: Literature review to evaluate competitive technology on the market, their limitations, their gaps, and non-commercial available technical alternative approaches. Intellectual Property Analysis: Evaluated the existing IP landscape, the IP viability of existing tech and new technology solutions. Market and Financial Analysis: Created initial financial model based on market research of competitive growth/scaling models for generating revenue. Evaluate the regulatory approvals and paths that will be required to get to market. Scientific Analysis: Literature review of the scientific principles that will drive the innovation and the design to ensure the core clinical problem was solved from technical and usability perspective. Technology Development: Identified technical and design requirements, fabricated initial prototypes (make it pretty), and completed pre-clinical bench top tested on human subjects. Translation and Launch: Established a C corporation, secured university license, began recruiting clinical partners, identified funding opportunities, identified potential development team members, connected with corporate partners and accelerators to grow.
This phase is one of the most important in order to lock in competitive advantages with IP protection, especially if further market and technology gaps are later identified.
Technology Translation
Having developed a functional prototype that demonstrated accurate test results on human patients, Gaspard shifted her focus to completing the essential steps required to advance the innovation toward practical application and commercialization. Her primary areas of focus included:
Establish Business Entity: Work with a lawyer to determine the best legal business entity and decide on the name of the business. Negotiate Licensing: Work with universities tech transfer office to secure license and IP after establishing business entity. Connect with Commercialization Partners: Engage with strategic partners needed for customer engagement, financing, technology development, and sales and distribution Identify Funding Options: Identify where initial funding will be secured based on stage of technical development and strength of clinical data including friends and family, government grants, competitions, angel investors, and venture capitalists (VCs). Create a Regulatory Plan: Work with consultant to determine the best regulatory path to get to market and use that to develop your go to market strategy Compile Team: Identify a minimum of three to four team members needed to manage technology development, business partnerships, clinical testing, and fundraising. Early team members should be trustworthy people with whom the founder can work well, and who are as dedicated as the founder. Identify industry expertise that can be recruited as advisory board and future company board members. Create Commercialization Collateral: Compile all your customer, market, and financial research into a business plan, a pitch deck, and executive summary. Compile an investor and funding target list where you can apply for funding. Connecting to investors will require a warm introduction from other founders. Use market comparables to determine how much money will be needed at each stage of development.
Entrepreneurial Journey
Gaspard founded Rubitection (www.rubitection.com) in 2010 as a graduate student prior to spinning it out of Carnegie Mellon as a healthcare technology company dedicated to enhancing skin health management for chronic dermatology and wound care. Upon its launch, Rubitection secured an exclusive license from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to commercialize its innovative solution. Gaspard obtained initial funding from CMU, local economic development agencies, and SBIR grants to bootstrap early development and growth. Through industry conferences, she established connections with strategic sales and distribution partners, resulting in letters of intent (LOIs) from interested parties. Rubitection has since attracted additional investment, assembled an advisory team, developed a proof-of-concept prototype, and conducted initial testing. Along the way, Rubitection has earned numerous accolades, including the 2022 Richard King Mellon Foundation Social Impact Award, the 2021 Consortium for Technology and Innovation in Pediatrics Innovation Award, the 2020 Luminate Accelerator Award, and the 2019 Anita B. PitcHER Prize (AnitaB.org). Currently, the company is raising its seed round to achieve key technology, pilot testing, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) milestones, prior to raising its series A round of financing to support product launch and market growth.
Concluding Tips
Translational research bridges science and impact, transforming innovation into real-world solutions. It's not just about validating the science or technology—it is about validating the need and market opportunity. Start early. Treat your business assumptions like scientific hypotheses: test them with users and customers early and iterate. Engage users and corporate partners from the idea stage to ensure your solution addresses a real problem and has a usable approach. Once scientific viability and useability is clear, create a commercialization roadmap based on user feedback that includes value adding milestones, a resource heat map, operational tools for efficiency, and networking opportunities to meet key partners. Know that building a successful startup can take a decade or more and requires a strong ecosystem. Funding, meeting customer demand, strong leadership, and adaptability is required for sustainability. Surround yourself with like-minded people, i.e., other founders and investors, for support and resilience. As a seasoned translational researcher and entrepreneur, Gaspard offers guidance to innovators working to bring their technologies to market. If the reader is seeking insights on translational research, innovation, commercialization, user-driven validation, or scaling with purpose, she can be reached on LinkedIn.
Rina K. Dukor: Commercialization of New Science (Vibrational Circular Dichroism and Raman Optical Activity): What Does It Really Take?
Rina's idea for the company came to her on a plane after the FACSS meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1994. As one of the first students researching structure of proteins using the little-known technique of vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) for her PhD thesis, she imagined the what ifs. What if the instrument did not fill half of the room? What if it was used for determining the structure of chiral molecules? What if it was easy to use? She wrote the questions and some of the answers on a piece of white paper and put it away. But the idea remained with her every day since that flight. As a young scientist without any business background, and several “no's” from people in the field and her management at a biotech company where she worked at the time, the next steps defined everything, from the products themselves, distribution, market penetration, and success.
There are many ways to build commercial products based on the instruments in the lab and in her opinion, there is no single right way. Her chosen path? Partnerships.
Bring an expert on board. Check. Professor Nafie was in as a partner! Bring an innovative Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) company as a manufacturing partner to build the first prototype. Check. Bomem (now ABB) was in, but only after a year of exhaustive grilling of then Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Garry Vail. He (rightfully so) wanted proof that the market was real! (His hard push and eventual mentorship was priceless and led to the success of the VCD technology). The incredible Dr. Henry Buijs loved and understood VCD technology, so Henry and Larry got right into the design! Meet customers, convince them to try the technology, and repeat 100 s of times. Rina's advice: Build your network through conferences (such as FACSS/SciX) and even more importantly through volunteer opportunities such as the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS). (Note from A. Scheeline: While starting the company, Rina Dukor was raising two children, served as President of SAS (and continues to this date as a Board member), and proselytized the importance of chiral spectroscopy for health and safety at every opportunity).
Gradually, the pharmaceutical industry adopted VCD as a technique of choice for chiral molecules and BioTools embarked on commercialization of an even less-known technology, Raman optical activity (ROA). And again, BioTools chose the same path, partnership, this time with an incredible engineering company in Syracuse, New York––Critical Link. By this time, BioTools could have followed the “other path”, i.e., raise money first, then make a real commercial product. Did Rina and Larry make the right choice? In Rina's words, “we will never know until we try another way, but it worked for us. Yes it was much harder, yes we made many mistakes, yes, finances were difficult, but every customer installation was so much sweeter, so much more meaningful.”
In contrast to the other talks, Dukor presented lists of customers and statistics on the number of chiral molecules identified with BioTools instruments, over 10
Take Aways:
There are really two reasons why a “spectroscopic” technique is commercialized and in Rina's mind the two types of products have different trajectories/paths to success. The first is “a better way to catch a mouse” using the good old mousetrap. A perfect example is miniaturization or improvement of known techniques such as IR and Raman. In this case, the customer does not need education on technology but a “why” this improvement will lead to new applications/faster analysis/simplicity and so on. The second reason is a completely “new way to catch a mouse!”. This makes the business trajectory much more challenging especially if one is competing with established techniques such as X-ray, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectrometry (MS), and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This was the case with both VCD and ROA. Knowing and understanding the differences of the two product types is a first step to success as it requires different marketing, sales. and even finances. Team, partners, and for entrepreneurs––a support system! A lot has been said about the team and commercial partners so there's no need to repeat here. But if you are embarking on this journey, make sure you have a support system as this is truly the most amazing rollercoaster ride you will ever take! Belief in your dream, as long as you have (i) and (ii), and do NOT give up! It is a long journey, but every customer success story/publication is worth it.
Freddy T. Nguyen: So, You Want to Build a Measurement Science Startup: Where? What? Who? When? Why?
Building a successful measurement science startup in healthcare is a complex yet rewarding endeavor that demands integrating innovation, collaboration, and strategic resource management. Drawing from our experiences at MIT, Nine Diagnostics, and the Solvandria MedTech Foundry, we have developed a framework for translating ideas into impactful solutions by focusing on product-market fit, iterative human-centered design thinking, leveraging ecosystem resources, and defining the roles of scientific co-founders.
Problem Definition and Product-Market Fit
Success begins with a rigorous approach to problem definition. Healthcare innovation requires addressing the needs of diverse stakeholders, including patients, caregivers, clinicians, insurers, and regulators. Using human-centered design principles, startups can identify systemic challenges and develop scalable, patient-focused solutions. Achieving product-market fit involves aligning these solutions with real-world demands through iterative development and stakeholder feedback. This process ensures that innovations are relevant, adaptable, and poised for adoption in complex healthcare systems.
Leveraging the Innovation Ecosystem
A thriving innovation ecosystem is essential for fostering successful startups, as diagrammed in Figure 2. The Greater Boston, Massachusetts, area serves as a model, with institutions like MIT, Harvard, and leading hospitals supporting collaboration across academia, healthcare, and industry. Programs such as the MIT Catalyst and linQ frameworks demonstrate how structured ecosystems can accelerate innovation. By providing mentorship, funding, and infrastructure, these ecosystems help startups reduce time-to-market and focus on building value. Startups that strategically leverage these resources are better positioned to refine their solutions and achieve product-market fit.
The startup ecosystem. While the specifics are derived from Freddy Nguyen's experience in the Boston area, similar structures exist across the United States and elsewhere.
The Role of Scientific and Academic Co-Founders
Scientific and academic co-founders often originate the core technologies behind startups, bringing deep domain expertise and credibility. However, their roles must align with the startup's needs and their personal strengths. Some co-founders excel in leadership positions, while others contribute more effectively as advisors, researchers, or scientific ambassadors. Clearly defining these roles ensures operational efficiency and avoids conflicts between academic and business priorities. This alignment is critical for fostering a productive and cohesive team.
From Innovation to Impact
Our work with Nine Diagnostics demonstrates how interdisciplinary collaboration and stakeholder engagement lead to impactful solutions. By leveraging nanosensor technologies, we developed diagnostic platforms that deliver faster, more affordable, and highly accurate results, addressing unmet needs in healthcare diagnostics. Similarly, Podimetrics highlights the importance of solving well-defined problems, with its early detection technology for diabetic foot ulcers significantly reducing hospitalizations and amputations. Both cases underscore how iterative development and market validation drive product-market fit and real-world success.
Adaptability and Iteration
Innovation often involves reimagining existing concepts in novel ways. Design thinking, an iterative refinement process, ensures that solutions remain adaptable, user-centered, and aligned with stakeholder needs. This feedback-driven approach is critical for achieving product-market fit, as it enables startups to refine their offerings based on real-world insights and evolving demands.
Conclusion
Building a measurement science startup requires strategic alignment of talent, resources, and timing. Success depends on leveraging an innovation ecosystem, engaging stakeholders effectively, defining the roles of scientific co-founders, and iterating solutions to align with market needs. By fostering collaboration and strategically utilizing resources, startups can create solutions that address critical healthcare challenges while advancing the field of measurement science. This roadmap offers a practical guide for turning innovative concepts into real-world impact.
Co-authors Gaspard and Nguyen meet again while pursuing investment for their respective firms a few weeks after SciX LI.
Conclusion
Amazingly, there is no contradiction among the perspectives of the four speakers (Figure 3). There are, however, differences in emphasis. Those still working to bring a product to market give more detailed advice. Only one of the authors focused more on people than process, though another cited a higher number of people who were involved in developing their companies. While all four speakers are deeply steeped in their respective technologies, none developed successful companies without considering customers and their needs. Regulation, finance, and societal context have profound effects on what technologies can lead to viable commercial enterprises.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
All authors are principals in their respective companies.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Symposium support by SciX and Horiba is acknowledged and appreciated.
