Erik Lium, PhD, center, with Yiannis Ioannou, PhD, left, and Sean Ianchulev, MD, MPH.
More than 100 researchers, venture capital firms, and entrepreneurs attended the launch event at Davis Auditorium on Thursday, April 12, for the Mount Sinai Innovation Partners accelerator fund that will provide commercial and business-development support to advance research discoveries that have great potential to help patients on a global scale.
The i3 Asset Accelerator (“innovation,” “inflection,” and “impact”) was established with an initial investment of $10 million over four years and additional philanthropic support, and is already funding two initial projects that aim to develop promising drug candidates for cancer and therapies for influenza B viral infections.
“Mount Sinai is making a major commitment to this initiative to ensure that we are bringing Mount Sinai discoveries to life,” Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System, told the audience.
“The i3 Asset Accelerator is very important to us. It’s what we’re all about, translating great science and helping our patients.” With an advisory team of more than 40 scientists, business professionals, and commercialization experts, i3 provides funding and mentorship to advance nascent Mount Sinai technologies that will create partnerships and rapidly develop data that will reach the patient population. “i3 is the next step in engaging with the members of our life sciences innovation community, building upon our translational competencies, and evolving our commercial ecosystem to create major breakthroughs in health care,” said Erik Lium, PhD, Executive Vice President, Mount Sinai Innovation Partners.
The event also included a discussion on health care technology and the importance of i3, which was moderated by Dr. Lium and included Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai panelists Sean Ianchulev, MD, MPH, Professor of Ophthalmology, and Director of the Ophthalmic Innovation and Technology Program at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai; and Yiannis Ioannou, PhD, Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences.