During the 2018 Fiscal Year, PCI traveled to four different locations throughout the United States to share Penn technologies and companies with a broader audience.
South By Southwest (SXSW)
PCI led Penn’s presence at the SXSW Interactive Conference in March 2018 highlighting the technology, startups, and facilities that support innovation and entrepreneurship at Penn for investors and corporate partners. Penn also helped to support the Amplify Philly House and participated on several panels showcasing Philadelphia’s innovation spaces such as the Pennovation Center and innovative startups. Seven startup companies from Penn joined PCI to help illustrate the innovation occurring at Penn, in the Pennovation Center and in Philadelphia.
Innovation @ Penn at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference
In January 2018, PCI hosted a program for the international life science investor community featuring some of Penn’s most compelling innovators at Wharton West in San Francisco. The standing-room only program featured a fireside chat about lessons learned from the Penn-Novartis Alliance with Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez and Penn Medicine Executive Vice President Kevin Mahoney was moderated by noted Biotech journalist Luke Timmerman. A panel of Penn affiliated ‘next-wave’ innovators also highlighted their work in a panel moderated by Kathryn Doyle, an IP expect and Partner at Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, who also sponsored the program.
The program’s featured panelists included:
- David Asch, MD, MBA (John Morgan Professor, Penn Medicine) “Health Technology and Human Behavior”
- Amanda Christini, MD (President, Blackfynn, Inc.) “Next-generation therapies for neurological disease via data integration and analysis”
- Saar I Gill, MD, PhD (Assistant Professor, Penn Medicine) “CARMA Therapeutics, a spin-off from the University of Pennsylvania, plans to bring CAR macrophages to the clinic for solid tumors”
- Robert Vonderheide, MD, DPhil (Director, Abramson Cancer Center) “Immune Health”
Columbia and Penn partner to pitch startups to Venture Capitalists
In November 2017, PCI brought seven Penn startup companies to New York City for a pitch event organized with our partners at Columbia University, Columbia Tech Ventures (CTV). The purpose of the pitch event was to showcase a selection of early stage startups in life sciences and physical sciences from our portfolios in order to help the companies attract funding. The event was designed so that it would be easy and efficient for national venture firms to connect with a curated group of companies from Penn and Columbia.
BIO International Conference 2018 (Boston)
PCI marketed Penn’s technologies and startups to corporate partners and investors as well as Philadelphia’s ‘Cellicon Valley’ presence as part of a delegation of partners participating in Life Sciences PA pavilion at the International Bio Convention in Boston from June 4th – 7th. As part of our efforts to foster growth in the life sciences ecosystem at Penn and in Philadelphia PCI also co-hosted a meet up in the PA Pavilion. PCI will be working to lead and coordinate marketing efforts with our Penn partners and the region’s economic development stakeholders when BIO comes to Philadelphia next June.