Start Disrupting

Join us as we dig into Start Disrupting's archive and revisit Antarctica with guests James B. McClintock, Ph.D. (The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Author and Professor of Polar and Marine Biology) and Bill J. Baker, Ph.D. (The University of South Florida, Professor of Chemistry).

In this episode, Brett takes a dive below Antarctica's ice with James and Bill as they discuss drug discovery, climate change, and some of their most profound research findings.

- The Baker Research Group
- James B. McClintock and UAB in Antarctica
- Books by James B. McClintock

Host: Brett Malone
Editor and Producer: Becca Halm 

Dr. Aileen Helsel is the current Interim Director for Carilion Clinic Innovation (CCI), a catalytic agent and resource for regional innovators and creatives within the Carilion healthcare system. Since beginning her role as Interim Director in April 2022, Dr. Helsel oversees the healthcare system’s efforts to develop and market disruptive Carilion inventions while also expanding the region’s biotech and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Dr. Helsel has an extensive biomedical research background and after spending years at the bench she started working with Washington State University (WSU), where she successfully licensed and commercialized life science innovations. Dr. Helsel then moved across the country to begin working with CCI in 2021, where she continues to guide disruptive ideas to the marketspace.

About Carilion Clinic Innovation: Carilion physicians, nurses and staff make unique discoveries through their research, and continuous improvements to the care they provide our communities. Some of these discoveries are innovations with commercial potential. First and foremost, they can benefit patients in our community. When inventions are brought to market by an Industry partner or spun out as a startup, patients across the country and globe may benefit from our employees’ curiosity and commitment to innovation.

Host: Brett Malone
Editor and Producer: Becca Halm 

James D. Harder is a Blockchain Ecosystem Catalyst. Currently Virginia Tech’s Blockchain Initiative Director, Harder is also an External Engagement Manager for VT’s Department of Computer Science. Harder has an interest in analyzing agricultural applications of blockchain, as well as other emerging technologies, such as AI and cybersecurity.

• Virginia Tech's Blockchain Certificate Program 
• Wall Street Journal Podcast
• ArchiveCore
• Tatiana Moroz

Host: Brett Malone
Editor and Producer: Becca Halm 

Amy White is Virginia Western Community College’s Dean for the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics department. White began at VWCC as a biology professor in 2003, and her passion for educating led her to her role as STEM dean. White focuses on educating and mentoring those who are interested in STEM careers, as well creating equal opportunities for all students wishing to make an impact on the healthcare system.

In this episode Brett and Amy discuss the importance of young minds and how STEM is so much more than science, technology, engineering, and math. 

Host: Brett Malone
Editor and Producer: Becca Halm 

Dr. Zac Doerzaph is the Executive Director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), a global leader in transportation research. Working alongside a talented team, Doerzaph focuses on creating a future of ubiquitous, safe, and effective mobility by conducting innovative and impactful research today. Also, a faculty member within the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics at Virginia Tech, Doerzaph works with fellow faculty to provide experiential learning opportunities to prepare the next generation workforce. Doerzaph is known for innovative and extensive transportation research and leadership projects. His work focuses on maximizing performance at the interface of driver, vehicle, and infrastructure systems through the application of advanced technologies.

Host: Brett Malone
Editor and Producer: Becca Halm 

Learn more about 3-D printing, lab on a chip, and building your business products from Skyphos Technologies Founder and CEO, Elliot McAllister.

Skyphos Technologies focuses on solving the manufacturing and technology gap for lab-on-a-chip technologies by bringing ultra-small resolutions and micro-3D printing to the biotech industry.  A Virginia Tech graduate, Elliot's career has been molded by engineering and management experiences. Elliot has experience in manufacturing, R&D, robotics, drug discovery, biomedical research, and more.

Host: Brett Malone
Editor and Producer: Becca Halm 

Learn more about entrepreneurship and how to know you've hit traction with your startup from Active Capital Founder and CEO, Pat Matthews.

Pat is the founder and general partner of Active Capital, a venture firm focused on leading seed rounds for B2B SaaS companies outside of Silicon Valley. Prior to Active Capital, Pat was an entrepreneur, operator, and angel investor.  Pat’s career started in 1999 when he dropped out of Virginia Tech to start a dot-com with some of his best friends and college roommates.  After the dot-com bubble burst, Pat and his team persevered through years of economic downturn before creating Webmail.us, a $10 million dollar software company that was recognized as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America by Inc. Magazine.  In 2007, Webmail.us was acquired by Rackspace where Pat worked as an executive on the senior leadership team until 2013.  Pat has personally invested in nearly 100 startups and is an active board member of the Virginia Tech Apex Center for Entrepreneurship, Venture for America in San Antonio, and several Active Capital portfolio companies.

Host: Brett Malone
Editor and Producer: Becca Halm

Learn how Disney is utilizing technology to enhance the customer experience with new initiatives and how the Disney accelerator is creating new entertainment adventures and products. Kathy de Paolo, Vice President of Engineering at The Walt Disney Company, shares all this and entrepreneurial advice for all.

Links:
Kathy’s LinkedIn profile
Walt Disney Imagineering: https://sites.disney.com/waltdisneyimagineering/
Disney:  https://www.disney.com/
Disney Accelerator:  https://disneyaccelerator.com/

Host: Brett Malone
Editor and Producer: Becca Halm 

Kenna Anderes Ph.D., RAC,  Vice President of Translational Medicine & Companion Diagnostics at Mirati Therapeutics, talks →  The art of partnering: How your small company can change the game for big companies; plus, “FIO” Figure it Out, how to follow the data, and navigate complex timelines and more. 

Dr. Anderes has been a scientific leader in oncology drug discovery, biomarker identification, and early clinical development in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries for over 20 years. She is trained as a pharmacologist and cancer biologist and has held a number of senior executive and scientific advisory positions at pharmaceutical, biotech, and in vitro diagnostic companies.

As an early employee in several startup companies, Dr. Anderes acquired very broad, interdisciplinary technical and business skills, with breadth in science, clinical research, clinical operations, regulatory strategy, and product/medical device development. Achievements range from lead identification of novel small molecule or biological entities to characterization of clinical development candidates for several distinct first-in-class molecular targeted agents to treat cancer. She has extensive experience directing and designing studies to determine relationships to drug exposure, mechanism of action, efficacy, and biomarkers in the single-agent and combination settings in vitro and in vivo in classical xenografts and patient-derived tumor models. In parallel to drug discovery/development activities,

Dr. Anderes has led equally diverse biomarker and in vitro diagnostic projects. She has evaluated numerous liquid biopsy approaches and served as an advisor on pharma-sponsored clinical trials to evaluate the clinical utility of CTCs and ctDNA. Delivery on the promise of personalized medicine requires strategic and tactical translational medicine expertise, Dr. Anderes formed Translational Medicine Partners, Inc. and co-founded Wild Type Advisors, LLC to provide bespoke consulting services for the life sciences, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

Host: Brett Malone
Editor and Producer: Becca Halm

DaSilva is the inaugural Executive Director of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI), and the Bradley Professor of Cybersecurity at Virginia Tech.

DaSilva previously held the chair of Telecommunications at Trinity College Dublin, where he served as the Director of CONNECT, a national telecommunications research center in Ireland.

He has published two books and more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and chaired the Technical Program for ICC 2020, one of the flagship conferences of the IEEE Communications Society. He was an IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer (2015-2018), a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, and is a Fellow of the IEEE, for contributions to cognitive networking and to resource management in wireless networks.

The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) is Virginia’s main access point for cybersecurity research, innovation, workforce development, and news. In this community, researchers find funding and collaboration, students discover diverse career possibilities, and new innovations come to life. 

Virginia is the ideal locale for CCI due to its strong base of research excellence and its diverse higher education system. These factors combined with the state’s ecosystem of venture capital investment and high-growth firms, along with its density of cybersecurity talent, bring a confluence of contributors to the future success of CCI.

Host: Brett Malone
Editor and Producer: Becca Halm