Entrepreneurial faculty receive pre-seed funding for research commercialization

The Faculty of Science is backing four entrepreneurial professors as they take their research out of the lab and into the marketplace.

Cecile Fradin, Jose Moran-Mirabal, Suleiman Igdoura and Mike Brook have been awarded a total of $180,000 in pre-seed funding plus an additional $100,000 of in-kind support through a partnership with the Provost’s Office and the McMaster Entrepreneurship Academy.

“Ask start-up founders about the keys to their success and they’ll talk about getting financial support early on when they faced no shortage of challenges,” says Gillian Goward, Associate Dean of Research for the Faculty of Science. “Our new seed-funding initiative for faculty gives that early support plus a vote of confidence in their research excellence and entrepreneurial ambitions. Our Faculty of Science is proud to be among the first investors in these companies.”

Gillian says the Faculty of Science’s funding can serve as a bridge until faculty apply to the McMaster Seed Fund. Launched in 2021 by the Office of the Vice-President Research, the McMaster Seed Fund has provided $3.5 million to 10 university start-ups through four rounds of funding.

The first round of pre-funding by the Faculty of Science is supporting research commercialization by:

• Professor Jose Moran Mirabal (Chemistry & Chemical Biology) who’s providing high-printability plug-and-play bioinks and biopolymers to researchers through his company Tessella Biosciences.
• Professor Cecile Fradin (Physics & Astronomy) and her team are solving efficiency issues in isothermal assemblies by developing key enhancements to the preparation of DNA fragments to improve assembly success rate.
• Professor Emeritus Mike Brook (Chemistry & Chemical Biology) who’s transforming waste tires into high-value silicone products through his company Neopara.
• Professor Suleiman Igdoura (Biology) who’s developing an innovative therapeutic approach for Lysosomal Storage Diseases (LSDs) with an initial focus on Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases through his company Lysogenix Therapeautics.

Faculty applications for pre-seed funding were reviewed by the Science Research Advisory Group made up of associate chairs of research from the Faculty’s eight departments and schools.

A second round of pre-seed funding is planned, with details to be announced in June. To be eligible, faculty need to have spent at least six months working on the research projects being commercialized and be a start-up founder or co-founder.