The National Institutes of Health has launched a pilot program to help life science entrepreneurs translate their research for commercialization. It’s modeled after a successful course that was developed by the University of California, San Francisco. Stephanie Marrus, director of UCSF’s Entrepreneurship Center, says it was first taught last year and is based on a traditional business-plan course called Lean LaunchPad.

"So for context, Steve Blank is an extremely well-known entrepreneurship educator – a successful serial entrepreneur who teaches the Lean LauchPad, this very well-respected course that’s delivered online and has tens of thousands of people who’ve watched it globally."

Marrus’ course was the first to adapt the business model for the healthcare life sciences market.

"Entrepreneurship research has shown that if an entrepreneur works in a team, he’s more likely to be successful than one who works on their own. And this is a team-based program that absolutely takes advantage of that knowledge."