March 2, 2020 | Jola Glotzer
Entrepreneurial talent recognized!
CBC Entrepreneurial Fellow Eric Schiffhauer becomes Director of Drug Discovery Collaboration at the NU’s Innovation and New Ventures Office (INVO)
Eric Schiffhauer, PhD, former (inaugural) CBC Entrepreneurial Fellow
Congratulations to Eric Schiffhauer, the CBC’s very first Entrepreneurial Fellow (EF) who has recently been hired to become Director of Drug Discovery Collaboration at the NU’s Innovation and New Ventures Office (INVO)!
Eric was awarded the inaugural EF Award in March 2019. He received his PhD in Biochemistry, Cellular, and Molecular Biology from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine under the mentorship of Douglas Robinson, PhD. Eric’s dissertation research provided valuable drug discovery experience in the cancer field. While at Johns Hopkins, Eric gained experience at the Technology Ventures office, evaluating new technology disclosures from faculty members for patentability and commercial potential. He co-founded CordeRx, a company in the area of adoptive cell immunotherapy and developed multiple skills in the biotech startup field. Additionally, Eric was a member at Johns Hopkins Biotechnology Investment Group and organized an Equity Research and Stock Pitch Competition in collaboration with national asset management firms.
Eric has been working closely with Jim Audia, the former CBC Executive Director, partners in INVO and NU faculty from both the Evanston and Chicago campuses. Eric played a central role in the development, refinement and implementation of CBC-funded awards focused on translational research including Accelerator and Catalyst Award projects. In addition, Eric worked closely with Lakeside Discovery (LD), a collaboration between NU and Deerfield Management, to accelerate translation of university-based biomedical discoveries that have therapeutic and commercial potential.
Winter 2020 | INVO Newsletter
INVO Welcomes New Team Members
An excerpt:
As [INVO’s] Director of Drug Discovery Collaboration, Eric Schiffhauer will work collaboratively with Northwestern faculty to transform innovative ideas for new therapeutics into drugs. He is passionate about connecting Northwestern faculty with resources to move projects from the lab toward a new drug application to the FDA. Eric is the primary point of contact for faculty interested in partnering with Lakeside Discovery, a collaboration between Northwestern University and Deerfield Management.
Prior to INVO, Eric served as the inaugural Entrepreneurial Fellow at the Chicago Biomedical Consortium progressing drug discovery projects within Lakeside Discovery and the broader Chicago research community at stages from target identification to lead optimization. In the past, he worked with a family office investing in promising commercialization opportunities in the life sciences, and co-founded a startup in the cell therapy space. Eric is a lead author or inventor on publications and patent applications for small-molecule approaches to novel targets in cystic fibrosis and pancreatic cancer. He has a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Biochemistry, Cellular, and Molecular Biology and a B.S. in Biology from George Mason University.
Source:
Adapted (with modifications) from the INVO Newsletter, Winter 2020 edition.