BioBusiness School
8th CRG BIO-BUSINESS SCHOOL
24th-28 April 2023
Based on the great success of the former editions, the 8th CRG Bio-Business School shall:
- Raise awareness about entrepreneurship and technology transfer among the participants through lectures and hands-on practical sessions;
- Teach the challenges, opportunities and tools to successfully transfer basic knowledge "from the lab to the marketplace";
- Identify projects with business potential that could otherwise remain undisclosed;
- Match basic science in biomedicine, bioinformatics, etc. with business;
- Have participants function as "signal amplifiers", able to spread the knowledge acquired amongst other colleagues, and apply it to new projects;
- Stimulate a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Evan Floden is the CEO and co-founder of Seqera Labs, and a founding member of the Nextflow project.
He is driven by his passion for technology at the intersection of computing and biology, and how these fields can transform the world. Evan holds a Doctorate in Biomedicine, a Master's degree in Bioinformatics, and a Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology. In addition to Seqera Labs, Evan has had the opportunity to work on several groundbreaking projects including the development of the bioscaffold platform at Aroa Biosurgery (ASX:ARX) and contributing to Rfam and Pfam projects at the Sanger Institute.
Joan is a biotech entrepreneur with 15+ years of management experience in various organisations, as CEO, Non-Executive Director, President, or Chairman. Joan is CEO And co-founder at Sanifit, where he raised over €140M in equity and debt financing, established trans-Atlantic operations, and led its sale to Vifor Pharma in 2021 for €375M + sales milestones.
Pioneered the international development of Sanifit’s lead candidate, SNF472, from academia to its clinical evaluation in patients on dialysis suffering from calciphylaxis and peripheral arterial disease. Joan is Chairman of the Board at CIRCE ystal Engineering, President of the Balearic Cluster of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, and Vice-Dean at the Official College of Chemists in the Balearic Islands, Spain. Joan consults or has served as a consultant, board member, or chairman for other life-sciences start-up companies, including Numat Medtech. He is co-author of over 60 peer-reviewed international publications, 90+ communications and posters in international congresses, co-inventor of 16 international patents, and has participated in over 50 research projects. Joan holds an MSc in Chemistry with first-class honours and earned his PhD from the University of the Balearic Islands, Spain, where he teaches Analytical and Clinical Chemistry as an Associate Professor.
Malcolm is a partner at Across Legal, Barcelona, and is a lawyer specialising for the last 20 years in IP, IT and technology transfer, with a special focus on ICTs and open source software. He advises several universities and research centres (including CRG) and has helped out on many start-ups, spin-outs, and licensing deals.
Owner & CEO Janus Projects (therapeutic biotech investment & consultancy), Founder and CEO Aquilon Cyl SL (alternatives to antibiotics in the veterinarian field, pre-commercial stage); CEO and investor Leukos Biotech SL (late preclinical first in class, personalised oncological program mainly for haematological malignancies and solid tumours); Board member and angel investor Biointaxis SL (preclinical stage gene therapy company focused in Friedrich’s Ataxia); Board member and angel investor Kintsugi SL (preclinical stage company focused in NASH and other metabolic diseases); board member and angel investor Affirma-Bio (Discovery stage novel immuno-antiinfectives for antibiotic resistances); board member and founder OneSTX (Clinical stage spinoff from Universidad Pablo Olavide in Seville focusing on neuro-degeneration and aging); Business Advisor Diversa Technologies (commercial research reagents and preclinical stage therapeutics drug delivery platform, spinoff from Sergas and Fidis) and Tesai Care, spinoff from Parc Tauli and Vall d’Hebrón hospitals developing Heecap, a medical device to prevent diaphragm atrophy in ICU patients; Knowledge Industry Coordinator in the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants from the Catalan Government (AGAUR). Associate professor at Biomedicine degree (UIC).
Gábor Heltovics is a Life Science and Biotech leader with 25+ years diverse experience in emerging and large life science, biotech and pharma.
Gábor is a seasoned executive in building effective, externally focused organisations, raising capital and developing clinical and research product pipelines from small start-up to multinational, integrated clinical stage pharma. He holds MSCs in Biology, Chemistry and he has an MBA.
The school will be composed of several modules combining lectures and workshops, motivating the participants through hands-on and real-life examples. Each lecture will provide an introduction to a key aspect of entrepreneurship and technology transfer in the Life Sciences sector and the most relevant tools in relation to it, while the workshops will focus on stimulating the entrepreneurship competences and skills of participants by applying the newly acquired knowledge to their own projects or ideas, in order to make them into products. The business concept will be identified on the first module/day, and consequently developed in teams during the 5-days course, towards an initial marketable project.
The school has been organized by CRG Technology and Business Development Office and CRG Training Unit:
- Anabel Sanz, PhD
Head of Technology and Business Development Office - Diana Domínguez, PhD
New Ventures Project Manager - Damjana Kastelic, PhD
Head of Training and Academic Office - Jonas Krebs, PhD
Project Management Coordinator
Online via Zoom
The school is organized by CRG, and supported by the Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence:
