A New Hub to Cultivate Ideas

WITH MORE THAN a thousand patents in the last 30 years, Indiana University School of Medicine has proven adept at innovation.

Treatments for bacterial infections, glaucoma, kidney disease and leukemia; precision medicine for pain; cochlear implants and genetically modified lab mice are just a few of the discoveries patented in countries around the world.

Now, a new venture funded by a $138 million Lilly Endowment Inc. grant aims to spur more discovery – and more partnerships with bioscience companies – so that advances in human health can more quickly move to patients.

The IU Launch Accelerator for Biosciences, known as IU LAB, will be most tangibly visible in a six-floor, 150,000-gross-square-foot building expected to open in 2027. It will be located in the 16 Tech Innovation District, a 50-acre site along the northwestern end of Indiana Avenue.

“For our faculty, if you are looking for ways to translate great ideas into something to be commercialized, this is the place to do it,” said Tatiana Foroud, PhD, executive associate dean for research affairs at the School of Medicine and the August M. Watanabe Professor of Medical Research.“This is the IU incubator space.”

The School of Medicine will work at IU Lab in collaboration with 16 Tech, Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, BioCrossroads, Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, Regenstrief Institute and IU Health.

Tapped to be the scientific lead for IU LAB is D. Wade Clapp, MD, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine and physician-in-chief at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health. He is also the Richard L. Schreiner Professor of Pediatrics.

He will focus on speeding up the translation of IU School of Medicine discoveries into commercial products and ventures. He will enhance infrastructure for generating intellectual property, collaborating directly with faculty to develop best practices for increasing disclosures and patents, and foster closer partnerships between academic researchers and industry leaders.

Working closely with David Rosenberg, president and CEO of IU LAB, Clapp will play a pivotal role in establishing research priorities; developing strategies; and uniting IU researchers, entrepreneurs and industry partners to ensure the continued success and growth of IU LAB as a key strategic priority for the university.

Initially, IU LAB will focus on research in diabetes and obesity, neuroscience, rare diseases, cancer, and bone engineering and regenerative medicine.

IU School of Medicine Dean Jay L. Hess said that fostering entrepreneurship and commercialization is an area the School of Medicine must focus on in the future.

“The reason for that is not fundamentally economic as much as it is we are not going to impact the lives of patients if we don’t partner effectively with industry and move new drugs and devices and approaches into the clinic,” Hess said.