Founder Lab Transforms Research into Business Opportunities
NEW ORLEANS – Aiming to turn groundbreaking faculty discoveries into companies and jobs in New Orleans, Tulane University has launched Founder Lab, a new accelerator that moves research into market-ready startups through intensive six-month cycles, a model adopted by fewer than 10 U.S. universities. Backed by the Tulane University Innovation Institute, which has already launched
NEW ORLEANS – Aiming to turn groundbreaking faculty discoveries into companies and jobs in New Orleans, Tulane University has launched Founder Lab, a new accelerator that moves research into market-ready startups through intensive six-month cycles, a model adopted by fewer than 10 U.S. universities.
Backed by the Tulane University Innovation Institute, which has already launched 11 successful faculty spinouts, Founder Lab takes on one of the toughest hurdles in academic commercialization: researchers may be world-class scientists, but they’re not always entrepreneurs.
Traditional models often push faculty to launch companies on their own, pulling them away from teaching and discovery. Tulane’s program flips that script by pairing faculty innovations with seasoned entrepreneurs, mentors, and industry experts who can turn promising technologies into viable businesses.
Quincy Brown and Brian Summa demonstrate how to use a cancer screening device in the Steven and Jann Paul Hall for Science and Engineering.
“The Founder Lab is like Tinder for technology," said Kimberly Gramm, Tulane’s David & Marion Mussafer Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer. "You take someone who created something because they’re passionate about solving that problem and someone who has been out in the real world who can assess the potential for economies of scale, and you match them together to create a business which then creates jobs and opportunities.”
Bridging Science and Entrepreneurship
Gramm said the goal is to create a faster and more reliable path from research to impact. “This is an exciting new model for academic commercialization at Tulane,” she said. “By connecting talented faculty members with entrepreneurial expertise and providing early seed funding, we’re building a comprehensive support system to help university research and technologies reach the market faster than before.”
She added that Founder Lab guides researchers through the tricky space between creating new knowledge and turning it into something the public can actually use. “Part of why I’m dedicated to this work is because the gooey interface between research and creating something that is a public good is such a challenging journey. Researchers are dedicated to generating new knowledge, while entrepreneurs look at the world through a different lens. Founder Lab bridges those two perspectives.”
Portrait of Chad Roy, vice chair of research at Tulane’s Deming Department of Medicine and director of infectious disease aerobiology at Tulane National Primate Research Center.
Founder Lab: Breakthroughs with Real-World Impact
The program focuses on critical challenges in health, engineering and other fields, with innovations that can save lives. That promise is already evident in the work of Tulane faculty who are moving breakthrough technologies from the lab toward real-world impact:
Quincy Brown, professor of biomedical engineering, is developing a cancer imaging system supported by a $23 million Cancer Moonshot grant; and
Chad Roy, Vice Chair for Research at Tulane School of Medicine, founded Bio Protectant Technologies Inc. to advance a patented antimicrobial molecule into a surgical irrigant that enhances sterility in hospitals.
“Tulane researchers are brilliant, but they need partners who know how to scale companies, navigate regulations, and find markets,” Gramm said. “We want to match them with people who are equally brilliant in product development and commercialization so we can create opportunities right here in New Orleans.”
Funding and Mentorship to Scale Locally
Founder Lab teams also receive support from Tulane Ventures, which provides early-stage seed funding. According to Gramm, selected startups can access $25,000 immediately to help them incorporate, raise capital, and scale locally. “It’s nurturing, wrap-around services including dollars to get them started,” she said.
The program also connects entrepreneurs with more than 100 mentors through the Green Wave Innovation Network, many of whom are Tulane alumni now working across the U.S. and abroad. “Even when they’ve been gone 20 or 30 years, they still want to be part of this city,” said Jeanne Exnicios, Director of Marketing and Communications at the Tulane Innovation Institute. “It’s something that makes Tulane really special.”
Since its launch in 2022 under President Michael Fitts, the Innovation Institute has supported 11 university spinouts, including Informuta and Cleaved Diagnostics, both of which now operate from the New Orleans BioInnovation Center.
With $258 million in research expenditures in 2023 and top-ranked programs in multiple fields, Tulane has the foundation to drive discoveries into global impact.
“Founder Lab is about building companies with real opportunities right here in New Orleans by turning Tulane discoveries into ventures that create jobs, attract investment, and make a real-world impact,” Gramm said.
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