Entrepreneurial Spirit Begins in the Lab

March 27, 2024

The work biomedical engineers perform in the laboratory will, ideally, improve patients’ lives. A new company that began in the lab at Rowan University is on the path to doing just that.

CONDUCTink is a biotechnology company that delivers perfusable in-vitro models for preclinical Alzheimer’s therapeutic discovery. Founded in 2023 by Louis Paone and Peter Galie, Ph.D., an associate professor of biomedical engineering, the company developed a platform to screen drugs related to Alzheimer's disease with the goal of ultimately replacing animal models.

Through his work as a Ph.D. student, Paone worked alongside Galie in his lab to design the novel 3D printed material, which is able to closely mimic human tissue. The pair did not set out to start a company based on their innovation, but in the process of filing a patent for the idea, Paone and Galie learned about the NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps), a seven-week entrepreneurial training program for scientists and engineers that taught them about the commercialization process.

Paone and Galie first took part in the regional Northeast I-Corps Hub, based out of Princeton University, and then participated in the national program, which ran from October through December 2023. Through I-Corps, Paone and Galie homed in on the specific use of their technology and were able to conduct interviews with potential customers to learn how to best suit their needs. They also included an industry mentor from the technology commercialization office at Rowan University, Sanaz Shahi, MBA , in the program. CONDUCTink is now focusing on securing funding to build a prototype for their technology and obtain laboratory space.