Pison In The Community: LIFT Fellows at UMass Lowell
Last week, our Megan Blackwell participated in a dynamic four-member panel to evaluate pitches from the second cohort of the UMass Lowell Innovative Fellows Training (LIFT) program. This program equips doctoral candidates and postdocs in the sciences with entrepreneurial skills, guiding them in transforming innovative ideas related to aging from the lab to the marketplace.
The event had a lively “Shark Tank” energy as nine Fellows presented their ideas, market analyses, business plans, and resource needs to the expert panel for feedback. The panel comprised neuroscientists, data scientists, and an investor.
The focus of the LIFT program is particularly aligned with Pison’s mission of developing cutting-edge wearables and applications for tracking brain health and fatigue, two critical concerns for the aging population. The relevance of this focus area made the experience even more rewarding.
During the session, the audience was introduced to an impressive array of projects, including:
- Improved circadian rhythm monitoring for Alzheimer’s Disease
- A “matchmaking” service connecting researchers and contract research organizations
- Treatment approaches for mitochondrial DNA damage in macular degeneration
- Microbiome assessments using organoids
- Access to fruit fly stem cells for answering key research questions
- Insights into the roles of non-coding RNAs, oligodendrocyte precursor cells, and G-quadruplexes (from three separate pitches!)
The LIFT program is designed to prepare scientists for careers beyond academia, helping them explore opportunities in business and entrepreneurship. It is truly inspiring to see how far these Fellows have come in developing their business plans and strategies in just three months!
