BioBusiness School

Manager New Ventures, VIB, Gent, Belgium.

Carla Snoeck joined the Technology Transfer department of VIB in 2008. She worked for 7 years as IP manager and was actively involved in scouting for novel inventions amongst the different research departments, and responsible for filing and prosecution of patent applications. In that role, she was also providing support for all IP-related aspects of VIB's business development activities and particularly for its future start-ups. Since 2016, Carla joined the New Ventures team of VIB and is now involved in the establishment of new startup companies. Before joining VIB, Carla worked for almost 3 years in the patent department of Innogenetics (now Fujirebio), an international in vitro diagnostics company. Carla holds a master in bioscience engineering and industrial engineering and obtained her PhD in applied biological sciences at the Catholic University Leuven.

Socio/Partner, ID Law Partners & Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF), Barcelona, Spain.

Malcolm Bain is founding partner of id law partners, boutique law firm in Barcelona specializing in IT law. Malcolm specializes in information technology and intellectual property law. He has a wide experience representing clients on both sides of IT transactions, including several public administrations both as users of technology and for technology transfer. Malcolm's special focus is on the legal issues of open source software and content, including both developing and freeing software, establishing licensing strategies and IPR enforcement. Malcolm is member of the Free Software Foundation Europe, and Free Software Chair of the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, and lectures on the legal aspects of ICTs at Masters level, as well as participating in many conferences on these subjects.

European Patent Attorney, VIB, Gent, Belgium.

Jan Demolder obtained his PhD in molecular biotechnology at the University of Gent. After his PhD he enjoyed an EMBO long time fellowship at the University of Seville and later also an EMBO short time fellowship at VTT, Espo (Finland). Then he started in the technology transfer department of the Flanders Institute for biotechnology (VIB) in Belgium as an IP manager. After qualifying as a European Patent Attorney in 2007 he decided to work in the IP team of Bayer CropScience for almost three years. After this experience he decided to return to VIB where is now involved in invention harvesting, business development and in all aspects of the protection of intellectual property assets in the institute. Jan is also a part time professor at the University of Gent.

Senior Manager, New Ventures, VIB, Gent, Belgium.

Els Beirnaert is responsible for the establishment of start-up companies in life sciences. In this role she is engaged in business analysis and market research, identifying product opportunities, attracting venture capital funding, corporate structuring and negotiations. Previously she was one of the start-up pioneers of Ablynx, a company established in 2001 focused on the development of biological therapeutics, where she was leading multidisciplinary project teams and translating several drug development projects from discovery over pre-clinical development to clinical development. Dr. Beirnaert obtained a Master in Biotechnology at the University of Ghent and a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Antwerp.

Associate Director of Business Development, Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator, Harvard Office of Technology Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Leandro joined OTD in 2013. Prior to joining Harvard, Leandro was CEO and co-founder of Green Pacific Biologicals, as well as a co-founder of the Argentina-based company, Keclon. Previously, he held research and business development positions at Kosan Biosciences and was an MBA intern with the Johnson & Johnson’s Mergers & Acquisitions team. Through his experiences, Leandro has secured venture financing; completed university licensing deals; evaluated emerging technologies, life science companies and new pharmaceutical projects; and developed strategies for the acquisition of early-stage biotechnology companies. Leandro earned an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MA in Biotechnology from Columbia University, and a Licentiate in Biotechnology from Rosario National University in Argentina.

Investment Manager at Caixa Capital Risc VC

Alex is an Investment manager in Caixa Capital Risc, the Venture Capital arm of La Caixa. He focuses on the Life sciences sector, leading investments in companies developing therapeutics, diagnostic products and medical devices. He is currently involved in the management of various portfolio companies including ProteoDesign, Inbiomotion or Transplant Biomedicals. He has been an entrepreneur in the biotechnology sector and has worked for several biotech companies like Advancell and Lipotec. Prior to Caixa Capital Risc, Alex worked for the technology transfer office of the University of Barcelona and for Biocat, an organization that coordinates and promotes the life sciences sector in Catalonia. Alex holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from Columbia University and earned his MBA from IESE business school.

CEO and Founder of Made of Genes, Barcelona

Dr. Oscar Flores (Calella, 1985) is Computer Engineer (UPC 2009), Doctor in Biomedicine (UB 2014) and MBA (ESADE 2015). He did his PhD in the Joint BSC-CRG-IRB Programme in Computational Biology in the group of Prof. Modesto Orozco, applying bioinformatics techniques to the analysis of genetic and epigenetic data. Dr. Flores was awarded with the PhD Extraordinary Award (Summa Cum Laude) for his PhD Thesis and the Unique Talent scholarship by ESADE. In January 2015, Dr. Flores founded Made of Genes, a company devoted to personal genomics which has raised more than 700.000€ and 1 year after its foundation is employing 11 full-time people. Made of Genes received numerous awards in its short history, including the selection to join the prestigious Wayra - Telefonica Open Future accelerator, and the prize to best digital startup by IBM in Startups Connect 2015.

CEO, Spherium Biomed SL, Barcelona.

Molecular Biologist PhD, after 10 years of academic research in Spain and US shifted to the pharmaceutical industry in 1997 to play various managerial roles in project management and business development in the leading spanish company Almirall. In 2001 left Almirall to participate in the creation of the first biotech company spun-off from the University of Barcelona, Advancell, and became its first CEO. Left Advancell in December 2008 to create his current company Janus Developments (now Spherium Biomed, a joint venture with Grupo Ferrer), a hands-on incubator for biomedical projects of academic origin. He has served as interim first executive in ERAbiotech, TCDPharma and Archivel Farma, and serves as Director of the Board in several biotech companies in Spain. He is one of the founders of the Catalan Association of Biotech companyies (CataloniaBio). Besides his role as CEO in Spherium, he is currently Executive President in the veterinary company Aquilón Cyl SL, spin-off from Universidad de León, recently recognized by the "Cinco Dias" award to the best innovative project linked to the university in Spain.

• Patents and other forms of Intellectual Property (IP) protection
• Software protection and licensing issues with a focus towards commercialization
• Workshop on patent database search based on projects developed in Module 1

Lecturers: Jan Demolder, Carla Snoeck & Malcom Bain

Inventions need to be protected, and there are different ways to do so. Especially in Life Sciences, the most important option is patenting. This second module therefore provides an overview on the different types of intellectual property (IP) protection, with a focus on patents in the Life Sciences sector and the tools available to search for patents and perform initial white space and freedom-to-operate analyses. To date, researchers rarely use this valuable source of knowledge, which often results in inefficient “double inventions”.

In addition, this second module will include a separate section on software. Software use and development is part of the everyday life of a research institute like CRG. Although software is barely protected through patents, there are ways to protect it, and licensing issues that affect it, which can have a strong impact on its eventual commercialization.

This module aims at introducing researcher to the different forms of intellectual property protection and their relevance for the commercialization of technologies.

• The decision making step: licensing or spinning-off, and current trends in entrepreneurship
• Marketing for business development and fundraising
• Workshop on how to apply the decision making step to course cases

Lecturers: Els Beirnaert & Leandro Vetcher

From a public research institution’s perspective, the common way to exploit a patent or invention is to transfer it to an external partner that further develops and commercializes it, such as an established company or an own-created spin-off, in exchange of economic return. Using their own experience and examples in the Life Science sector, experts will impart knowledge on how to select the right option and strategy: does (e.g. a patent) have the potential to become the basis for a spin-off company or shall it rather be licensed or sold to an external partners? How? In addition, an overview of the new trends and resources that support early-stage bio-businesses will be given, to show that this is an amazing time for bio-entrepreneurship!

This third module aims at making researchers aware of the different routes an invention can take towards the market, showing them their potential roles in this process, andproviding them with useful knowledge and tools (e.g. with regards to marketing their inventions in the different scenarios).

• How to start up – Entrepreneurship in Life Sciences
• Workshop on business model generation based on course cases

Lecturers: Els Beirnaert & Leandro Vetcher

Stemming from the decision-making step, this fourth module introduces the spin-off pathway on how to exploit e.g. a patent. Experts will give a brief introduction to the business model concept and teach how to write and present a business plan. The workshop will allow the participants to plan their own start-up company based on the course cases.

In addition, this module will also give an overview of potential funding sources (public and private) that allow for the development and commercialization of an invention through the start-up pathway. Furthermore, the concept of life science incubators and accelerators will be introduced, as well as different types of entrepreneurial support and consulting mechanisms.

• Summary of important learnings
• Round-table discussion
• Facing reality: Presentation of workshop results

Chair: Pablo Cironi

Topic: Why is this a good time to start up your own company?

Expert panel: Alexandre Casta, Óscar Flores, Luis Ruiz-Ávila & Leandro Vetcher

The last day will start with a quick overview of the course and a review of key learnings, followed by a round table discussion between national and international experts from academia, industry and venture capital, that will share their views, models, experiences, and emerging trends in a topic of interest. In the following session, course participants are given a unique opportunity to present and pitch their proposals to the experts for their feedback and assessment. The best business project proposal will be selected and course attendance certificates will be delivered to participants. The CRG Technology and Business Development Office will follow projects from CRG researchers, in order to consider them for valorization or other actions.

Organized on the first day, the networking event will give the participants the opportunity to socialize and tighten links amongst the recently established team members, as well as with the course lecturers and organizers. By creating a relaxed and productive working atmosphere, the event aims at promoting the intercultural as well as scientific and business exchange amongst attendants.