ASPIRE to Innovate

The 2026 ASPIRE to Innovate Fellow will be supporting the project management needs of the School of Medicine's Ignition Fund program. This year's fellowship will shift focus toward drug discovery and commercialization specifically, rather than entrepreneurship generally, as was the case with the projects of prior Fellows.  The fellow will work alongside colleagues in the School of Medicine and the CTTC to advance their understanding of therapeutic technology advancement, target product profiling, regulatory requirements and business development.

The goal of the 2026 Fellowship will be to equip the fellow with the necessary skills and knowledge to navigate the complex journey from scientific discovery to market-ready biotherapeutics. They will be exposed to research in basic science, market forces, intellectual property protections, and strategic considerations for commercializing biotherapeutics. The Fellow will build experience relevant for a career in various fields, including venture capital, technology transfer, business development, and biotech consulting. Fellows will also be well-positioned to advance scientific ideas as entrepreneurs and contribute to the successful commercialization of new therapies.

Note: This will not be a lab-based position and will be performed in a hybrid manner- with meetings on campus and other work conducted remotely.  Fellow will need to be local to Nashville.

Please reach out to Ashley Brady (Ashley.brady@vanderbilt.edu) and George Wilson (george.wilson@vanderbilt.edu) , Asst Dir of New Venture Programs, CTTC,  to discuss further.

1. Peripherally restricted and subtype selective 5-HT2B antagonists for treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) 
Summary: PAH is a progressive lethal disease characterized by widespread obstruction in the smallest arteries of the lungs. Pulmonary vascular obstruction leads to increased pulmonary vascular resistance, which subsequently causes right heart failure. Prevalence of PAH is 15 cases per million which represents more than 4,500 PAH patients in the US. Its notorious mortality continues in the current era, as a third of all patients die within three years. The current treatment strategy for PAH is vasodilators which do not alter the pathogenesis of the disease, but simply treat symptoms; however, vasodilators are effective in less than 10% of PAH patients. Moreover, most of these drugs have serious side effects and 11 of the 13 cost over $100k per year. This technology aims to treat PAH by targeting a new pathway.

2. COX-2-targeted nanobodies for endoscopic visualization of colorectal adenomas 
Summary: Precursor lesions such as aberrant crypt foci, hyperplastic polys, and macro- or micro-adenomas are signatures of abnormal proliferative activity of colorectal epithelium. Morphologically, these often small and flat precursors and associated lesions are different from the normal colonic mucosa, but under white light, they are difficult to distinguish from surrounding healthy tissue. Colonoscopic detection and removal of these pre-neoplastic lesions followed by surveillance represent the most important prevention method for colorectal cancer. This technology aims to diagnose these precursor lesions for earlier intervention.

Generation of Dynamic Profiles to Model Pharmacodynamics in Cell Culture
Summary:  A device and method for creating models of how cells react to and break down molecules using a semi-automated system. The main application is modeling the pharmacodynamic profiles of drugs.

Cad Biomaterial

• Summary: Healthy tissues require sufficient blood flow for oxygen and nutrient delivery. In aging and disease, arteries become blocked, leading to ischemia in downstream tissue beds. Likewise, a significant number of transplanted organs are rejected due to ischemia-causing blood clots Over two million hernia surgeries are conducted in the US every year, and 30% of those fail due to lack of vascularization of the surgical mesh. This requires patients to be readmitted to surgery to replace the mesh. Similarly, of the 8,000 liver transplants in the US every year, 5-10% fail because of hepatic artery clogs due to poor vascularization. This failure can sometimes be life-threatening, and it is also a waste of precious transplant tissue. Many biomaterials have been developed to promote blood vessel growth, which could theoretically be delivered to these problematic areas to combat ischemia. However, all previous biomaterials have been designed to grow capillaries, the smallest and most fragile vessels in the body. Capillary growth is very slow, which limits tissue penetration of newly formed vessels. In addition, since capillaries lack smooth muscle, they cannot handle high pressure outflows from arteries. Thus, current biomaterials are insufficient for therapeutic interventions that require collateralization of host blood flow around occluded vessels. This material has been shown to grow thicker vascular beds in vitro compared to the current standard and is relatively cheap to make. This technology relates to a new class of biomaterials that promote growth of arterioles, which are larger vessels that contain a lining of smooth muscle and can handle high pressure flow. Extensive unpublished work has shown this biomaterial variant is a potent inducer of arteriole growth in vitro and in vivo.