Catherine Leasure, PhD’23, has been awarded the prestigious ASPIRE to Innovate Postdoctoral Fellowship. In her new role, which began on July 1, 2023, she is focusing on forming a start-up company based on technology developed at Vanderbilt University by Gregor Neuert, associate professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, that can model the pharmacodynamic profile of drugs.
The ASPIRE to Innovate Postdoctoral Fellowship is a collaborative initiative of the School of Medicine Basic Sciences, the BRET Office of Career Development’s ASPIRE Program, and the Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization that seeks to bridge the gap between academic excellence and entrepreneurial pursuits. Leasure will be supported in her efforts for up to two years, will receive extensive mentorship and supplemental training, and will participate in a variety of networking opportunities. Leasure is the second person to participate in this fellowship, following Karrie Dudek, PhD’21, who inaugurated the program in 2021.
“We are thrilled to bring Leasure on this summer as our second ASPIRE to Innovate Postdoctoral Fellow and are excited to watch her learn what it takes to be a founder while advancing entrepreneurial activities in the School of Medicine Basic Sciences,” said Kathy Gould, senior associate dean for biomedical research education and training. “We have no doubt that she will be successful and will make great strides towards mapping out a commercialization pathway for Dr. Neuert’s technology.”
Leasure completed her Ph.D. training in Vanderbilt’s Microbe-Host Interactions program this past spring, studying heme homeostasis in Staphylococcus aureus and host stress sensing in Bacillus anthracis. While gaining experience in research and scientific methodology, she has been passionate about applying these skills to projects at the intersection of science and business and is excited about the opportunity to grow her business acumen and strategize how to turn an idea into a company.
“It’s an honor to have been selected for this fellowship and to have the opportunity to translate basic science into real-world solutions,” Leasure said. “I am excited to have been given this protected time as a postdoc to develop myself as a businesswoman while working to build a viable company.”
During her time as a graduate student, Leasure took advantage of numerous opportunities to expand her experiences and understanding of business and entrepreneurship. She finished the ASPIRE Program’s Management and Business Principles for Scientists module, served as president of the Graduate Student Association in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, and acquired hands-on experience in the pharmaceutical industry by completing a three month internship in the Microbial Science division at AstraZeneca. Leasure hit the ground running, working alongside staff at the CTTC to learn about intellectual property rights, licensing, and market research. She is also spending time with Neuert and his research team to gain familiarity with the technology they want to commercialize. This past fall, Leasure participated in the Ideator program at the Wond’ry and secured microgrant funding after pitching her business idea to a panel of judges. This accomplishment made her eligible to apply for the National Science Foundation’s National I-CORPS program, additional entrepreneurial training, and a $50,000 non-dilutive grant to help support further commercialization of the technology. Leasure was accepted into the program and will participate both in I-CORPS and in the Wond’ry’s Builder program this spring.
Final deliverables for ASPIRE to Innovate Postdoctoral Fellows include creating a market research and customer discovery presentation, developing a business plan and financial model, building a pitch deck for speaking to investors and delivering it at various business pitch competitions, and submitting applications for a Launch Tennessee microgrant and a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health to secure future funding. “The ASPIRE to Innovate Postdoctoral Fellowship has been an incredible experience and opened more doors than I could have ever thought possible,” Dudek said. “I am excited for Catherine to have a similar opportunity and can’t wait to see her be successful.”
“We all know that starting a company is a high-risk endeavor, but regardless of whether a viable company is ultimately formed, this fellowship is a win-win situation, both for the biomedical postdoctoral fellow, who gets superb entrepreneurial training, and the Vanderbilt research community, which benefits from the dedicated effort of evaluating a potentially commercially viable new technology,” Gould said. “We are grateful to Dean John Kuriyan of the School of Medicine Basic Sciences for his support in continuing this exciting initiative, as well as the CTTC, the Wond’ry, and Drs. Neuert and Ethan Lippmann, Karrie’s partner during her fellowship, for their contributions to training and mentoring of the fellows in the program.”